Has Sri Lanka found another Murali ?

[Donny]

30 y.o. Sri Lankan finger spinner (left arm ortho), Neketh Gedara Roshan Prabath Jayasuriya has burst onto the Test scene.

In his first Test (against Australia), he took a quite amazing 12/177.

Today, he's running through Pakistan, with his third 5fa. in 3 bowling stints, returning him 17 wickets.

Gotta wonder where he's been in the last 10 years. Late developer ?

More to come.

[Donny]

First class record: 63 matches. 246 wickets @ 25.08 per wicket. Impressive.

Nineteen 5fas and five 10fas.

[lazzadesilva]

Long long way to go for the lad to be compared to the great Murali. Good start. Needs to be consistent and mysterious.

[Donny]

Yes mate. Just referring to his start.

Now, 29 wickets from 3 Tests @ 20.37 per wicket and a 44.7 strike rate.

Murali's strike rate was 55.

[lazzadesilva]

Another one to watch out for is Jayawickrama. Just as impressive as Jayasuria.

[K]

[Pies4shaw]

Only a handful of Australians have managed more than 1 century in Sri Lanka and none has made more than 2. Only one is a current player. His average against Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka is a whisker under 50. Ponting, by contrast, played nearly twice as many completed innings in Sri Lanka for just 1 hundred and an average of under 45. As it happens, one of Smith's centuries against Sri Lanka was an unbeaten 145 in Jayasuriya's first Test.

[K]

[Pies4shaw]

Here is a complete list of Australian batsmen who averaged over 100 in that Test:

SPD Smith (at an average of 145).

The highest Test score ever by an Australian batsman at Galle is:

SPD Smith (145).

Here is a complete list of Australian batsmen who have made a Test century at Galle:

Smith, Hayden, Lehmann, Martyn, Labuschagne.

Here is a list of Australian batsmen in that Test by their total runs scored in the match (batsmen who scored at least 50 runs for Australia bolded):

Smith 145. Dismissed only once in the Test, by Jayasuriya.

Labuschagne 136. Dismissed twice in the Test, by Jayasuriya both times.

Khawaja 66. Dismissed twice in the Test, by Jayasuriya once.

Carey 44. Dismissed only once in the Test, by Jayasuriya.

Warner 29. Dismissed twice in the Test, neither by Jayasuriya.

Green 27. Dismissed twice in the Test, by Jayasuriya both times.

Cummins 21. Dismissed twice in the Test, neither by Jayasuriya.

Head 17. Dismissed twice in the Test, by Jayasuriya once.

Lyon 10. Dismissed twice in the Test, by Jayasuriya once.

Swepson 3. Dismissed twice in the Test, by Jayasuriya once.

Starc 1. Dismissed twice in the Test, by Jayasuriya both times.

It certainly looks like Labuschagne, Green and Starc struggled with Jayasuriya's bowling on that pitch in that match. Green had been POTM in the previous Test (also played at Galle, it appears) a couple of weeks earlier, top-scoring (against an attack that didn't include Jayasuriya) with 77, in a match Australia won. There's probably not a great deal to be read into it, though: before the 2022 tour, Australia had reached 300 in any Test innings at Galle just once (a mammoth 8/512 in 2004, in which Hayden, Martyn and Lehmann all scored their only Galle century). Australia reached 300 in an innings of each of the 2022 Tests, so it wasn't too bad, given past showings at that venue.

[K]

[Pies4shaw]

What's the point of referring to Mark Waugh? He had a Test average of just 33.23 against India and 24.64 against Sri Lanka.

[K]

[Pies4shaw]

Here's a list of Australian batsmen who have averaged 40 or better in Tests in India this century:

SPD Smith 60.16
DR Martyn 55.50
ML Hayden 51.35
SR Waugh 48.60
TD Paine 45.75
MEK Hussey 44.81
SM Katich 40.83
MJ Clarke 40.50

Amongst the list of past players who didn't manage to average 30 against India in Tests this century is Watson, Ponting, Langer, Gilchrist, Lehmann and Mark Waugh. It's a sorry tale.

[Pies4shaw]

Interestingly, Kohli only averages 31.09 against Australia in Tests in India.

But, that anomaly aside, here's the list of Indian batsmen who have averaged 40 or better in Tests against Australia in India this century:

S Dhawan 187.00
RG Sharma 120.00
AR Patel 84.00
CA Pujara 60.46
VVS Laxman 60.11
KL Rahul 59. 00
MS Dhoni 56.58
SR Tendulkar 52.50
M Vijay 49.56
G Gambhir 49.20

The top 3 averages in that list might be put aside, individually, as anomalies (each is the result of a good score in a single innings) - but even without them, the list is too long. I suppose we can thank our lucky stars that they got Pujara early in this Test - I don't care who scores runs, so long as it isn't him - I think he is the worst player to watch bat in the entire history of Test cricket (including Jim Higgs).

[K]

IF...
Jayasuriya is another Murali
THEN...
Gudakesh Motie is another Alf Valentine*.


Most Wickets by WI Bowler in a Test

M. Holding 14/149
C Walsh 13/55
G Motie 13/99
S Gabriel 13/121
A Roberts 12/121

(@windiescricket)


"Gudakesh Motie's 7/37 at Bulawayo is the second-best bowling figure by a West Indian left-armer after Alf Valentine's 8/104 (on debut) against England at Old Trafford in June 1950."

(Mohandas Menon, @mohanstatsman)

"Motie's 13-wicket haul bettered the previous best Test match return by a West Indian spinner of 11-152 from Sonny Ramadhin against England when they won at Lord's for the first time in 1950."

(cricket.com.au)

"Motie finished the series with 19 wickets, the joint-most by a West Indian in a two-match Test series. Shillingford had also taken 19 wickets against Zimbabwe during the 2012/13 series at home."

(Wisden)


[*Alf Valentine and Sonny Ramadhin bowling in The Tied Test:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdQZZY-g4YE ]

.........................................................

So a few promising spinners appearing...
FTB fanboys will be peeing in their pants!!