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Prabath, Kamindu nominated for ICC Men’s Player of the Month

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Two highly impactful Sri Lankan stars join a fast-scoring Australian batter in the ICC Men’s Player of the Month nominees for September 2024, based on matches that were completed during the calendar month.
Travis Head (Australia)
Travis Head underlined his status as one of the leading limited-overs batters in the world to put himself in contention for the ICC Men’s Player of the Month award for September.

Continuing to excel in his role as white-ball opener for Australia, Head produced a string of impressive knocks against England and Scotland on his team’s recent tour.

Across his five T20I appearances in the month, Head scored 182 runs at a ridiculous strike rate of 245.94. Those efforts included a 23-ball 59 against England and a phenomenal 25-ball 80 against Scotland, which helped Australia rack up 113 runs in the Powerplay overs – the highest Powerplay total ever registered by a full member nation in a T20I.

Head’s month got arguably even better as he was named Player of the Series in Australia’s 3-2 ODI victory over England.

Head scored 248 runs at an average of 82.66 in his four innings in the five-match series, hitting at a strike rate of 120.97 and picking up six wickets on the tour to boot, most notably bagging 4/28 in the decisive fifth ODI to help Australia win the series.

Prabath Jayasuriya (Sri Lanka)
Sri Lanka’s left-arm spinner continued his remarkable Test form to earn him a nomination for the September Player of the Month award.

Jayasuriya played a huge role in his team’s series win over New Zealand, taking nine wickets in each of the two Test victories, including a five-wicket haul in each match.

His 5/68 in the second innings of the first Test in Galle came on a dramatic final day as the tourists were bowled out 63 runs shy of their target.

And the 32-year-old’s 6/42 in the second Test set up what was a crushing victory to seal the series.

Over the course of the month he took 21 wickets at 27.90 in three Tests, including the second Test in England.

And in the month he became the fastest Sri Lankan in history to reach 100 wickets in Test cricket, doing so after just 16 matches. No Sri Lankan bowler has previously reached the landmark in fewer than 24 Tests.

Kamindu Mendis (Sri Lanka)
The remarkable start to Kamindu Mendis’ Test career continued as records tumbled for the stylish left-hander in September.

Mendis played four Tests in the month, scoring 451 runs at an average of 90.20, helping his side to a consolation win at The Oval in England before playing his part in a superb series victory against New Zealand back in Sri Lanka.

During the month, Mendis became the first men’s player in history to pass fifty in each of the first eight matches of his Test career.

And during September he became the fastest batter in 75 years to bring up 1000 Test runs – doing so in just eight Tests and matching Don Bradman’s effort of reaching the landmark in 13 innings.

His biggest score of the month was a dominant 182* in Sri Lanka’s mammoth first-innings total of 602/5 declared in the second Test against New Zealand, a knock that helped set up a convincing win.

But arguably more impressive was his 114 in the first innings of the first Test of that series.

His side had been in trouble at 88/3 when Mendis came in to bat, with Angelo Mathews also having retired hurt. No other batter on either side reached triple figures in the match, which Sri Lankan went on to win by just 63 runs.

(ICC)

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Kiwis stun SL to level series

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Roughly 20 days after the women’s team won the T20 World Cup, and about a week after the men’s Test team completed a whitewash of India at home, New Zealand’s cricketers continue to do the near-impossible.

On this occasion they defended 108 all out on a tricky – but far from unplayable – Dambulla surface. Lockie Ferguson bowled only two overs before having to leave the field because of a calf injury, but he claimed a hat-trick to rip out Sri Lanka’s top order, as he collected figures of 3 for 7.

As has often been the case on this long South Asian sojourn, Glenn Phillips was vital to New Zealand’s victory too. He’d been out for 4 off 9, but took three wickets in the final over – which he had only had to bowl because of Ferguson’s absence. The most prized of those wickets was that of Pathum Nissanka, who had been Sri Lanka’s backbone, making 52 off 50, until he tried to smash Phillips over long-on, but could not clear the fielder.

He was the last recognised batter to be dismissed, however. Zakary Foulkes, Mitchell Santner, and Michael Bracewell had all been effective in keeping Sri Lanka on a leash, as they squeezed wickets out of the batters’ frustrations. New Zealand have never defended a lower total in T20Is. Only twice have Full Members failed to finish off a chase of such modest proportions. (Zim vs Nam in 2023 and WI vs Zim in 2010)

Sri Lanka would have thought themselves almost certain to win, when they earlier had the opposition 52 for 6 in the 11th over. But New Zealand cobbled together what looked an unimpressive total between Will Young’s 30, Santner’s 19, and Josh Clarkson’s 24. All of those innings came at less than a run-a-ball.

This result ties the series 1-1, Sri Lanka having eased to victory on Saturday.

(espncricinfo.com)

(Except for the headline, this story, originally published by espncricinfo.com has not been edited by SLM staff)

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SL to face NZ in first T20 at Dambulla tonight

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The first of the two-match T20 series between Sri Lanka and New Zealand takes place tonight at Dambulla, starting at 7 p.m. 

The Blackcaps hold a slight advantage in their head-to-head, winning 5 out of 10 past T20 encounters. 

This marks the teams’ first T20 match at Dambulla, with New Zealand arriving after a 3-0 Test victory over India but fielding a younger T20 lineup. 

The last series between the sides, in 2019, saw New Zealand win 2-1 in Pallekele.

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ODI & T20I squads against Kiwis, announced

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The Sri Lanka Cricket Selection Committee has announced squads for the T20I and ODI series to be played against the New Zealand national men’s team.

The two T20I games will be played on Nov. 09 and 10 while the ODIs will be held on Nov. 13, 17 and 19.

RDICS, Dambulla will be the venue for the first three games, while the final two ODIs will be played at PICS Pallekele.

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