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Follow UsWhat is a World Cup if not a canvas for individual stories to come together and spread their own colours? When coalesced, those colours create the most vibrant paintings, representing cricket in all its messiness and beauty.
Today was another such day, where 4 of these stories came together in one match. All four stories were highlighted because the individuals they belong to scored a century.
After all, what are milestones for if not to stop and look behind to see how far you’ve come and then look forward to assess how far you have left to go? Milestones are opportunities for stories to be told.
Madness, Magic, Mendis
Kusal Mendis is ridiculously frustrating.
On one hand, he makes people go “wow” with their mouths agape when he plays his shots. On the other, the same mouth rightfully abuses him when he carelessly breaches a bio-bubble or the SUV he was driving hits a 64-year-old on the roadside.
On the one hand, he joins an extremely elite list of Test batters under 23 to score 1000 plus Test runs in a single year and shares the same space as Garry Sobers, Graeme Smith, AB de Villiers, Dilip Vengsarkar and Alastair Cook. Conversely, he collects an ignominious record of four consecutive ducks in Test matches.
In ODIs, he has played 110 innings but averages only 32.59. If I told you these stats during the innings he played today against Pakistan, you’d rubbish my entire existence. And you know what, I won’t even offer a statistical rebuttal because who cares about the numbers when you have Mendis batting with all madness and magic right in front of you?
Since this year’s Asia Cup, Kusal Mendis has been batting like a king, reigning over the square on both sides of the wicket. His cuts felt like aesthetic slaps that ended with a flourish, and his pulls on the leg side felt too incredulous to be real. After all, no one expects a batter to pull almost a full length for a six-over mid-wicket. But Mendis played that shot many times in an innings of 122 off just 77 balls.
In the last two innings, Mendis has hit 14 sixes and scored 198 runs in just 119 balls. All that has come against bowlers like Kagiso Rabada, Lungi Ngidi, Haris Rauf, and Shaheen Afridi. His consistency post the Asia Cup is reflected in his numbers, as he’s also averaging 58.5 with an SR of 107.8 in ODIs since then.
After all these years of frustration interjected with ephemeral happiness, it feels like Mendis has finally come of age this World Cup. Sri Lanka trusted him despite his troubles, and the 20-year-old boy they got on their side is now a 28-year-old man with shoulders wide enough to carry the cricket dreams of his Island nation.
Sadeera makes a name for himself
Sadeera Samarawickrama is a hard name to pronounce for most. During commentary, Waqar Younis called him ‘Samarawickramasinghe’ as if his surname wasn’t long enough. However, after today’s 108 off just 89 balls, people will have to REMEMBER THE NAME, as it’s clear that he’s here for the long haul.
Sadeera is from the same U-19 batch as Kusal Mendis. But while the latter moved to the senior side directly courtesy of his charismatic batting, Sadeera had to go through the domestic grind to make it to the side. Once he did make it in 2017, he couldn’t stay long enough and was dropped. However, his fortunes have turned in 2023.
He started his ODI career with two ducks in a row against Pakistan in 2017. Now, six years later, he has scored his maiden hundred against the same side, and while doing so, has solved the number 4 problem of Sri Lanka, helping the Island nation have a solid middle order with Mendis at 3, Samarawickrama at 4, and Charith Asalanka at 5.
Since his consistent performances for Jaffna in the Lanka Premier League that got him in the national side, Samarawickrama has scored 608 runs at an average of 43.43 and SR of 97.4. Amongst all this, his ability against spinners shines the most with his exceptional touch game, frustrating the slow bowlers. He is averaging 62 against spin this year at SR of 95.09.
With his century today, it is clear that the 28-year-old batter’s journey has restarted with a bang, and it remains to be seen where his story goes from here.
Abdullah Shafique raises his hands
The Pakistani openers have been struggling since the Asia Cup. Imam-ul-Haq and Fakhar Zaman average just 30 and 16.5 respectively. And then, in their first game against the Netherlands, the Men In Green lost all their top 3 for just 38 runs.
Seeing that Fakhar showed no improvement, the team management decided to drop him and play Abdullah Shafique instead. He had played just one game in the Asia Cup in Colombo, where he scored a 52 against Sri Lanka. In domestic cricket, the 23-year-old has played just nine List A games, proving his newbie credentials in the format.
However, when he played today, he looked anything but a novice. He started sedately (perhaps too sedately, considering the required run rate) but caught up later on in magnificent fashion, scoring 113 runs in 103 balls.
His pull shots and the leg-side game stood out today, as he bludgeoned anything short from the pacers or the spinners. Sri Lanka did provide him with many opportunities to showcase his ability, but full credit should go to him for taking them with both hands.
He played freely without looking fidgety or trying to slog - something Fakhar Zaman failed to do for Pakistan. Moreover, it doesn’t look like he can also get out on the next ball. This is great news for Pakistan as now they have a right-handed batter to pair with Imam at the top, and that batter is also ideally an all-format player.
It takes a special temperament to score your debut hundred in ODIs on your World Cup debut. And Abdullah Shafique is special. His story in white ball cricket just began today, promising a rich tale with soaring highs.
Rizwan dropped some serious rizz today
What do you say about Mohammad Rizwan? This theatrical, controversial, camera-savvy, over-excited, and grittily brilliant wicketkeeper batter is all Pakistan cricket circles can talk about.
Someday he’s playing like a dream in a T20 World Cup Semi-final after having spent the previous night in the ICU; someday, he’s acting like he’s limping from cramps and then actually struggles with them but ends up scoring a match-winning hundred in the highest ever chase in a World Cup for his team.
One thing is sure - you can’t ignore him.
Earlier, his critics pointed out that he lacks stroke-making ability on the offside. So this year, he answered them by playing such gorgeous shots through extra cover (against both spin and pace) that you could hang their picture in Gaddafi Stadium to teach young players how to play on the offside.
Even today, the way he danced down the track and lifted Dunith Wellalage’s enticingly flighted deliveries over extra cover was a thing of beauty. With the Pakistani top 3 not scoring recently, the responsibilities have fallen on his shoulders as he bats at 4. And he has performed those duties exceptionally well, scoring 68 in the first game and 131 in 121 balls today.
His team believes in him even more now with his runs in the middle order. It may feel like Rizwan’s story has been going on for some time now, and it has been. But his commitment is now visible even more, with how he has improved his batting. His story is moving fast now, with all his theatrics and fake appeals intact.
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It may feel like four centuries in just one game isn’t a big deal, with the pitches being true in nature and suitable for batting. However, when you see the humans behind those 100s and what those 100s mean for their team, you’ll understand that today was a major step in the stories of all four players.
Each player added their individual colours to the canvas of this ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 today. These colours will keep adding to the painting, growing the canvas in all directions, until eventually, by the end of it, they’ll no longer be individual colours. They’ll be one thing, one colour.
And that’s how we’ll hopefully remember this game - not as a game of individual players, but rather as a day where four separate stories came together on the canvas of cricket to create a beautiful painting full of hope.
