For once Daniel Vettori’s worth to his team will not entirely be measured by his performance with bat, ball or as a cricket tactician.

What New Zealand needs most from their captain at R Premadasa Stadium tomorrow (2100 NZT) is Vettori to win the toss and choose to bat first against Sri Lanka in the opening match of their one-day international Tri-Series with India.

Statistics are ripe for manipulation but when Premadasa is involved the figures don’t lie: lose the toss, lose the game.

In the last 10 ODI matches at Sri Lanka’s premier day-night cricket venue, the team who bat with the sun on their backs, win with varying degrees of simplicity.

Once the sun sets, the ball can be unplayable as it swings and seams prodigiously - Pakistan’s two matches against Sri Lanka there last month a case in point.

Already 0-3 down in the five-match series, Pakistan’s Younis Khan ensured his side regained some respectability by dictating terms in the capital.

In the fourth match Pakistan amassed 321 for five; Sri Lanka a measly 175 in reply. Sri Lanka’s pace spearheads Lasith Malinga and Thilan Thushara both conceded 74 runs from their 10 overs; Pakistani medium pacer Iftikhar Anjum nabbed a career best five for 30 a couple of hours later.

Then, in the final dead rubber, Pakistan’s 279 was more than enough - Sri Lanka folded Read more…

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Sri Lanka have earned their Test ranking position but must end their Indian jinx to maintain it

If you were asked to stick pins on a map of the world to denote the most hallowed venues in cricket, it’s safe to say that Barnfields in Staffordshire probably wouldn’t get one. Moddershall, who play there, do have a claim to fame, though. It was from the relative anonymity of North Staffs & South Cheshire Premier Division cricket that Rangana Herath was summoned to Sri Lanka to play a Test series against Pakistan. The quintessential journeyman had been asked to replace the irreplaceable Muttiah Muralitharan, and he surprised everyone by doing just that, taking 15 wickets in three Tests.

The reward? To be left out for the opening game of the series against New Zealand, with the out-of-sorts Ajantha Mendis returning to the fray. The 31-year-old Herath is not your average crumbling cookie, though, and when given his chance at the SSC in Colombo, he took an eight-wicket haul, thwarting a rousing lower-order charge orchestrated by the magnificent Daniel Vettori.

Sri Lanka’s 2-0 series win has given them a little more breathing space in the ICC’s Test Championship table, and only two points now separate them from the No1-ranked South Africa. India trail them by a point, while Australia are a further three back, but all that could change this winter, with the top sides facing contrasting challenges.

Australia should prove too strong for Pakistan and West Indies, while South Africa have to confront an England side buoyed by Ashes success, before travelling to India to Read more…

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