Medium pacer Nuwan Thushara is among 46 men’s cricketers awarded national contracts by Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC), after he withdrew the legal case he had filed against the board in April.
Thushara’s inclusion indicates a re-setting of his relationship with the board. The bowler had objected to SLC making a fitness test a requirement for the board granting him a No-Objection Certificate to play franchise cricket overseas. But since the board members whom he had been at a loggerheads with were ousted en-masse by the Sri Lankan government, Thushara decided to withdraw his case.
He had then written to the new administrators at SLC, announcing his eligibility for national selection, which the new Transformation Committee has since accepted.
Also in the contracts list are Jaffna legspinner Vijayakanth Viyaskanth, ambidextrous spinner Tharindu Ratnayake, batters Kamil Mishara and Lasith Croospulle, and allrounders Isitha Wijesundara, Wanuja Sahan and Dilum Sudeera, who have all been included for the first time. Batter Bhanuka Rajapaksa was not awarded a contract, though he had played domestic cricket in Sri Lanka earlier this year.
There are otherwise no major surprises in what is a substantial roll of cricketers. The list features players such as Dinesh Chandimal and Kasun Rajitha, who primarily play Tests, as well as limited-overs specialists like Binura Fernando.
The SLC release said the players had been graded into six different categories, but did not divulge which players were in which category. The period of the contract runs from April 1, 2026 to March 31, 2027.
Men’s national contracted players
Kusal Mendis, Dhananjaya de Silva, Dinesh Chandimal, Wanindu Hasaranga, Pathum Nissanka, Charith Asalanka, Kamindu Mendis, Dushmantha Chameera, Asitha Fernando, Dasun Shanaka, Maheesh Theekshana, Janith Liyanage, Dunith Wellalage, Niroshan Dickwella, Jeffrey Vandersay, Prabath Jayasuriya, Vishwa Fernando, Matheesha Pathirana, Dilshan Madushanka, Pavan Rathnayake, Eshan Malinga, Milan Rathnayake, Lahiru Kumara, Kasun Rajitha, Avishka Fernando, Sadeera Samarawickrama, Ramesh Mendis, Kamil Mishara, Binura Fernando, Nuwan Thushara, Sonal Dinusha, Sahan Arachchige, Pramod Madushan, Lasith Croospulle, Lahiru Udara, Nuwanidu Fernando, Vijayakanth Viyaskanth, Isitha Wijesundara, Nishan Madushka, Akila Dananjaya, Chamika Karunaratne, Pasindu Sooriyabandara, Mohammed Shiraz, Wanuja Sahan, Dilum Sudeera, Tharindu Rathnayake
Australia fared much better on the rank-turner of Lahore than they had done in Rawalpindi, as they lasted the entire 50 overs and set Pakistan 232. The target had all the potential to challenge the hosts as this pitch not only had more turn in it than the one in Rawalpindi but also had variable bounce.
Australia made amends from the previous match. Their batters did not seem in a hurry to score runs. Josh Inglis and Cameron Green scored half-centuries before Matt Renshaw and Ollie Peake made crucial contributions down the order with run-a-ball 43 and 31 off 32, respectively.
The first signs of how this pitch was going to behave came on the very first ball as Alex Carey dragged a delivery wide outside the off-stump on his stumps because of the lack of pace on it. Pakistan, as Shaheen Afridi had revealed at the toss, had this surface curated to suit their spinners. It played more slow than the one in Rawalpindi and Afridi installed fielders at short cover from the third over.
Arafat Minhas, the Player of the Match in the first ODI, was introduced as early as the fifth over, and the left-arm spinner turned his first ball miles as he pitched it outside the leg stump on length before it moved sharply to hit Inglis’ pad on middle and leg. It encouraged Afridi to bring Abrar into the attack from the other end who had Matt Short caught and bowled in his second over off a delivery that stuck in the surface before reaching the batter.
Inglis and Short struck boundaries in the powerplay to accumulate as much as they could while the ball was still new over their 45-ball 46-run stand.
Marnus Labuschagne fell to Minhas once again as he looked for a release shot after being suffocated for runs but ended up top edging a sweep. Australia brought a change in their plan and looked to take the game deep from there. Inglis and Green set up a brilliant 51-run partnership off 93 balls, nudging the spinners around for singles and absorbing the dots.
Their partnership seemed to be setting a platform for a big score, but Inglis was undone by the uneven bounce in the wicket as one of the Minhas’ deliveries stayed low and sneaked past his bat. Renshaw, however, continued the repair work with Green and the two constructed another important partnership of 65 off 81.
Lahore was baking hot on the day and Pakistan’s young keeper Ghazi Ghori felt it the most as he had to spend seven overs in the dressing room because of the heat-induced stress. Rohail Nazir covered for him in the meantime, but Ghori looked off colour throughout the innings as he struggled to stop the balls down the leg side, allowing four-byes.
Green had batted with great patience to attack towards the end of the innings, but he holed out to long on as he looked to just do that off Abrar. When Haris Rauf, who took two, and Afridi, who returned the best figures of the innings 3-36, rattled the stumps of Renshaw and Matt Kuhnemann, a total beyond 200 seemed unachievable, but Peake picked his balls to attack Pakistan and made it happen. He smashed Rauf for a four and a six in the last over, which added 14 runs to the total. Four of those had come off byes, as the ball burst through Ghori’s gloves.