Jayasuriya fails but not Ruhuna

Well this was the second match in the ongoing champions league T20 tournament for both Ruhuna and Sanath Jayasuriya. But, to one's amazement, Jayasuriya puts up a more dismal performance while Ruhuna ends its campaign a convincing note. In Ruhuna'a first game against Trinidad&Tobago, Jayasuriya scored 13 runs and scalped 2 wickets to emerge as Ruhuna's most successful bowler. This time all that Jayasuriya could manage was a mere 6 runs and went wicketless giving away 37 runs from 4 overs at a rate of 9.25 runs an over. However, the discussion is not regarding Sanath Jayasuriya or his performance here.

It would be worth to write something about Dinesh Chandimal who scored another half century after top scoring with 50 in his first game against Trinidad and Tobago. There, his efforts were useful only to see his team cross the 100 run mark. But this time, in the match against Leicestershire, not only did he top score with an unbeaten 62 but also scored the same at a decent pace compared to the pitch on which the game was taking place. By the way, the Leicestershire did not experiment with their like most of the teams do in T20 games.

Leicestershire used just 5 bowlers with four of them completing their quota of 4 overs. That according to me is one of the reasons why teams don't have a continuous winning streak in T20 games. Likewise, Harry Gurney's efforts with the ball should be applauded for his 3/33 from 4 overs which restricted Ruhuna from scoring any further which would otherwise been more than say 180. Another player who lonely played a decent innings for his team was Abdul Razzaq who had a better performance with the bat when he scored 68 but was not enough to achieve a victory with others not cooperating.

Though, like Leicestershire Ruhuna didn't experiment with their bowling the bowlers whom Udawatte chose to bowl had a decent run with two bowlers picking up 3 wickets. Looking at this, one can say that the ground was a tough one to bat on. Scoring runs was not easy and batsmen who have managed to do something have to get a pat on their back. Another player who deceived both his fans as well as his team was James Taylor who got out scoring just 11 runs. But, one result stands the same; both Ruhuna and Leicestershire get sacked from the rest of the series.

Leicestershire crash land

It was amazing to see Trinidad & Tobago lose just two wickets with their opposition namely Leicestershire being able to keep just one wicket in their hand at the end of their innings after scoring 51 runs less than what Trinidad & Tobago could manage. I was just cursing Trinidad and Tobago for having so many batsmen unused when the likes of Daren Ganga, Sherwin Ganga and Jason Mohammed could have proved to be handy with the bat. According to me, the team batting need not and should not care about the number of wickets they have in hand.

The tail end batsmen n any team are meant to just go out and slog it out there and not bother about their wicket being thrown away. The tail end players are more of bowlers rather than batsmen. It should be the ball which should do the taking and not their bat. The first wicket from the Trinidad and Tobago team fell in the first ball of the 18^th over when the scoreboard read 139/0. Nevermind that there was some big hitting toward the fag end of their innings with the last 17 balls yielding 30 runs at the rate of 10.00 runs an over.

Until then, the scoring rate was just above 8.00 runs an over. Had the batsmen taken a few risks, the score might have gone well beyond 180 with 4 more wickets falling (may be). On the other hand, even the bowlers from Leicestershire team did not put in much effort to push the batsmen to take any aerial route in an attempt to clear the ropes which in turn would safely land in the hands of any fielder in the deep. One has to wonder as to why Mathew Hoggard bowled just three overs when he was the most economical bowler of the lot.

Coming to the batting of Leicestershire, there were two batsmen dismissed for duck and two other scoring single digit scores among the top four batsmen. I wish I was in place of James Taylor who was just enjoying his batting at the crease knowing well that no fingers would point towards him and neither could his team win the match after their top order deceiving them. Along with Taylor, even Abdul Razzaq joined the party to be the only two batsmen scoring over 10 runs and played more than 50% of the match. I wonder how come the Leicestershire could not be bowled out with such a dismal batting.