Sri Lanka crush Australia

Needless to be said, Australia have never taken the T20 format of cricket seriously whatsoever. This was evident first when they lost their super eights match to Pakistan in the inaugural edition of the world T20 followed by a loss to India in the semi finals. If that was not enough, Australia failed to make it to the super eights of the world T20 two years later in England when they lost their qualifier match to West Indies and Sri Lanka. However, in the third edition of the world T20, they reached the finals of the tournament without losing even a single game en route.

Still, their T20 record is not convincing when in most of the cases they are found putting a better performance in the other two formats of the game and failing miserably in T20 games. However, in yesterday's game against Sri Lanka they were once again never in the game when they allowed the hosts to put up 198 on the board which can hardly be chased down successfully. The Aussie bowlers could get only three batsmen out from Sri Lanka out of which Chandimal was out hit-wicket. One interesting aspect from Aussie bowling was that whoever bowled their quota of 4 overs returned with a wicket.

Brett Lee, Mitchell Johnson and Shane Watson bowled their quota of 4 overs and returned with wickets of Mahela Jayawardane, Dinesh Chandimal and Kumara Sangakkara respectively. Looking at the batting chart of Australia, they had absolutely no answers to the Sri Lankan bowlers when no one could support David Warner who had a great going. Watson was dismissed early and that was followed by Shaun Marsh, David Hussey and Cameron White who got out scoring single digit scores. Huge hits were seen towards the end of the Aussie innings when Mitchell Johnson and Steve D'Keefe went in for the kill.

But, that was because the Sri Lankan bowlers let them loose when their win was confirmed. Likewise, similar to the Aussie bowling, bowlers who bowled their complete quota of 4 overs were the highest wicket takers in the Australian batting innings. Kulashekara and Perera returned with figures of 4-0-39-2 and 4-0-26-3 respectively. However, Lakmal and Herath also returned with a wicket but didn't bowl their quota completely and were not among the top bowlers from Sri Lanka. Had the Sri Lankan bowlers not let the tail-end batsmen loose, the Aussie score would not have crossed 150. In the end, Aussies say that "T20 cricket is not for us".

Result comes as expected

Well as all of us had predicted a couple of days back regarding the finalists of the world cup, the result is right in front of us with Sri Lanka making their third world cup final and their second in a row. There was no room for New Zealand to sneak into victory not only for all odds being against them but also with them not being the right team to beat the sub-continent nation especially on their home turf. This is the fourth fifth time in a row that Sri Lanka have beaten New Zealand in world cups since 2003.

New Zealand should consider themselves lucky to be in the semi-finals of the tournament beating South Africa in the quarter-finals. Had New Zealand encountered any of the other teams namely India or Sri Lanka, may be they would have given a grand exit there itself. Of course, the story would have been different had they met West Indies. At any cost, new Zealand would have not made it to the finals of this world cup for, India and Pakistan would also have given them the same treatment like Sri Lanka. May be there would have been a worse result for the Kiwis had they faced India.

However, looking at the scorecard, one can guess the panic that the Sri Lankan batsmen had towards the end of the chase suggesting that had the Kiwi total been somewhere close to 250, may be Sri Lankans would have been seen cursing themselves at the end of the day for coming so near and losing the plot mid-way. At one stage the scorecard read 161/3 requiring 58 runs from 102 balls at a rate of over 3 runs an over. But, the Sri Lankan batsmen took 47 overs to get into that magical score. Though they didn't lose wickets at regular intervals, some panic was evident.

The Sri Lankan batsmen had to concentrate more and one has to no doubt give full marks to the New Zealand bowlers for coming back to the game and showing the world that they deserved to be there. Towards the end of the game, one thing that makes me wonder and tough to come to terms with is the fact that Kumara Sangakkara was awarded the man of the match when it was Tilekaratne Dilshan who did the good work in the beginning of the Sri Lankan successful run chase. I just had to convince myself saying the person who captains and keeps wickets gets the precedence.

All three hosts for the semis

Well this can happen only if the world cup is being hosted by the sub-continent teams namely India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. For the first time in the history of a world cup or any other tournament, all the hosts have been into the semi-finals for the world cup. Of course, Pakistan is not a host but still a little bit of consideration can be given for it was once upon a time scheduled to host a few important games in this world cup before all teams starting from India started boycotting their tour to the trouble-torn nation since 2008.

Of course, Bangladesh have not been able to make it to the semi-finals (or even the quarter-finals) of the tournament. A little bit of hard work from them could have seen them scroll over against West Indies. West Indies are as good as Ireland or Bangladesh in this tournament needless to say. Both West Indies and Bangladesh had equal number of wins in the league stages of the tournament. One can consider Pakistan to be a replacement for Bangladesh for, long back Bangladesh was considered as East Pakistan and now, we can adjust those words calling Pakistan some West Pakistan.

Coming to the fourth and the final quarter-final between Sri Lanka and England, England were crushed by the Sri Lankans the way West Indies were done so by Pakistan. Then, West Indies were no match for Pakistan which was not the case yesterday at Colombo. And, just imagine what a lucky thing that the Sri Lankans were facing the Englishmen in their own land when they could have been either at Dhaka or Ahmadabad. More luckily, the Sri Lankans will be facing the Kiwis once again in their home land with the first semi- finals scheduled at Colombo a couple of days later.

I just cannot imagine why teams from only one group have been able to hold the upper-hand with Sri Lanka, Pakistan and New Zealand qualifying from group A with only India getting to the rank from group B. However, things were better this time compared to the 1996 edition where all four teams from group A qualified to the semis with Pakistan, England, New Zealand and South Africa losing out to India, Sri Lanka, Australia and West Indies respectively. Coming to the match, losing just four wickets, how could England end up with just 229 on board? Are England that bad bowlers that they couldn't scalp even a single Sri Lankan wicket?

One of the biggest partnerships

Well as I have repeatedly mentioned in my previous posts about the presence of weaker teams and their influence on world records, here is yet another one adding to the list with Sri Lanka putting up a first wicket partnership of 282 on the board at Pallekele yesterday. Once again, SriLanka were enjoying the home team advantage and even if they were not, things would have hardly been any different. However, things were not satisfactory for the home team despite the aforesaid record. I just don't have the patience to search for the highest 1^st wicket partnership in world cups.

And even by chance Sri Lanka happen to be the team that boasts fir the highest 1^st wicket partnership of yesterday's match against Zimbabwe, that would hardly go down as the best one day innings be it in world cups or otherwise. Sri Lanka have a long way to go in this world cup and their record or performance so far in this tournament is below satisfactory. They lost their group game against Pakistan by 11 runs despite repeated drop chances by Pakistan and then the match against Australia was abandoned with 30 odd over being possible. Their next important game is scheduled against New Zealand.

Sri Lanka as a matter of fact are yet to win a game against Pakistan in world cups. Though they had an upper hand in the abandoned match against Australia, nothing can be said with 100% confidence for, Australia are also not a down to earth team despite not having the services of Glenn McGrath and co. Coming to the game between Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe, it would be just a waste of time to cite Sri Lanka's win over the African nation since 1992 when they held the world record for the highest run chase in world cups after chasing down 312 on board.

Since then, forget about Sri Lanka winning over Zimbabwe and instead, Zimbabwe's major victory has been against India and South Africa in the 1999 world cup when they made it to the 2^nd round of a world cup for the first time in the history of Zimbabwean cricket. Sri Lanka's total of 327 was far less compared to the expectation which should have seen them cross 370. The opening partnership stood for 44 overs and since then Sri Lanka lost 6 wickets. Had it not been for the first wicket partnership, may be Sri Lanka-Zimbabwe would have been a close encounter.

Sri Lanka make much from the soft target

Bangladesh are no more the team they were a few years ago when victory against the same was announced even before the match started. But, all these words can never ever stop Bangladesh from losing to any opposition. This may not be true if the opposition is a non test playing country or someone like the West Indies. Bangladesh, in the first match of the tri series involving India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh were able to put up a total in excess of 250 against Sri Lanka, reminding once again their improvement in international cricket. Bangladesh are now found doing what other test playing nations were found doing a decade ago.

Bangladesh are now found frequently posting team totals above 250 which was not the case even some four years down the lane. And, the other test playing nations were at that time posting regular scores in excess of 300 and sometimes many a times even chasing the same. However, if Bangladesh could show the cricketing world about their improvement in cricket, on the other hand, Sri Lanka could now breathe free after winning a one day game irrespective against the opposition which it has achieved. Sri Lanka could manage just 1 victory from the 4 games that it played against India in the recently concluded ODI series.

Prior to that, all that Sri Lanka could manage was a win against South Africa in the ICC Champions trophy 2009 which was followed by losses to England and New Zealand. Prior to that, Sri Lanka had won a bi lateral series against Pakistan by a 3-2 margin which evoked suspicion regarding the matches to be fixed in August last year. And before that Sri Lanka could win just one game in the bi lateral series against India in early 2009 out of the 5 games that were played. So, Sri Lanka could manage just 5 wins from 17 games prior to this victory against Bangladesh.

It was nice to see the Sri Lankans playing a calculated innings against Bangladesh at Dhaka which saw them not lose many wickets and also keep the scoreboard ticking. This was more of a practice match for the Sri Lankans which can ensure them a better performance in the remainder of the series that also involves matches against old rivals India defeating whom would obviously be on the top of the agenda for the Sri Lankans. The entire Sri Lankan innings didn't contain even a sngle maximum compared to the 3 sixes that the Bangladeshi innings had. So, with this, Bangladesh are found to master only in the batting dept and yet to prove something in the bowling dept.

South Africa Too Bad A Hosts

Well it was the same Sri Lanka way back in 2003 that spoilt all hopes of South Africa making it to the second round of the ICC World Cup in South Africa. There it was Marvan Atapattu who blasted 124 that was aided with 18 hits to the fence off 129 balls, that was well supported by Aravinda De Silva who added another 73 runs, that too aided with the help of 6 fours and 2 huge sixes. That match was a real nerve tester for the Proteas after their initial loss at the hands of West Indies and New Zealand. South Africa were just 1 run short of the victory target which was 230 and a wrong signal from the dressing room ended up in such debacle.

Otherwise, there was good work done in by Herschelle Gibbs who scored 73 (88 balls) and an unbeaten 45 from Mark Boucher. I guess, from then onwards, the South African team, in addition to 15 players, a coach and a manager would have included an abacus or a calculator to avoid such disasters. That was also a rain hit match like yesterday's which imposed a Duckworth Lewis total of 262 runs from 37.2 overs. Not a bad target or an unachievable one for South Africa but, Sri Lanka was too strong for the Proteas to overcome. Sri Lanka's efforts shouldn't go unrewarded?

One has to indeed pity the South African captain Greame Smith who along with ace batsman Jacques Kallis put up a strong foundation for the South African chase. As the Duckworth Lewis method always does, this time as well the run rate shot up from the previous one at 6.4 to just below 7 runs an over for South Africa. And what better can South Africa do with no recognized batsmen in the side to lead the batting? More than pointing fingers towards South Africa, one has to really appreciate Sri Lanka for outplaying South Africa in all departments of the game.

This was the first ime that Sri Lanka beat South Africa in an ICC Champions Trophy. Sri Lanka had lost to South Africa in the inaugural edition of the ICC Champions Trophy in a league stage match which in that tournament was a knock out one, meaning a team that loses its first match will have to wind up from the tournament which is not the case in these days. Sri Lanka lost their match to the proteas under Hansie Cronje when they were all out for 198. South Africa went on to win the series. Then in 2006, Sri Lanka yet again lost to South Africa in the league stages of the tournament held at India.

Reasons For Sri Lanka To Smile As Well

No one, after being unbeaten until then would be happy after losing a match when it really mattered. No one on earth would continue smiling after losing to a team against which it had won in its previous encounter. Pakistan in this tournament had lost matches against England and Sri Lanka prior to lifting the trophy. And Sri Lanka, needless to be said had won all of its earlier matches with some worth mentioning teams being West Indies (twice), Australia, Pakistan and New Zeland. However, Sri Lanka's win over minnows Ireland can never be counted as a victory not only for Ireland's inexperience but due to the fact that it was a close encounter when Sri Lanka should have gone in for a clean sweep.

And on the other hand, the wins that Pakistan have tasted are worth rejoicing. They had a clean sweep against New Zealand & Ireland and a close encounter with South Africa. But, that close win against South Africa was also as good as a clean sweep, when most of the odds had opted for South Africa to advance further and more so because that was a semi finals of a world cup. Not to mention, it was a clean sweep for Pakistan yesterday as well in the finals of the world T20. In the earlier game between the 2 teams, it was all because of the start given to Sri Lanka by their openers that they ended victorious. Sri Lanka had scored 80 runs in the first 8 overs, with the final score reading 150.

Sri Lanka were never in the game from the beginning. At one stage of the match, it was as though Sri Lanka would not even be able to put on 100 runs on the board after the scoreboard read 26/3 at the end of the fourth over. The highest run getter of the tournament Tilakeratne Dilshan was out for a duck and so was Jehan Mubarak. On the other hand, Pakistanlost their first wicket at a score of 48 (a score when Sri Lanka had lost 3 wickets as said earlier). Nonetheless, Pakistan never ever showed any signs of pressure at any moment in the match. All the four batsmen who made it to the crease did what best they could do.

Despite losing the tournament, Sri Lankan captain should feel a little bit satisfied that his team never lost out on his face. They put up a decent total of 138 and lost only 6 wickets after at one stage being at 70/6 at the end of the 13th over. Meaning 68 runs in the last 7 overs at a run rate of just less than 10 an over. Perhaps! Some initial contribution from either Dilshan, Mubarak and Jayasuriya would have made the finals more challenging. And one more thing that Sangakkara should be proud about is that he has taken his team unbeaten to the finals of the world cup just few months after taking over from Jayawardane as the Sri Lankan captain. Finally, Dilshan was handed the man of the series award should add another feather to Sri Lanka's cap.

Another Final Between 2 Sub Continent Teams

Well what a relation is the one between the top run getter in the ongoing T20 world cup and the Sri Lankan team! Tilekeratne Dilshan not only became the top run getter in the world cup but, in yesterday's semifinal match against the West Indies, he remained unbeaten throughout the Sri Lankan innings which is referred to as "carrying the bat throughout the innings" in cricket terms. After their win against the West Indies in the semifinals, Sri Lanka become the second team in this tournament who have been unbeaten in this world cup and to face Pakistan after the Proteas. For the 2nd time in succession, the final is a contest between two sub continent nations.

And if the body language of the Pakistani players is taken, they are in no mood to compromise. May be that Sri Lanka have earlier in the super eights match beaten Pakistan, but the finals is obviously a different game. Remember, in the 1999 world cup in England, Pakistan had in their league stages of the tournament beaten Steve Waugh's men by 10 runs and later in the finals of the same, Pakistan were no where in the game when they took on Australia for the second time in the series. And this time as well, the situation is no different either if not for Pakistan who would be at the delivering end.

And I would cast my vote solely to Pakistan with 100% confidence of them lifting the world cup. This I had done even before the world cup had began-believe it or not. And in the match against Sri Lanka, it was just a formality for them. The West Indies had lost the game when they had to chase down 158. And I wonder as to how come the West Indians could lose 3 wickets in the first over in the semi final of the tournament world cup? When South Africa couldn't win against Pakistan despite being unbeaten in the tournament until then, it would be stupid to consider West Indies to win against Sri Lanka.

After the second semi finals of the T20 world cup 2009, my memories date back to the 1996 world cup where both South Africa and Sri Lanka had been unbeaten throughout the series and South Africa crashes out of the tournament after their shocking loss to the West Indies and Sri Lanka end up victorious. Now, Sri Lanka have just reached the finals of the tournament. But, my heart still goes out to Pakistan for coming back so strongly after losing to England and Sri Lanka long before all gates seemed to be closed for them. If history is taken, both Sri Lanka and Pakistan have an equal chance of lifting the world cup. So, at the moment the only thing left for us is to just wait and watch.

Sri Lanka Make It To The Semis

Well two wins out of the three matches in the super eight stage of the ongoing T20 world cup in England would see that particular team through to the semi finals of the same. And now since Sri Lanka have won their first super eight match against Pakistan, they have not only come closer to blocking the semi final berth but also have made it almost theirs, for a win against minnows Ireland is taken for granted unless the ghost doesn't haunt them. For that matter, Sri Lanka have a better chance of making it three in all, with the odds favoring Sri Lanka against New Zealand as well.

It was all because of the opening pair of Sanath Jayasuriya and Tilakeratne Dilshan who put on 80 runs on the board at the end of the 8^th over, thus making full use of the powerplays and the lack of cricketing experience of the Pakistan team who have not been found playing serious cricket since the past one year or so. If not for these two, the mission would not have been accomplished no matter what the Sri Lankan bowlers had to say. For, the remaining 12 overs could fetch just a mere 70 runs at a run rate of just less than 6.0 an over.

The scores that followed after the dismissal of Mahela Jayawardane read 8, 5, 9*, 0 & 2, with just a boundary inbetween that came after 7 overs. The lone six of the game came from the bat of Sanath Jayasuriya (which is as obvious) and after the fall of Mahela Jayawardane, only two boundaries were seen in the Sri Lankan innings. On the other hand, the Pakistani batsmen showed a better class if not for their initial loss of Salman Butt who was out for a duck. The trio viz Younus Khan, Shoaib Malik and Misbah threatened to take the game away from the Sri Lankans. I am indeed sorry to say that the Pakistani team was inexperienced to take on any other major team of the tournament.

This victory of Sri Lanka against Pakistan was the first one (for Sri Lanka against Pakistan) in any ICC Cricket tournament till date. They had lost to Pakistan in the 2007 edition of the T20 world cup held at South Africa after Sanath Jayasuriya went in for 64 runs from his four overs. And prior to that was Sri Lanka's loss to Pakistan ion the ICC Champions Trophy 2006 and before that it was in 1992 where Sri Lanka once again had lost to Pakistan. Since the 1992 world cup held at Australia/New Zealand, Sri Lanka have never faced Pakistan till date.

A knock out before the semis is expected in the match between Pakistan and New Zealand not to forget the run rate which would decide who would go in to the semis.

No One Is The Best

Until the match between the Deccan Chargers and the Delhi Daredevils, there was atleast one team that remained unbeaten throughout the tournament and that was Deccan Chargers. But, after that particular match, even the Deccan Chargers joined the party that included the rest of the 7 teams who have lost atleast one match in the series. However, the Deccan Chargers can still continue to rejoice for, they along with the Delhi Daredevils are the only team to have at present lost just one game so far. While the Deccan Chargers lost their first game against Delhi Daredevils, the Delhi Daredevils lost a game to the Chennai Superkings.

It looks like both the Deccan Chargers as well as the Delhi Daredevils have made it to the semi finals of the IPL already. Well lets wait until the semi finals line is up officially. But for now, the match between the Deccan Chargers and the Delhi Daredevils is something that matters us the most. If not for the openers who made way for early breakthroughs for the opposition team, the rest of the Deccan Chargers' batsmen showed good amount of resistance by all of them scoring in double figures. This feat might not be too satisfactory but, this happens very rarely where five consecutive batsmen score double figures in succession.

For a moment, the Deccan Chargers' batsman Dwayne Smith threstened the Delhi Daredevils team to take the game away from them but not too longer after Daniel Vettori has him in his hands in the deep off Ashish Nehra. Though a total of 148 was not too convincing and more so in this particular format of the game, there have been many instances where a modest total have been difficult to chase. But, this particular total was easily chased by the Delhi Daredevils batsmen more so by Tilekeratne Dilshan. Finally, I was delighted that atleast there was one team in the tournament to beat the Deccan Chargers.

I was really fed up by watching Australia being unbeaten unbeaten throughout the 2003 as well as the 2007 world cups, by winning all 11 matches that they played. Atleast in the match against in the 2003 world cup, the Australia were on the verge of losing but, it was Michael Beaven who spoilt the party and in the match against New Zealand where they were 84/7 ended up winning the match by 96 runs. And in the 2007 world cup, there was not even a single close encounter that the Aussies faced. From the match one against Holland until the finals where they played Sri Lanka all the matches were taken for granted by Australia. Thank God that it was not the case in this IPL as well.