Australia whitewashed

Very rarely does a team like Australia get whitewashed despite Australia losing their days of glory. There have been several teams like India, South Africa and England who have inflicted a defeat on Australia in all three formats of the game. But, one has to bring it to his notice that all those nations have not been able to whitewash Australia. Last year and in 2008, India was successful in defeating Australia 2-0 in the Border-Gavaskar trophy where Australia lost both the games which they played. If not for these, there have been many situations where Australia have lost one off T20 or an ODI to India.

But, England had a 3-1 win over Australia in Ashes 2010 which was not a whitewash. However, coming to yesterday's game between Australia and Sri Lanka at Pallekele, Sri Lanka had a run for their money against Australia when they had a run for their money. If not for Jayawardane's 86 runs at the top of the Sri Lankan innings, no other batsman from Sri Lanka ever stood up to the challenge. Jayawardane was there in the crease until the 7^th wicket from Sri Lanka fell. In between, Sangakkara gave Jayawardane some support when there was a 46 run partnership between the two.

Looking at the Aussie bowling, it may well be said that the pitch was tough for the batsmen and Mahela Jayawardane's 86 should definitely take the focus more than anybody else. Of course, anybody looking at the scorecard would be convinced seeing Ajantha Mendis' haul of 6/16 from his four overs that included an over maiden. But, with that sort of a pitch staying at the crease when 7 wickets fell from the other end deserves more than what Mendis took home. In my view, it should have been Mahela Jayawardane who should have walked away with the honor and not Ajanta Mendis.

In most of the case regarding T20 games, the man of the match is given to the wrong person and to a wrong department. Batsmen are given the award for the stylish hitting when the pitch favors them and like it happened yesterday, bowlers are applauded with the award when there was enough turn and bounce in the pitch. There were two bowlers from Australia as well who returned with 3 wicket hauls when Brett Lee and Hastings were the lucky guys. Another player who lonely handed the Sri Lankan bowling was Shane Watson who scored a quickfire 57 runs from 24 balls.

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.

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.

New Zealand Fast..But Not Steady

The match between Sri Lanka and New Zealand could rather be considered as the second quarter finals of the T20- world cup, with the first quarter finals being between West Indies and England on Monday. It was a curse for any team to have won all of its previous matches and still be under test. This was what Sri Lanka was facing yesterday when they took on New Zealand. The Sri Lankans should consider themselves lucky to have won the encounter against New Zealand and in the process make it to the semis. Not at all..I am not talking about the way the Sri Lankans played their game yesterday. I just compared this Sri Lankan team to the South African team that was eliminated after losing to India in the inaugural edition.

The loss for South Africa against India in 2007 was their first ever loss in that series. But, unfortunately, that particular loss proved to be too costly for the Proteas. Until then, the Proteas had wins against West Indies, Bangladesh (not to mention), New Zealand and England. This time it was Sri Lanka in that position. But, the way they put all that behind them and finally emerged victorious indeed deserves a praise. For, if the New Zealand batting was taken into consideration initially, they almost threatened to upset the Sri Lankan team who had until then been unbeaten. But, there was Mendis.

The match looked as though Sanath Jayasuriya wants to make it to the record books for the wrong reasons in this format of the game as well when he was out for a duck. Jayasuriya holds the record for most ducks in one day internationals. However, if not for the loss of Sanath Jayasuriya, none of the Sri Lankan batsmen followed suite. Of course..Chamara Silva was also not too much impressive either. But, the ones who followed him thereafter did a fab job for Sri Lanka needless to be said. There was Sangakkara and Jayawardane who held the nerves tight for Sri Lanka until the 18th over, leaving the remaining batsmen in Mubarak & Mathews with not too much to worry about.

However, the New Zealand were never in any mood to compromise either when they took 20 runs off the second over bowled by Sanath Jayasuriya. If the debacle that Sanath provided with the bat for Sri Lanka was not enough, this was in addition to the woes. But, the courage that Sangakkara showed when he handed over the ball back to Sanath Jayasuriya towards the end indeed needs some cheers. This was a gr8 risk taken by Sangakkara, for had Jayasuriya continued from where he had left in the 2nd over, all fingers would have pointed towards him.I remember the then Sri Lankan captain Jaywardane handing over the ball to Jayasuriya when his stats never supported him. At the end, Jayasuriya had yet another black feather to his cap when he became the bowler to concede the maximum number of runs after bowling 4 overs.

Sanath Jayasuriya in that match gave away 64 runs from his allotted 4 overs. If not for the 2nd over and the one which Malinga bowled giving away 14 runs, the rest of the overs were decent.There were four batsmen in the New Zealand who had scored 2 runs, with 8 of them scoring single digit scores.