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.

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".

Is England a match for Sri Lanka?

One has to wonder who on earth crowned the English as the world T20 champions last year when Australians were the favorites to win the trophy. It is agreed that England were a tough opposition then. But, yesterday England never showed any signs that a world champion is expected to show. England were no match for Sri Lanka who beat them in every department eventually in the match by 9 wickets. There was no player from the English side whose contribution can be highlighted. Out of the eleven, only three players were able to cross the double digit score with Pietersen and Morgan scoring 47 and 41 respectively.

Adding to the misery, being the home team, England had absolutely no chances to lose the game with players like Morgan, Pietersen and Stuart Broad. As mentioned in my earlier posts, the match was of hardly any consequence with only one game to go. A winner or loser has nothing to take home. But, that should not be a reason for England to relax with 6 of their batsmen scoring single digit scores out of whom two of them got out scoring zero. This can just be considered as a continuation of the dominance of Sri Lanka over England since the quarter-finals of the world cup.

One can go through the scorecard of that quarter-finals match too see the way the Sri Lanka batsmen openers shattered the England bowling by winning the match by 10 wickets with an opening run partnership of 229 runs. Now, though the effect was not that devastating, a 9 wicket win for Sri Lanka over England should definitely make them think much hard about their future in the game. It is fascinating to see the age old Sanath Jayasuriya still wearing the Sri Lankan uniform and scoring in boundaries and scalping two wickets. I guess he is the oldest player to feature in T20 cricket.

Well rather than calling it a guess, it is a fact. Though Jayasuriya's batting had nothing in particular to say, his bowling fetched him 2 wickets from 3 overs giving away runs at a rate of 6.00 runs per over. However, there were the likes of Jayawardane and Sangakkara who could get the job done for Sri Lanka. One can sense the lack of responsibility from the bowlers of the England team who bowled 11 wide deliveries. The Sri Lankan batsmen finished the game in style by grabbing a victory with a boundary. But, England need to re-think about their fortunes i case they need to make their presence felt.

A totally flawless final

Well I just cannot recall a finals between two teams captained by played who also keep wickets for their side. This time I saw it when Kumara Sangakkara for Sri Lanka and Mahendra Singh Dhoni did it for India in the finals. On one side, being an Indian I was rejoicing the Indian victory which came home after 28 years surpassing a silver jubilee in between and on the other hand, I had complete pity for Mahela Jayawardane to have ended on the losing side despite scoring a century. No one scored a century for India despite them being victorious.

This was a rare finals not only because it was India who won the trophy but for the fact that both teams fought it out hard to win the trophy which was eventually awarded to one team that played a slight better cricket. Sri Lanka did well to pileup 274 runs on the board which should have been a winning total for sure. But, needless to be said, Dhoni and team had different plans. I just cannot forget the presence of Sachin Tendulkar in the team for the sixth world cup. Someone like Rahul Dravid, Brian Lara, Inzamam Ul Haq never enjoyed this.

Despite being extraordinary players of their era, they never got to lift the world cup. One can look into the last three world cup finals which were all won by Australia and were one sided games. It would not have been a prized prediction for anyone who would have bet on Australia after Pakistan were bowled out for 132 in 1999. And then in 2003, a total of 359 would have never be chased even with ten Sachin Tendulkars in the side against a team with McGrath and co bowling. If McGrath stuck to his line and length, Lee did the damage.

Exactly four years later in the Caribbean, India was replaced by Sri Lanka and Ricky Ponting was replaced by Adam Gilchrist. Every world cup final set up a new record for Australia. In 1999, Pakistan were bowled out for the lowest total in a world cup final. Then in 2003, Indian bowlers were belted for the highest total, the largest margin of victory and the fastest hundred in a world cup final. Four years later, Adam Gilchrist blasted the fastest hundred in a world cup finals bettering Ponting's record by 2 balls and the highest individual score in a world cup final.

Top two teams qualify to the finals

Before predicting the winners of the world cup with less than 24 hours to go for the big game to start, one has to decide whether the teams which have qualified to the finals of the mega event are worth their place. I can just tell you the way how Pakistan was eventually declared winners of the tournament in 1992 when they shouldn't have even reached the semi-finals. Pakistan had losses to India, West Indies and South Africa and wins against Sri Lanka, New Zealand and Australia before playing England. The England tie became important for Pakistan and Australia as the winner would make it to the semis.

As a matter of fact, Australia had lost to New Zealand, England ,Pakistan and South Africa with wins against India, West Indies and Sri Lanka. Pakistan's task was just no to lose the match meaning even a tie or an abandonment would see them through to the semis. Pakistan got all out for 74 regarding which nothing needs to be said in particular. Finally, rain interrupted the game forcing the match officials to abandon the game and award equal points to both teams. So, Pakistan at the cost of Australia reaches the semis and also wins the trophy a week later.

One can also go through the 1999 world cup when Steve Waugh just cashed in on the drop catch by Herschelle Gibbs in the super sixes of the tournament and a wrong decision of Hansie Cronje in the semis which ended in a tie seeing Aussies through to the finals. India cashed in on the drop catch if Sachin Tendulkar by Abdul Razzaq and the presence of Kenya in the super sixes and a toss win against England in the day-night encounter. But, India deserved to be there in the finals. Sri Lanka along with Australia deserved to be in the finals of the 2007 world cup.

This time, Sri Lanka if not for their loss against Pakistan and the abandoned game against Australia had no black spots. India on the other hand lost to the Proteas and had a tie against England but that was compromised with a win against Australia and Pakistan. India also cashed in on the 5 drop chances in the semi-finals against Pakistan which would have otherwise been a Pakistan-Sri Lanka finals. But, despite the loss in the league stages, their body language and attitude showed no signs of compromise which justifies their place in the finals. Youvraj Singh, Dhoni, Tendulkar, Harbhajan, Zaheer all have proved their place.

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.

Best of the quarter-finals

Well with all the four quarter-finals of the world cup being over, I guess it is time to bid the best of the quarter-finals which included 8 teams playing four games (obviously). The first of the quarter-finals between West Indies and Pakistan was just a walk over game for Pakistan who thrashed the West Indies like never before. First by bowling out them for just above 100 and then chasing the same with close to 30 overs left. But, that feat can be enjoyed by no one other than the Pakistanis. So, that match stands canceled in picking the best.

Next on the list comes the match involving India and Australia which India unexpectedly won with 5 wickets still in hand. This goes down as the best of all knock-out games in this tournament so far with hardly anyone having their bet on the co-hosts though they are the favorites to win the crown this time. Though Australia have lost the services of Adam Gilchrist, Mathew Hayden, Damien Martyn, Andrew Symonds, Glenn McGrath and others, there are some like Shane Watson, Mitchell Johnson, Brad Haddin, Brett Lee etc who are still fresh from their days of glory since the last decade.

Australia might have lost to Pakistan in their league stage encounter with the sub-continent nation but the quarter-finals of the world cup is totally a different game whatsoever. Coming to the next game between New Zealand and South Africa, that was just an elimination match where both teams don't deserve to be in the semi-finals and one of them has to make it there irrespective of whether anyone likes it or not. Both South Africa and New Zealand had just one win in their league stage and that too by a one man show and a crash by the opposition.

It was India who lost their equations against South Africa and if not for Ross Taylor, no other batsman from the Kiwi side put Pakistanis under pressure. Last but not the least we have the game between England and Sri Lanka which was (we guess) anticipated by England to be their last show in this world cup. Gone were the good work when they had a tie against India chasing 339 before losing to Bangladesh and Ireland. They were just a step better than the West Indies and nothing else. Teams gotto be lucky to have faced West Indies and England and likewise they did it in style when they didn't lose a wicket en-route to their successful chase.

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.

Dammit!

Well this was one such match that all cricket crazy fans and Aussie haters on earth would have been looking forward to. The match between Australia and Sri Lanka had to be washed off with only 32 overs of the game being able. I just cannot stop cursing myself and the rain gods for having spoiled such an enthusiasm. Australia have been beating Sri Lanka on the past five occasions with two each in the 2007 world cup and the 2003 world cup. They are the team to have been at the receiving end of Aussies in world cup taking into consideration their glory days after 1999.

India have had the taste of the Aussie ego thrice since 1999 with one in 1999 and two in the next edition in 2003 at South Africa while Pakistan have been quite lucky for not having been so. Pakistan beat Australia i the league match of the 1999 world cup by ten runs before losing to the same in the finals of the same miserably. And then in 2003, Pakistan might have missed out on meeting Australia had they not been grouped in the same pool. Pakistan was beaten badly by 82 runs in that world cup as well when the Aussies were just unstoppable.

Likewise, South Africa have had their taste four time with two each in the 1999 and 2007 editions with England having only one each in 2003 and 2007 world cups. And then, New Zealand have been losing to Australia since 2003 world cup with them being lucky in 1999 to have beaten them by 5 wickets. The match was going on at a decent pace as far as Sri Lankans were concerned with their run rate being well above four an over and Sangakkara and Samaraweera having a brilliant unbeaten 71 run partnership until rain intervened. On the other side, there was Muralitharan who could have shown his magic on home soil.

The same thing happened to the match between Sri Lanka and Australia in the 1996 world cup when Australia and West Indies decided not to tour the trouble torn country following which points had to be given to Sri Lanka for no efforts. Now, the points happened to be shared and Australia have escaped a would-be defeat at the same venue four world cups later. Nevermind, even Australia had an equal chance of winning with players like Shane Watson, Ricky Ponting, Mitchell Johnson etc. Now, the only choice left for Aussie haters is to wait and watch what happens to Australia in their pool match against Pakistan.

Malinga fond of Africans

Well yesterday another similar feat happened to Lasith Malinga when he scalped the tournament's second hat-trick after Kemer Roach had the first against Netherlands a couple of days back. This was Lasith Malinga's second hat-trick in world cup cricket when last time in 2007 he had a similar feat against South Africa in the super-eights of the world cup. In fact, Lasith Malinga's feat was a much bigger one then, for it was against a much better outfit and secondly it was a four-ball four-wicket one which is unparalleled even today. Unfortunately, Malinga's feat came a bit too late and Sri Lanka had to end up on the losing side.

South Africa was cruising towards the target with five wickets in hand with plenty of overs left. But, suddenly in came the slinger who produced the most devastating spell of the world cup that even the tournament's highest wicket-taker Glenn McGrath would have been jealous about. But, with very little work to do, the South African tail-end batsman did what was expected off him and saw his team through. That was Sri Lanka's first defeat in that world cup and the only team other than Australia who beat them in that world cup. Then onwards Sri Lanka beat New Zealand twice, West Indies and England.

This was the second African team that Malinga took a hat-trick but this would hardly come in for much applause considering the team against which he achieved the feat. Malinga's feat was just one step better than Roach's for he had the 7^th, 8^th and the 9^th batsmen under his name unlike Roach who ripped the last three batsmen from Holland. There has been no bowler in cricket's history to have taken two hat-tricks in world cups and so also there is no other bowlers to have taken four wickets in four balls in world cups (with my knowledge being restricted only to world cups at the moment).

However, as was the case with Kemar Roach's feat, the one with Lasith Malinga can hardly be applauded for once again, it was a non-test playing team that Malinga was playing against. Had the hat-trick been against some Pakistan or Australia, the feat could have been relished proudly. The match once again reminded Sri Lanka's world record total of 398 against Kenya at Kandy in the 1996 world cup that Sri Lanka won. Looking at the scorecard, if not for two Kenyan players who scored half centuries, not other player could manage even a ten. There was Steve Tikolo, who has been playing cricket since 1996.

Sri Lanka could not cash on drop catches

Well despite there being so many drop catches by Pakistan against Sri Lanka, it is a point to wander about by the Sri Lankans who are one of the favorites to at least make it to the semi-finals of the tournament. Having dropped uncountable number of catches against the co-hosts of this world cup, ending up on the winning should be on one side enjoyed to the fullest extent and on the other side worry about their fielding. Pakistan have always been poor fielders especially in crunch games like the world cup knock-outs though this is not one such game for the Pakistanis.

On the other hand as well, for Sri Lanka, being unable to make use of the opponents' poor fielding definitely needs a re-thinking when they are set to face Australia in the days to come. One need not remind me writing earlier about Sri Lanka's chances to beat Australia with their spin potent and Australia's lack of will power. I have to re0thing upon that since the day Australia beat New Zealand a couple of days back in a one sided encounter at Ahmedabad. And, even Sri Lanka's chances look slim after their debacle against Pakistan and so would be Pakistan with their opposition-friendly fielding.

One only can think about the reduction in the power of the Australian team that is found touring this world cup but, hardly anybody is able to sense the caliber of the teams which are set to face Australia-be it Pakistan or Sri Lanka. Of course, New Zealand is a matter of the past. Or else, Canada, Kenya and Zimbabwe can only be a last minute hope for any team which can at least make it to the quarter-finals of the tournament. Coming to the game between Sri Lanka and Pakistan, this was Sri Lanka's fifth defeat to Pakistan in world cups.

Scorecard reflects the team work that the Pakistani team got right when four of their top and middle order batsmen able to contribute along with a little bit from Umar Akmal and Shahid Afridi. In the beginning, it looked as though the Pakistani total would go past 300+ and no credit to the Sri Lank bowlers when it was the Pakistani batsmen who made fools out of themselves. Afridi's caliber is seen in the area which he rarely concentrates and seems to fail in that area where he is expected to do a killing. Or else, a dashing batsman is seen scalping 4 wickets something which frontline bowlers couldn't manage.

The curse of 299

Well yesterday in the finals of the triangular series between India and Sri Lanka at Dambulla, not only did India suffer a loss in yet another finals of a tournament involving three nations or more but, also collapsed while chasing a total of 300, with Sri Lanka closing in on 299. This was the same score at which ten years back India slumped to their worst ever defeat in one dayers when they lost all their ten wickets for 54 runs while chasing the same target of 299. That match was a memorable one for Sanath Jayasuriya's epic knock of 189.

Similarly, the series being memorable one for Muttiah Muralitharan when he took 7 wickets giving away 30 runs in a game in the league stage of the tournament once again against India. That was the third time in history of one day cricket that a bowler had taken 7 wickets after Pakistan's Aqib Javed and West Indies' Windson Davis (who took 7/41) . For the second time in that series, India was at the receiving end of a bowler who took 7 wickets. The venue was Sharjah in both the occasions which makes it even more delightful for team India.

As a matter of fact, India and England are the only teams against which two bowlers have taken a 7 wicket haul. The other teams that have had it one are Zimbabwe against whom Chaminda Vass took 8/19 and Windson Davis taking 7/41 as mentioned above against Australia. As a matter of fact, no one has been able to take even a 7 wicket haul against Bangladesh. Anyways, coming to yesterday's match, this was a time when chasing even 350 should not have been tough atleast for India which didn't happen. One thing that is to be noticed is that this was India's second loss to Sri Lanka in the finals of a tri nation trophy.

Last time when India met Sri Lanka in the finals of the Asia cup, India won the match and prior to that, Sri Lanka won the finals in the triangular series late last year which also involved New Zealand. Of course, India didn't enter the finals of the tri nation tournament involving Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe in Zimbabwe. It is now a difficult task for anyone to hold the number of games played between India and Sri Lanka since 2008. Any tournament that stands canceled is found to be compensated by an India-Sri Lanka series. May be that is the reason Sachin Tendulkar was dropped despite there being fears of a series loss.

Pak must learn from Zimbabwe

Well in the past decade, there have been three major developments in international cricket with the first one being the granting of test status to Bangladesh, for reasons best known to the ICC alone. The second on the list would be the stripping of the Zimbabwe team of its test status in 2006 owing to the political instability in the country though that had hardly got anything to do with the game of cricket. And then would be the harsh decision on Pakistan which is a deserving one as far as Pakistan is concerned. Pakistan has been the last country for any team to tour.

First it all started with most of the teams from across the world taking a back seat when it came to tour Pakistan, that included the likes of New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, England and India (of course). As a matter of fact, even Zimbabwe didn't turn up to tour Pakistan though they had shown interest in traveling to that country with little bit of hesitation. When a country whose political stability itself is a matter of question decides to boycott touring Pakistan, nothing specially needs to be said about Pakistan specially. The only team that bravely decided to continue to tour Pakistan was Sri Lanka.

But, that gave answers to all the questions posed by the five teams mentioned above. At that time, even Sri Lanka was not a safe country to head. But, no team ever decided against touring the island. Despite the ICC dropping Pakistan as one of the hosts for the upcoming world cup in 2011, Sri Lanka's bravery to tour the nation needs to be appreciated whatsoever. At last, Pakistan themselves had to boycott their own nation and go to England and play their home series against Australia and England. The situation in Zimbabwe was hardly any different from that in Pakistan.

With the political turmoil in that African country, that was also a country where touring had to be given another thought. Still, there was no hesitation from teams like Kenya and Afghanistan who went on with plans to tour the nation for the intercontinental cup. Now, the latest we hear is that Ireland has decided to go ahead with its tour to Zimbabwe neglecting all fears of the political instability there. One has to recall England boycotting their pool match against Zimbabwe in the 2003 world cup owing to the same reasons. Now, if at all Ireland and Scotland have decided to tour Zimbabwe, then Pakistan will have to do something with the situation in their country.

England on a roll

I was just thinking about Sri Lanka having a chance this time with their other two counterparts namely Pakistan and India having their share in 2009 and 2007 respectively. But, Sri Lanka spoiled all my hopes by getting defeated effortlessly to England. It was as though Sri Lanka were battling an ordinary league stage match when they piled up just 128 runs on the board. There should have been a tough fight between the teams in the semi-finals of a world cup needless to be said. All I would like to say after seeing this match is stay at home moms.

Hardly anyone would have expected to enter the finals of a world cup tournament. England did this after a span of 6 years when they were last seen making it to the finals of a world cup tournament in the ICC champions trophy 2004 after beating Australia in the semis. Once again, Sanath Jayasuriya was not only included in the playing XI but was also seen disappointing his fans. One has to wonder what sort of pressure is there on the Sri Lanka cricket board to not only include Jayasuriya but also feature him in the playing eleven. May be the selectors have gone sick.

I wish Sri Lanka has to learn from the BCCI who have not included Sachin Tendulkar in T20 matches despite him being fit and form before including an unfit batsman. The only notable score from the Sri Lankan batting chart was Angelo Mathews who scored a brilliant 58. He was the only batsman who could manage to hi a six as well. One need not give hats-off to Mathews for his work, because, Mathews or Sri Lanka were not under any sort of pressure whatsoever. Sri Lanka had already accepted defeat with both hands when winning was totally out of question.

Selfishness can be evident from the way the Sri Lankan batsmen played when neither did they go for big ones nor did they lose their wicket instead continued to play at a snail's pace in a format which expects quickfire knocks. The England bowlers never had any sorts of trouble with such a batting approach and stuck to a 5 bowler formula. One can see Sanath Jayasuriya getting belted for 15 runs of his lone over from the scorecard. Else, the top three batsmen from England sealed it for them and all that the Sri Lankans could do was to congratulate them for winning the game.

A series of surprises

If the ongoing world T20 tournament is given a close look at, one can sense that since the qualifying round, all groups have similar run-ups. The was a team in each of the four groups which had won both games in the pool stages namely India, Australia and New Zealand with England missing out. England have reached the semi-finals without a win in their league stages. However, England managed to win all the three matches in the super-eights stage when they were termed as the first team to head back home. Another team to surprise was India but this time it is for the wrong reasons.

India lost all three games in the super eights of the tournament unlike England and Australia who won all three games. England beat Pakistan, New Zealand and South Africa while Australia needless to be said beat India, Sri Lanka and West Indies. However, the remaining two teams that would make it to the semis was in a toss in both the groups. In one group, Pakistan lost both their games to England (obviously) and New Zealand while on the other hand, South Africa lost their game against England and had a last chance with the game against Pakistan yet to go.

Luckily, Pakistan could make that one count with New Zealand losing to England on the same day, hours after Pakistan registered a win over South Africa. So, Pakistan will be reaching the semis with just one win in the super-eights. On the other hand, Sri Lanka should consider themselves lucky to be in the semis with India failing to put up a better game plan in their must win match against Sri Lanka. At the same time, Sri Lanka were are found wasting a space in their playing XI by having Jayasuriya playing especially at number 6 when the batsman has been opening the innings for decades altogether.

This has happened for the first time in a T20 world cup that a team makes it to the semi-finals after winning just one game in the super-eights. Meanwhile, predicting the finalists could be partially with Australia and England being more of a probability. However, Pakistan are a more decent team compared to Sri Lanka and it would come in as no surprise in case Pakistan beat Australia. And on the other hand, Sri Lanka can tackle England with their spin bowling. But, it doesn't look like England are in for any compromise looking at the way they have handled teams in this tournament. Check out if this is ur best blog.

Indians drop the game

There is nothing left to say about India's chances at least in this edition of the world T20 where India lost their third and final match against Sri Lanka yesterday at Gros Islet by 3 wickets. India should have taken this match seriously for, a huge win in this match would have seen them sail over to the semi-finals of the world cup with West Indies later that day losing to Australia by 6 wickets. With this, India have lost all three matches in a world T20 for the second time in a row. One has to pity their fans back home.

However, the match was a must win game for Sri Lanka as well with them losing to Australia and having a win against the West Indies. They would have still made it to the semis in case they had lost by a small margin. But, a victory would stop all tongues that say Sri Lanka gained their entry ino the semi-finals on the cost of India and West Indies which would have let their heads low. India did take thir game against Sri Lanka seriously when all batsmen barring Yuvraj Singh contributed to the score of 163 which was a decent score on the board.

There have been cases where a total of 163 have been defended successfully. For a change, Sanath Jayasuriya was made to open the innings and much to everyone's surprise; all he was able to do was to get out on a duck. Scorecard suggests that the Indians have not learnt from the past when they just stuck to their four bowler theory when 4 bowlers bowled their quota and Yousuf Pathan was given to bowl three overs. Yuvraj Singh could have bowled another over or two when he was the successful bowler giving away just 6.00 runs from his lone over.

On the other hand, Sri Lankan captain used 7 of his bowlers which saw a little drop in runs being scored. One interesting fact is that the Indian bowlers never bowled an extra delivery. Coming to the Sri Lankan batting, if not for their openers, all the batsmen from Sri Lanka who made it to the crease scored a contributing and promising knocks. However, one cannot figure out why Mathews was given the MoM award when Sangakkara scored equal number of runs at a better strike rate. Kapugedra score a quickfire 37 who would have justified the award being given to him.

Poor Sri Lanka

One has to regret the fact that rain spoiled Sri Lanka's chances yesterday at Providence when they would have simply wiped out Zimbabwe from the tournament had the D-L method not come to their rescue. No doubt that Sri Lanka did win that encounter against Zimbabwe but, the introduction of the D-L method made matters worse by denying the viewers a chance to watch out for the bowling of Muralitharan and co. Scorecard suggests that even the Sri Lankan batsmen didn't have an easy going when only Jayawardane 's score of 100 spoke. There were only two other batsmen who scored more than 10 runs.

The second best score in the Sri Lankan innings was Thisara Perera's 23 and the other batsman who could cross the double figure mark was the number 7 batsman Kapugedra who scored 13. There is no doubt over Sri Lanka winning the match whether rain interrupted the game or not. But, looking at the performance of the Sri Lankan batsmen, that should certainly worry them with big games to come in the next week. One cannot find the reason for Jayasuriya making it to the playing XI at number 6. It was just a waste of space having Jayasuriya in at number 6.

Speaking about the bowling or batting of Zimbabwe team would be another waste of time needless to be said. However, a quick glance suggests that the bowling of the Zimbabwean team was pretty decent with runs equally given by all bowlers with Chigumbura being the top run donor when he gave away runs at 10.50 runs an over. The rest of the bowlers maintained almost the same run rate. But the real enemy of the game was rain which almost threatened to abandon the game. Had the match sailed on smoothly, the margin of victory would have been more than 14 runs.

There is nothing much to write about the batting of Zimbabwe otherwise as well and this time the batting has been swallowed by rain forcing the match to be declared to Sri Lanka. However, one thing that was obvious from the match was that the man of the match could have been none other than Mahela Jayawardane who scored a hundred. That was the only highlight of the Sri Lankan innings with no other batsman from Sri Lanka making it count. One thing that needs to be reconsidered for Sri Lanka is their batting and the second one is the inclusion of Sanath Jayasuriya.

Unbelievable from New Zealand

Well it was unbelievable for New Zealand to beat Sri Lanka first of all for being the underdogs prior to going into the match and secondly for losing quick wickets with time and overs following suit and thirdly with spinners like Muralitharan and Jayasuriya haunting their team like devils. But, in the end New Zealand had a last gasp for victory when they eventually won the game by 2 wickets with one ball to spare. New Zealand have always been losing to Sri Lanka in all three formats of the game. Since 2007, New Zealand have lost to Sri Lanka in T20 world cups.

This time, it was not Jayasuriya who did the damage either with the bat or with the ball. For a change, one can see Jayasuriya taking to the crease in the 7^th position after the sixth wicket fell. May be that was the reason why Sri Lanka had to end their innings with such a small total on the board. With someone like Jayasuriya on the top, either there would be a wicket fallen or else there would be a steady rise in the scoreboard with Jayasuriya smashing every bowlers at will. Yesterday, Jayasuriya never got to face the ball with the 6^th wicket falling in the 120^th legal delivery.

Main batsmen like Sangakkara, Chandimal and Dilshan failed with the bat leaving Jayawardene with the tough task which he accomplished well. Jayawardene was at the crease with the top three wickets of top batsmen falling at a wrong time. Whatever, the batting of Sri Lankan team was a complete failure. One can see the devastating spell of Shane Bond who scalped two important wickets of Kapugedra and Mathews in back to back deliveries failing which the Sri Lankan score would have well passed 150. On the other hand, Shane Bond was the most successful bowler in terms of runs given.

Likewise, New Zealand's run chase didn't start on a high when they lost their first wicket of Brendon McCullum even before the scoreboard had something on it. Similar to Jayawardene, Jesse Ryder held his nerve in staying on the crease despite wickets falling from the other end. Ryder was the second one to go and there followed a series of wickets falling with hardly any individual scores making news. It was Nathan McCullum's quickfire 16 which sealed the game for the Kiwis. But, the man of the match should have been either Jayawardene or Jesse Ryder. McCullum's efforts can hardly be seen.

Wht is Sri Lanka so fond of India?

Well news on cricinfo reveals that Sri Lanka is planning to host India for test series involving three matches following the same with a one day triangular series that involves New Zealand as the third team. The feat is likely to take place somewhere in the month of July-August. It has been less that a month after the two and a half month long tournament involving India and Sri Lanka is over. It was on 24^th of December last year that the fifth one dayer at Firoz Shah Kotla was abandoned with just 23 overs bowled. That was followed by a tri series involving Sri Lanka, India and Bangladesh.

That was the third series, be it bilateral or a triangular series, that involved India and Sri Lanka. There was a bilateral series between India and Sri Lanka in the early 2009s that needless to be said India won 4-1. And in the month of September, there was the Compaq cup that featured New Zealand, Sri Lanka and India once again. One has to think as to why does Sri Lanka always opt for India. It has been almost two years since Sri Lanka has played a full fledged series (that involved test, one day and T20 matches) against Austrlia. Sri Lanka last played a full fledged series against Australia somewhere in 2008 that involved 2 tests followed by the Commonwealth Bank series that too involving India as the third team.

Sri Lanka could have hosted any one of the 7 other teams leaving India and Australia (as mentioned above). One possibility of Sri Lanka inviting India to play the series mentioned above would be that no other team in the world has any time left to consider Sri Lanka's request to tour their nation. But, ICC's schedules for 2010 suggests that during the month of July-August, New Zealand- which Sri Lanka plans to host for the tri series as mentioned, is free of any international commitments. Moreover, there is an Asia cup to be scheduled in the same period that obviously features India & Sri Lanka, the venue yet to be decided.

Recently, news made that India and Sri Lanka, have played 122 matches between each other which is the highest number of matches between any two teams, beating the previous record that was held between Australia and West Indies who have played 120 matches involving each other. So, it looks like Sri Lanka fears that this record might be overtaken by Australia and West Indies who are scheduled to play a 5 match ODI bilateral series next month in Australia. And as far as India is concerned, a nod by them should not be a surprise because, India have always been record hunters.