Zimbabwe Botches Up. SL Prevail.

Zimbabwe botched it up to kick Lanka out of the tournament. What were they thinking. 43 off 5 was not a huge target. They must be kicking themselves up. They would have saved us further torture having to see Sangakara blabber. Were they  playing a ODI in 5 overs ?

Or they had a myopic vision failing to see the hovering cloud cover ?

All is still not yet lost for them mathematically but they’d certainly rue that they botched up a guhe chance to kick Lankans out of the tournament.

All the more pitiful to see Jayasurya coming at 7 and holding onto what he does the best. Any day he is a better batsman than Kapudegra, Mathews, Silvermal and Sangakara, but the ego makes him come at 7. He should feel he’s had enough of Sanga and call it quits. And Mahela scored a 100. IPL form continues.

World T20 : Day One

Two games. NZ vs SL and WI  vs Ireland.

WI won the game as expected and look good to go super 8s. Ireland now face elimination and must now  expect England to lose both its games, far fetched thought that is.

In the opening game Sangakara was a changed man. He had grown a moustache. He was speaking with lot of mannerisms at the toss. Nothing different that he spoke, but the facial movements he made and the way he spoke was unique.  IPL Nights effect may be.

He chose to open with Mahela and Dilshan. Dilshan was scratchy in IPL. Bishop told us. We also saw. Sangakara did not. He was busy fighting with Yuvraj and trying to get close to his owner (IPL) in IPL. So Dilshan scratched around for 19 balls scoring 3. And then he got out.

Sangakara came and he scratched around. He got out too.

Mahela continued his good form. He made 81 in SL’s total of 6/135.   Chandimal, the SL cousin of Dinesh Karthik made 29, Angelo Matthews made 3, Kapugedra made 11, Sanga made 4 off 11.  Jaya did not get a ball to face.

Cheap treatment. He has opened for 14 years or even more in ODIs, Tests and T20s. Needless for me to say his record while doing that. have a look at Dilshan. He is opening for 14 months may be ? He’s been failure at top spot this year. For ego or some unknown reasons Sangakara is keeping Jaya off the opening spot.  And that would lead to a downfall soon. His captaincy skills are at display. His results are at display.

They must now win against Zim who are on fire after beating Pakistan and Australia in warmups. If they lose really they go home. End of captaincy for Sangakara may be.

NZ won a tense game and that would be a morale booster for them.

Timeless Tendulkar ensures 2nd win for MI

Sachin’s masterclass ensured that the Mumbai Indians beat Delhi by whopping 98 runs….

He was awesome and treated everybody with disdain, though Mishra had last laugh he was taken apart….For Delhi the start was never on with Dilshan opening and Gambhir injured.  The side kept on losing wickets regularly and with Sehwag back in the hut quickly it was never going to be easy for the overhyped Karthik and others to go out and try for a win.

The worrying aspect for Team India (nobody is thinking on that line yet) is 3 of its players are now injured including the captain, Gambhir and Harbhajan. The list is only supposed to grow further.

MI have begun well and for them to go ahead in the tourney the man himself would need to play big.

14 years back Sachin had scored a 137 on Kotla in a world cup game against Lanka only to be overwhelmed by Kalu and Jayasurya. Yesterday Jayasurya fell early but Tendulkar kept on going.  Timeless Tendulkar.

3 Idiots and Sri Lanka

Today Sri Lanka would beat Bangladesh and Sangakara would sing “All izzz well”.

And when Jayasurya would retire after the axe, Murali would sing “Behti hawa sa tha wo, kaha gaya use dhoondo”.

Sangakara’s honeymoon as captain was all but over. It took him so long before he could garble on the pitch fiasco in Kotla.

Jayawardhena is being dropped or rested on the name of some injury he picked up in the ODI series.

He would be making up with his wife in the annals of the house singing another song from the 3 Idiots movie “Doobi Doobi “.

May be Sangakara needs to watch 3 Idiots and then say “All izzz bell”. What if Ian Bell comes listening this ? Somebody called me ? Sangakara would be puzzled and then would resort to his carpet clinging adjectives to pacify Bell that it was Aamir Khan who called him.

Who gets run out first ?

Two chances in 2 balls gone this time out for run out. No catches spilled  though.

Jaya and Dilshan competing with each other to get run out 😛

20 yrs of Sanath

Today a month later than Sach, his MI opening partner Sanath Jayasuriya completes 20 years in international cricket.

And thats an awesome achievement for the Matara Marauder.

First true star of Lankan cricket, he spent 6 years in wilderness till 1996 when he took the world by storm with his explosive innings.

True that I have hated him going after hapless Indian bowlers and overjoyed when he was dismissed, but that cant take away the credit and the accolades the man deserves.

He is one of the modern day ODI greats.  He changed the way openers batted in those 15 overs of ODI field restrictions. However thats incorrect. It was Tendulkar in 1994 who first used those conditions in his favor against Kiwis by hammering 82 off 49. And before him it was Mark GreatBatch in 1992 world cup who batted explosively.

Such a poor thing that Sangakara does not value Sanath’s importance. Poor creature, GOD make him well soon

Grab the series in Edens

Cricket returns to Eden Gardens in 3 years. Well ODIs return to Eden in 3 years. And cricket in 2 years. Oh international cricket. Last time a team played in Eden was Pakistan which almost managed to save the game.

Sachin and Jayasurya are the lone survivors of the 1996 World Cup semi final traumatic game in Eden Gardens and it would be apt for India tomorrow to win the series 3-1 to sooth the balm of that painful day.

Though this 2 things are irrelevant, yet India should beat the team which defeated us (actually no) back then.

Its been said that half of Eden would be closed for renovation, yet 50 k spectators would freak out the Sri Lankans who are used to band baja music back home in their stadia.

Grab the win guys.

Sanath

would bat at 6 or lower order in ODIs. Ridiculous. The way he has played in both T20s shows that he has firepower left in him.

And he is playing against his favorite opposition — Indians. 6 hundreds against them in ODIs. Something which cannot be discounted even if he is 40 and hasn’t been in prime form last few games or more.

Sangakara cannot get more dumb than this. He is losing out on the only chance that could see his team win the ODI series. What does he think that the new opening pair of (i don know who) will give his team good starts and then likes of Kapu or Kandamby besides the loser duo of himself and Blabba would do the job for his team ahead of Sanath?

Freak. Brain freeze for Sangakara.  Brain-checkup needed.

Reputations are being destroyed

……..and truly in this waterloo battlefield for Muttiah Muralitharan. The only way out for him is now to retire. An ageing or tired Murali is now a liability for the team and that reflects in his figures. 1 for 90. Well he could return tomorrow and wipe out the tail, but then it wont alter the notion thats being formed about him that Murali is a spent force and javelin throwing is now a thing of past.

Murali is no Sachin or Warne to be coming of age with growing up.

Or even Dravid.

He was dropped earlier in ODIs and if he continues bowling like this, the bugbear would drop him. And that would be a humiliation for the man who has served SL cricket for 17 years and is the sole famous Lankan on the earth.  He’d certainly not like to be humiliated like Sanath Jayasurya who now would bat at 6 like pre 1996 days.

Go in sunset with dignity Murali. Whatever be the views on your action, the world would still rememeber you as highest wicket taker in the world.

@BugBear : FYI&A.

Call it a day Jaya

He is 40. He has played 440 ODIs and scored 13300 runs. Latest news is that he has lost his opening slot for Upul Tharanga, whatta loser the captain of that team is.

Before the bug bear Sangakara further humiliates Sanath, he should gracefully retire than playing down the order. He’s got all what he wanted.

Time for him to quit gracefully. And yes any day Sanath is trillion times better than character man of Lankan team, the fake IPL player Mahela Loserwardhene.