Sri Lankan skipper Mahela Jayawardene’s last night impeccable innings of pure class and rare inning, when it was most needed as we claimed the rightful place in the final of the 2007 World Cup, second time in the history of the big game. Opening batsman Tharanga played his part, as did Murali, who picked up 4 wickets and spun Kiwis out for only 208, who have reached the semifinals five times and never moved ahead.
I still can remember Mahela’s miserable (previous) ‘03 world Cup, which failed to reach double figures in the tournament, everyone was furious about his contribution. After four years, he bounced back and led the country with utmost confident to the final with a carefully crafted inning. (Reminds me Aravinds’s ‘96 semi final inning when team was in trouble) Mahela cool headedly absorbed pressure and made his unbeaten maiden century (equaled the highest world cup semi final score ever – Gooch’s 115 against India in ‘87) with such perfection. It was an unforgettable world cup inning played under preasure. At the lunch break, Nick Night was asked by David Gover (in Sky Sports) regarding SL 289 score and his response was “Plenty” – I looked at the statistics after the match and realized it was the second highest score in a World Cup semifinal.
Tharanga gave a confident answer to selectors with his 73 of 74 balls. Arguably Marven is (was) a better batsman than Upul but didn’t play a single game in the tournament. Surely it wasn’t the right time to gamble and Tharanga deserves an opportunity in the big game to prove his potential. Splendid Murali did the miracle again; Kiwis couldn’t read him at all. Kiwis needed a sound start and a magnificent spell from enigmatic Malinga ensured they did not get one. Flemming decided to step down from his captaincy after he played the wrong line to Malinga’s sling swinger which came back in to the left hander.
Sri Lankan teams target was to reach Semis and work forward from there. Now we are in big finals, what’s next? At the time of writing, Ausies have dismissed South Africa for just 149 and batting for a quick finish. Nevertheless pumped up Sri Lankan team is ready to surprise any team with greater confidence. Our team is a well balanced with rare talent to overpower strong teams. Hopefully selectors will address “Dilhara” issue; perhaps Maharoof might get the game of his life. As Mahela said at the press conference “though Sanath missed out here but hopefully he can get a big one in the final.” If not still we have many players to make bigies.
Off you go Lions – Bring back that pride again. It means a lot for our Cricket.
