We witnessed one hell of an encounter yesterday. It was a contest worth watching and as an Indian fan, perhaps just taking my hats off to the fantastic twosome of Mahela Jayawardene and Upul Chandana who took Sri Lanka home from a position of fragility would be the best thing to do.
Yes indeed, they've done it again. From a position of hopelessness to the finish line, this will surely go into the history books of Sri Lankan cricket as one of their more memorable games against India. Mahela Jayawardene is someone who I rate high. It is indeed disappointing to see that a bloke with the amount of talent that is in him, often fails to tap it the right way. Inconistency was a tag that Mahela always carried with him and an average of just above 30 does no justice to the quality of batsmanship the Lankan deputy-skipper possesses. This inning by Mahela will indeed go down as one of his best simply because Sri Lanka, were all but staring defeat at its face. And while I rave about Mahela, how can I forget the contribution of Upul Chandana, who played an able ally to Mahela. It is indeed interesting to recount another famous win that these two were involved in and if my memory serves me alright - it was against England in the Carlton and United series in Australia - 1998, where Mahela scored 120 and Upul chipped in with a handy 50 and guided Sri Lanka past an impossible target of 300. Hats off to these bold young men. Whether Sri Lanka won or lost was utterly irrelevant, but the amount of fight these blokes showed was indeed an inspiration by itself and with the result ending up positively, its more of a benchmark for other teams to lead up to. Well played guys !!
For one man though, this game was more than a 50 over-ODI. Yes folks, the person in question is indeed Saurav Ganguly, India's "former" captain. But things did go well for him and one did feel that the stint at Glamorgan was the right tonic Dada needed to buck himself up for this day. His knock was pretty hard-working, but having come from a position of not-so-strong mental and emotional balance, this knock of 51 must have meant a lot to him personally and to the context of his future. Yes indeed there was a moment of pride, achievement and satisfaction when he tapped Dilhara Fernando for a single on 32 and became the only third batsman in the history of LOI to reach the landmark of 10000 runs. But all that moment of glory came down crashing to ground as he was particularly targetted by the Lankan batters - Jayawardena and Chandana when given the rather tough job of a fifth bowler. So, all in all, a not-so-particularly great day with the ball but that fifty with the bat has changed his fortunes tremendously and one really hopes to see the true colours of Dada unfolding in the days and matches to come.
Its parting time folks...yes, the time has indeed come for the cricketing carnival to move out of the rather picturesque and serene central Buddhist city of Dambulla to a more hectic and lively Colombo. The rest of the three matches i.e. (India-WI, WI-SL and the Finals) will be played at the R Premadasa Stadium, which is located on the outskirts of the capital city. Dambulla's exotica will be indeed missed, but with the action moving westwards to the RPS (more of Sri Lanka's den), the matches could well be more exciting with runmaking and runchasing a lot easier than at Dambulla. The pitch at RPS has always been a batting paradise, and perhaps the transition the batsmen would have to make will be on the bounce factor. The ball is likely to come onto the bat easier than at Dambulla, which will soon end the honeymoon the bowlers were enjoying down there. Scores of over 270 can be expected with the wicket showing shades of those in use in India and Pakistan. One really hopes that these games do not end up being extremely one-sided and even though we will miss the humdingers of Dambulla, I personally wish that India's true batting colours comes to the fore here.
Yes indeed, they've done it again. From a position of hopelessness to the finish line, this will surely go into the history books of Sri Lankan cricket as one of their more memorable games against India. Mahela Jayawardene is someone who I rate high. It is indeed disappointing to see that a bloke with the amount of talent that is in him, often fails to tap it the right way. Inconistency was a tag that Mahela always carried with him and an average of just above 30 does no justice to the quality of batsmanship the Lankan deputy-skipper possesses. This inning by Mahela will indeed go down as one of his best simply because Sri Lanka, were all but staring defeat at its face. And while I rave about Mahela, how can I forget the contribution of Upul Chandana, who played an able ally to Mahela. It is indeed interesting to recount another famous win that these two were involved in and if my memory serves me alright - it was against England in the Carlton and United series in Australia - 1998, where Mahela scored 120 and Upul chipped in with a handy 50 and guided Sri Lanka past an impossible target of 300. Hats off to these bold young men. Whether Sri Lanka won or lost was utterly irrelevant, but the amount of fight these blokes showed was indeed an inspiration by itself and with the result ending up positively, its more of a benchmark for other teams to lead up to. Well played guys !!
For one man though, this game was more than a 50 over-ODI. Yes folks, the person in question is indeed Saurav Ganguly, India's "former" captain. But things did go well for him and one did feel that the stint at Glamorgan was the right tonic Dada needed to buck himself up for this day. His knock was pretty hard-working, but having come from a position of not-so-strong mental and emotional balance, this knock of 51 must have meant a lot to him personally and to the context of his future. Yes indeed there was a moment of pride, achievement and satisfaction when he tapped Dilhara Fernando for a single on 32 and became the only third batsman in the history of LOI to reach the landmark of 10000 runs. But all that moment of glory came down crashing to ground as he was particularly targetted by the Lankan batters - Jayawardena and Chandana when given the rather tough job of a fifth bowler. So, all in all, a not-so-particularly great day with the ball but that fifty with the bat has changed his fortunes tremendously and one really hopes to see the true colours of Dada unfolding in the days and matches to come.
Its parting time folks...yes, the time has indeed come for the cricketing carnival to move out of the rather picturesque and serene central Buddhist city of Dambulla to a more hectic and lively Colombo. The rest of the three matches i.e. (India-WI, WI-SL and the Finals) will be played at the R Premadasa Stadium, which is located on the outskirts of the capital city. Dambulla's exotica will be indeed missed, but with the action moving westwards to the RPS (more of Sri Lanka's den), the matches could well be more exciting with runmaking and runchasing a lot easier than at Dambulla. The pitch at RPS has always been a batting paradise, and perhaps the transition the batsmen would have to make will be on the bounce factor. The ball is likely to come onto the bat easier than at Dambulla, which will soon end the honeymoon the bowlers were enjoying down there. Scores of over 270 can be expected with the wicket showing shades of those in use in India and Pakistan. One really hopes that these games do not end up being extremely one-sided and even though we will miss the humdingers of Dambulla, I personally wish that India's true batting colours comes to the fore here.
