June 9, 2009
Mendis drowns OZ
It is a feeling of deja vu with memories of 92 World Cup coming back to haunt to Australia as they are out of a major ICC event, in the very first round mind you, for the first time in 15 years barring their loss to INDIA in the inaugural Champions Trophy which was a knockout tournament by the way. But now coming back to yesterday’s match which went to the last over, a farcry from their thrashing at the hands of the Windies just last weekend, thanks mainly to Australia’s wagging tail & incredible slogging by Mitchell Johnson & later by Brett Lee giving them a respectable total of 159 for 9.
The day started off brilliantly for Sri Lanka as Angelo Mathews struck in his very first over getting rid of the dangerous David Warner. Australia’s top scorer of last match not was able to replicate his earlier success in the tournament & instead getting out on a duck with Tillakaratne Dilshan taking a simple catch at point. An over which was a precursor of things to come & the radical changes that Sri Lanka put in against Australia which the latter was simply not prepared for. Kumara Sangakkara in his very first match as captain was to excel with his batting being the cornerstone of Sri Lanka’s innings during their successful pursuit of 160 at the end of the day. Sri Lanka knowing the importance of slow bowlers, having witnessed their stranglehold over batsman in the earlier matches, left the likes of Nuwan Kulasekara & Farveez Maharoof in the process as was evident with Sanath Jayasuriya coming on to bowl the second over of the match.
Lasith Malinga, their premier fast bowler, came on to bowl only as a second change after which Ajantha Mendis was introduced in the powerplay. After getting a single run of the very first over Ponting & Watson took the attack to the opposition smashing debutant Udana & Malinga for 15 runs in each of the fourth & the fifth over respectively. Enter Mendis, who got rid of Ponting as he tried to smash him losing his leg stump in the process. This started a period of 10 overs in which Australia lost 5 top order wickets adding just 47 runs. Mendis picked up Watson in his next over as he tried to sweep him but fell leg before wicket on 22. Mendis took care of the top order with Mike Hussey was trapped lbw before Johnson took over his possible role as an allrounder remaining unbeaten in the end.
Some might say that Sangakkara was the man of the match but Mendis was the X-factor in the match which went Sri Lanka’s way.
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