Posted:
The world's most elegant right hand batsman:
https://sify.com/khel/wc_fullstory.php?id=14432473
By Gawaskar
The moment the Sri Lankans announced that they were resting Chaminda Vaas and Muthiah Muralitharan from the Super 8 game against Australia, the fizz went out of a much awaited game.
The Lankans may well have wanted to rest their star bowlers because there won't be too many matches after this that they can play without their best bowlers. Malinga too was not included as he is recovering from an ankle injury, and it's clear that the Lankans are not taking Ireland lightly and want their full-strength attack against the newcomers. What the absence of Vaas, Murali and Malinga meant was that Sri Lanka had to score near 300 to give their second-sting attack some chance of containing the powerful Australian batting line-up. That didn't happen, as Bracken, who has taken the responsibility of bowling first for Australia as easily as a duck takes to water, got rid of both the dangerous opening batsmen, Tharanga and Jayasuriya.It is obvious that Tharanga has to tighten his technique against the moving bouncing ball, for he keeps poking at it around and outside the off stump and gets caught in the slips. With Jayasuriya and Sangakkara also falling quickly, the Lankans had to first repair the hole in their innings, which they did through a magnificent partnership between Jayawardene and Chamara Silva.
Both are superb stroke-players and runners between the wickets. Jayawardene has to be the most elegant right-hand batsman in the world, and the pulled six off Tait was the stand-out shot of his innings. Chamara Silva got his fourth World Cup half century, and considering that this is his first World Cup, it tells you how good a player he must be. Unfortunately for Lanka, both got out in consecutive overs from Brad Hogg and that meant that Lanka lost the momentum the pair had generated. The tail wagged merrily to get Sri Lanka past the 200-mark. For Australia, the revelation has been Hogg, who has added tremendous variety to the attack with his chinaman mixed with a well-disguised googly, which was evident when he foxed the well-set Jayawardene and had him smartly stumped by Adam Gilchrist. The nervousness in the Sri Lankan second-string attack was seen in the first over by Dilhara Fernando, which had wides and no balls and the Australians were quick to seize on that. Their start was electric, and though Gilchrist and Hayden both didn't go on to get 50, they had given their team just the start they wanted. Ponting and Symonds made up for them by getting classy half centuries, but more than that, showed how powerful their batting line-up is, with the likes of Hussey and Hodge having hardly had to bat so far. The Aussies have pretty much assured themselves of the number one slot after the Super 8, unless their Tran-Tasman neighbours New Zealand upset them, in what will be the last match of the Super 8 for both sides. It may well be the 'final' before the finals.
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