Blink and it's gone
So, Pakistan prevailed in the second world T20 which evens up the local tally and must give some genuine encouragement for the PCB despite the lack of home international matches.
Pakistan won the ICC World Twenty20 in an exciting finish at a noisy Lord's when Sri Lanka's total of 138-6 was overhauled with eight balls remaining. Shahid Afridi, man of the match in the semi-final, was again the hero, hitting 54 not out from 40 balls to steer Pakistan to an eight-wicket win.
Having chosen to bat, Sri Lanka lost star batsman Tillakaratne Dilshan in the first over and were soon 2-2. Kumar Sangakkara's 64 gave them hope but Pakistan paced their chase well.
Sri Lanka had progressed through the tournament smoothly, winning all their matches and relying on the brilliant batting of Dilshan and some superb bowling led by Ajantha Mendis.
But on the grand stage, both their leading players fluffed their lines, and Pakistan ruthlessly seized the initiative.
Pakistan had lost two of their first three matches and needed a win against the Netherlands just to make the last eight. But they turned a corner when thrashing New Zealand - from which point they never looked back.
They began the final in ideal fashion, with a wicket-maiden from 17-year-old sensation Mohammad Aamer.
It wasn't just any wicket-maiden - a rare event indeed in this format. The fact that the tournament's leading run-scorer Dilshan had been dismissed made Aamer's over extra special.
Dlishan craves deliveries on a good length so he can sweep and drive, but keeping the ball short and straight, Aamer bowled four dot-balls then enticed a top-edged pull to short fine-leg.
Pakistan began superbly with the ball at Lord's, and kept it going
The wicket seemed to scare Sri Lanka's other batsmen, who had not enjoyed particularly good tournaments, and it was the fast-medium bowler Abdul Razzaq who reaped the rewards.
Jehan Mubarak, promoted up the order, skied a catch into the off-side, Sanath Jayasuriya crashed a six and two fours but then dragged one on, before Mahela Jayawardene edged an attempted late-cut to slip.
Sangakkara and Chamara Silva had a major repair operation on their hands, coming together with the score 32-4 in 5.3 overs. They put on 35 from 36 balls which at least stopped the rot, but the arrival of Umar Gul dented Sri Lanka's renaissance.
Silva mistimed a pull to midwicket and Isuru Udana swished and missed the last two balls of a fine over. It got even better for Pakistan when Afridi bowled Udana to leave the score 70-6 from 13 overs.
Finally, some positive running between the wickets from Sangakkara and Angelo Mathews saw nine runs come off a Saeed Ajmal over and then Gul, so brilliant in Pakistan's last three victories, suddenly lost his length and was hammered for 14 in an over.
Mathews played his part too, clubbing a couple of boundaries on the on-side before tucking into the final over, bowled by Aamer.
The decision to give the teenager the final over looked a questionable one, and with Mathews flaying a boundary through the slips and muscling a six through the on-side 17 more precious runs came Sri Lanka's way.
Pakistan's chase was given impetus by Kamran Akmal, who hit big leg-side sixes off both Mendis and Mathews to take his team to a very respectable 48-0 from seven overs.
Jayasuriya, Sri Lanka's sixth bowler, then immediately had Akmal stumped, but the other opener Shahzaib Hasan, who had been so quiet, drilled consecutive boundaries off Mendis, the mystery spinner who Pakistan were playing so well.
When he fell to Muttiah Muralitharan, the required rate hit eight an over, but Pakistan still had eight wickets in hand and just 64 more runs were required.
Afridi, who had had time to play himself in, now hit Muralitharan into the Tavern Stand and then launched him over wide mid-off for four.
That made Pakistan hot favourites, but just 16 runs came off the next three overs, so 26 were still wanted from 18 balls. But Afridi, with Shoaib Malik playing a quiet role in support, now smashed Udana for six over midwicket and pulled him past fine-leg for four more, leaving an easy seven runs needed from the last two overs.
Jardine's Verdict: A deserved win for Pakistan and hopefully the first step for them back to complete international acceptance.
Showing posts with label Sri Lanka. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sri Lanka. Show all posts
Tuesday, 23 June 2009
Tuesday, 9 June 2009
Ooops - No. 2
The Aussies are out of the 20/20 World Cup
BBC Reports...
Kumar Sangakkara and Tillakaratne Dilshan hit brilliant half-centuries as Sri Lanka dumped Australia out of the ICC World Twenty20 at Trent Bridge.
Sri Lanka put the Aussies in, and only some determined batting from their tailenders got them up to 159-9.
Spinner Ajantha Mendis tied most of the Aussies in knots, taking 3-20.
And a wide from the first ball of the final over, bowled by Mitchell Johnson, condemned Australia to their second heavy defeat in this tournament.
Having been blown away by Chris Gayle at The Oval, the move up the M1 to Nottingham brought no less misery for Ricky Ponting's men.
His team now have two empty weeks in Leicester before moving down to Sussex for their first tour match before the Ashes.
Afterwards Ponting told BBC Sport: "If you're a little bit off in this game, you pay for it. "Now we have to move on as quickly as possible and focus on the Ashes."
Australia had their moments in this match, but their specialist batting and their seam bowling was again a major let-down, and that is bound to concern Ponting.
During the early exchanges, Shane Watson hit debutant Isuru Udana for two fours and a six, then Ricky Ponting took advantage of a wayward opening over from Lasith Malinga, taking him for three fours.
That left Australia in good shape at 47-1 from just five overs. But they scored at just half that pace over the following 10 overs while losing five more wickets.
Sangakkara kept shuffling his bowlers around, but it was Mendis who did most of the damage.
Ponting was bowled as he backed away to leg, Watson was lbw on the sweep and David Hussey also fell lbw as Mendis's unusual spin-bowling wreaked havoc.
But Australia were then helped by two big overs. Johnson climbed into Muttiah Muralitharan's final set of six, hitting him for two sixes and a four.
Udana's final over included the wicket of David Hussey, but it also cost 18 - including a four and a six off the bat of Brett Lee.
And although two more wickets fell in the final over, bowled by Malinga, Australia's tailenders somehow scrambled 12 more runs off it with two lucky deflections for four.
So despite being in terrible trouble at 94-6 after 15 overs, a haul of 65 runs from the last five had hauled them back into the contest at the halfway stage.
Johnson ended up with 28 not out off just 13 balls, a contribution that gave him and his fellow bowlers a bit of momentum as Sri Lanka's chase started.
However, Sri Lanka's batsman took the initiative back again, despite losing Sanath Jayasuriya to a fine David Warner catch at deep square-leg.
Dilshan (53) was in a hurry, cutting, pulling and driving the seamers - almost at will - and Sangakkara.
He gave Watson plenty of grief, but was finally undone by Clarke's first delivery, which turned and trimmed his bails.
That left Mahela Jayawardene to continue the fight with Sangakkara (55 not out), but the pair were made to work for their singles as they dealt with Clarke and the other spinner Nathan Hauritz.
Just as had happened with Australia's innings, the runs dried up alarmingly, and from having needed barely seven an over the required rate went up to nine, with the out-of-sorts Jayawardene holing out off Hauritz into the bargain.
That was the cue for Sangakkara to hoist Hauritz for two effortless sixes, one swept the other driven straight, as though to demonstrate he had been toying with the Sri Lankan fans all along.
He remained coolness personified, sweeping Nathan Bracken past the short fine-leg for four more to reach his fifty.
Jehan Mubarak's six in the penultimate over off Lee - who again proved so expensive - eased the tension completely.
And it was a tame way for Australia to go out of the tournament when Johnson slid one down the leg-side.
A delighted Sangakkara said: "It was a great performance. When you play against Australia the key is to believe you can win.
"Our strength has always been spin bowling and we played two guys whom the Australians haven't seen much of. So their batsmen couldn't really target one single bowler."
Jardine's Verdict: Whilst there but for the grace of God and all that, it is still bloody funny!
BBC Reports...
Kumar Sangakkara and Tillakaratne Dilshan hit brilliant half-centuries as Sri Lanka dumped Australia out of the ICC World Twenty20 at Trent Bridge.
Sri Lanka put the Aussies in, and only some determined batting from their tailenders got them up to 159-9.
Spinner Ajantha Mendis tied most of the Aussies in knots, taking 3-20.
And a wide from the first ball of the final over, bowled by Mitchell Johnson, condemned Australia to their second heavy defeat in this tournament.
Having been blown away by Chris Gayle at The Oval, the move up the M1 to Nottingham brought no less misery for Ricky Ponting's men.
His team now have two empty weeks in Leicester before moving down to Sussex for their first tour match before the Ashes.
Afterwards Ponting told BBC Sport: "If you're a little bit off in this game, you pay for it. "Now we have to move on as quickly as possible and focus on the Ashes."
Australia had their moments in this match, but their specialist batting and their seam bowling was again a major let-down, and that is bound to concern Ponting.
During the early exchanges, Shane Watson hit debutant Isuru Udana for two fours and a six, then Ricky Ponting took advantage of a wayward opening over from Lasith Malinga, taking him for three fours.
That left Australia in good shape at 47-1 from just five overs. But they scored at just half that pace over the following 10 overs while losing five more wickets.
Sangakkara kept shuffling his bowlers around, but it was Mendis who did most of the damage.
Ponting was bowled as he backed away to leg, Watson was lbw on the sweep and David Hussey also fell lbw as Mendis's unusual spin-bowling wreaked havoc.
But Australia were then helped by two big overs. Johnson climbed into Muttiah Muralitharan's final set of six, hitting him for two sixes and a four.
Udana's final over included the wicket of David Hussey, but it also cost 18 - including a four and a six off the bat of Brett Lee.
And although two more wickets fell in the final over, bowled by Malinga, Australia's tailenders somehow scrambled 12 more runs off it with two lucky deflections for four.
So despite being in terrible trouble at 94-6 after 15 overs, a haul of 65 runs from the last five had hauled them back into the contest at the halfway stage.
Johnson ended up with 28 not out off just 13 balls, a contribution that gave him and his fellow bowlers a bit of momentum as Sri Lanka's chase started.
However, Sri Lanka's batsman took the initiative back again, despite losing Sanath Jayasuriya to a fine David Warner catch at deep square-leg.
Dilshan (53) was in a hurry, cutting, pulling and driving the seamers - almost at will - and Sangakkara.
He gave Watson plenty of grief, but was finally undone by Clarke's first delivery, which turned and trimmed his bails.
That left Mahela Jayawardene to continue the fight with Sangakkara (55 not out), but the pair were made to work for their singles as they dealt with Clarke and the other spinner Nathan Hauritz.
Just as had happened with Australia's innings, the runs dried up alarmingly, and from having needed barely seven an over the required rate went up to nine, with the out-of-sorts Jayawardene holing out off Hauritz into the bargain.
That was the cue for Sangakkara to hoist Hauritz for two effortless sixes, one swept the other driven straight, as though to demonstrate he had been toying with the Sri Lankan fans all along.
He remained coolness personified, sweeping Nathan Bracken past the short fine-leg for four more to reach his fifty.
Jehan Mubarak's six in the penultimate over off Lee - who again proved so expensive - eased the tension completely.
And it was a tame way for Australia to go out of the tournament when Johnson slid one down the leg-side.
A delighted Sangakkara said: "It was a great performance. When you play against Australia the key is to believe you can win.
"Our strength has always been spin bowling and we played two guys whom the Australians haven't seen much of. So their batsmen couldn't really target one single bowler."
Jardine's Verdict: Whilst there but for the grace of God and all that, it is still bloody funny!
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