2 minute read In Cricinfo’s preview, it is suggested that England might target Ajantha Mendis. That is the best plan going: England batsmen targeting a weird spin bowler – England’s batsmen being famously good against weird spin bowlers. But it’s that or try and hit Lasith Malinga for six, so attacking Mendis it
Continue readingCategory: Sri Lanka
Meanwhile in cricket…
< 1 minute read It’s a week in which teams have been relying on their big name, 30-something batsmen. This isn’t a coincidence. That’s just the way Test cricket works. Kumar Sangakkara has indulged in some average bolsteration by hitting 424 runs in the second Test against Bangladesh. For their part, Bangladesh managed two
Continue readingSo, that Pakistan win, eh?
< 1 minute read Okay, let’s do this. Let’s write a 200-word article in which we somehow find a new way of emphasising how wonderful the third Test match between Pakistan and Sri Lanka was for readers who already know precisely how wonderful it was and who probably followed the match much more closely
Continue readingIndia are better than Sri Lanka
< 1 minute read And by some margin. Even India’s bowling’s doing the job at the minute. They usually win one-dayers despite holding some sort of festival of pie-chucking when they’re in the field, so now they’re all but unbeatable. As for the batting, Rohit Sharma’s become unexpectedly efficient, while Shikhar Dhawan and his
Continue readingIndia v Sri Lanka is underway
< 1 minute read Remember Ajantha Mendis? That’s kind of died down a bit, hasn’t it? He isn’t even in the Sri Lanka squad. There seems to be an assumption that India will win the second semi-final. They’ve been playing very well and they look the stronger team with a greater number of high
Continue readingSri Lanka are better than Australia
< 1 minute read It’s funny how you can rely on the guys who’ve played 300-and-odd one-day internationals in these major tournaments. And by ‘funny’ we of course mean ‘predictable’. Mahela Jayawardene has played so many one-dayers that his average (33.40) is meaningless. What you actually need to do is split his career into
Continue readingSri Lanka are better than England
< 1 minute read That Kumar Sangakkara, eh? He can bat. There’s a decent chance he’s set things up for the perfect England home tournament exit as well where they are ejected after one loss and a bit of rain without having done too much wrong. It’s the way it should be: incomplete and
Continue readingNew Zealand are better than Sri Lanka
< 1 minute read But not by a huge amount. Chasing 139 to win, you’d hope to get there without losing nine wickets. Then again, they didn’t lose ten, so what’s the problem? A really bad run chase is a wonderful thing. A big run chase is faintly absorbing, but for real tension you
Continue readingSri Lanka’s new ball attack
< 1 minute read Australians aren’t always particularly polite about the standard of the opposition. In a way, this is okay, because they’re equally happy to wheel out brutal opinions about their own team when they don’t do well. On the other hand, it does mean that the rest of us can portray dismissive
Continue readingMarlon Samuels v Lasith Malinga
2 minute read We’ll be honest. Sri Lanka were steady-for-one when we got in the shower. We thought we’d timed it well. We hadn’t. The World Twenty20 final was an odd one. Sri Lankan run-scoring was stymied and they appeared to be waiting for a particular bowler to hit. He never turned up,
Continue reading