< 1 minute readLet’s close our eyes to England’s filthy performance and instead imagine we’re in Sri Lanka. The sun is shining, monkeys are rife, you’re having string hoppers for breakfast and Sri Lanka are playing India in Colombo. They’ll already have started by now and Ajantha Mendis should be playing. Unfortunately, Lasith
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Ajantha Mendis sorts everything out
< 1 minute readSanath Jayasuriya might have pummelled a trademark hundred, but Ajantha Mendis won Sri Lanka the Asia Cup. If you want to see some impressive bowling figures, read on: 6-13 off eight overs. Virender Sehwag had hit a 26-ball fifty when Mendis came on to bowl, so the young spinner basically
Continue readingThe carrom ball
< 1 minute readAjantha Mendis’s ‘carrom ball’ does look to be pretty much a new delivery. Inventing a new delivery is a pretty brash thing to do. It’s almost like discovering a new colour or introducing a new letter into the alphabet. We should have all the deliveries already – cricket’s been around
Continue readingBenevolent Uncle Sanath scythes on
< 1 minute readTell you what we like in cricket: we like people who made their names doing one spectactular thing in particular to do exactly that thing only at a slightly advanced age. For example, you might say to a cricketing newcomer: “This is Sanath Jayasuriya. He’s famous for scoring runs ludicrously
Continue readingBidding for Test matches
< 1 minute readThis week’s Old Trafford Test was the last there until at least 2012. Putting aside our irritation that we can’t see Test cricket at our local ground, we can see that it’s increasingly shabby and that Lancashire have been complacent about their ‘right’ to hold Tests. Only that’s not necessarily
Continue readingShivnarine Chanderpaul hits a last ball six to win
< 1 minute readThis was the perfect example of how great batsmen play the situation. Shivnarine Chanderpaul’s an obdurate Test batsman. He hangs around for hours. In one-day cricket, he’s a different beast. He’s A BEAST OF WRATH. Controlled wrath, but wrath nonetheless. The West Indies needed ten to win off the last
Continue readingTypical Fidel Edwards
< 1 minute readBurns in, takes 3-18, tricks you into thinking he’s finally arrived as a fast bowler, then takes 0-32 in his next spell and finally ends up with those same three wickets for about 120. Stupid, round-armed short-arse. Tillakaratne Dilshan’s saving Sri Lanka with 58 not out off 57 balls. We
Continue readingMalinda Warnapura counters Marvan Atapattu comparisons
2 minute readMalinda Warnapura was out first ball on his debut against Bangladesh, but he’s avoided following in Marvan Atapattu’s footsteps since then. Atapattu benefitted from a good deal of generosity from the Sri Lankan selectors at the start of his career. His first few innings read as follows: 0, 0, 0,
Continue readingYuvraj Singh can actually play deliveries that bounce above his knees
2 minute readWe’ve had a computer that hated the internet FOR ALL IT WAS WORTH for the last two days, so we’re a bit behind. We’re going to try and catch up, so brace yourselves for some three sentence updates that completely miss the point of what’s been going on. Yuvraj Singh
Continue readingAdam Gilchrist opening the batting and scoring hundreds – still
< 1 minute readIt would be tempting to look on this as Adam Gilchrist‘s final international hundred, but the interminable Commonwealth Bank Series is going to provide him with a few more opportunities yet. Australia have played Sri Lanka twice and beaten them twice now, but they still get to play two more
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