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England’s batsmen are very fond of telling anyone who’ll listen how they all average over 40, like it’s a benchmark for greatness. Maybe it was 10 years ago, but not now.
Take Thilan Samaraweera for example. Here’s a very decent Test batsman, but by no means a great. In the Sri Lanka team, he probably takes third billing after Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara. After welcoming Pakistan back to Test cricket with 231, he now averages 48.11 in Tests. If any of England’s batsmen other than KP averaged that, they’d instantly get complacent and return to the pack.
Samaraweera didn’t top score for Sri Lanka. Mahela Jayawardene, in his last series as captain, hit 240. Jayawardene’s so good that isn’t even news. 240 is only his third highest score.
Not to take anything away from them, but the pitch was flat and the bowling was horrible. I think I could have scored 20 runs there. Which is saying a lot, because I am quite horrible.
Sooner or later, Mahela Jayawardene will get bored of scoring masses of runs.
He’ll have to.
He’s bored of being captain.
If only Mahela could be a bit more consistent…perhaps score half as many runs, twice as often?
Or just score just as many runs, twice as often. That’d be nice.
*watches the pigs flying past”
You’ve got to feel sorry for (i.e. laugh at) Tillakaratne Dilshan, who managed to follow a 437 run partnership with a three-ball duck. If, as I have suggested in writing to the ECB many times, the total match pay for the batsmen was divided proportionally according to the number of runs each scored, he’d have to be paid in Zimbabwean dollars just to get to a positive integer.
People will say that this sort of thing happens quite often, that an incoming batsman who has waited for ages to go in to bat will inevitably not be mentally prepared, but that doesn’t make it any the less funny.
In my career, I never let the size of the previous partnership bother me when compiling a three-ball duck.
Sri Lanka do this sort of thing a bit too often for my liking. Seriously, if you were playing small-time cricket, would anyone play like this? Just hit some quick runs and declare and try to put some life into the game. (that’s what they should be doing…)
Erm, the plan is to go for the follow-on. Against most sides, you want at least 600 runs to do that.
“Quick runs and declare” is a 3rd innings plan, not a 1st innings one.
Oh I see – quick runs and declare. Yes, I think I’ve got it now.
Declare??? What is this tern you speak of? Infact, come to think of it… runs? What are these!
i wish i was called samaraweera for short