Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Sri Lanka Rewind To 1996

Captain Mahela Jayawardane paced his innings superbly to help Lankans take one foot in the Finals. And then Malinga along with Murali destroyed the Kiwis to storm into the Finals!

What a performance, for a while it reminded me of their stupendous bowling against India at Eden in the semi finals of 1996!

Lankans exploited the conditions extremely well - did well exactly what they were supposed to do- batted their way to a well made respectable score of 289 and then crushed the wingless Kiwis by excellent pace and spin attack.

Kiwis simply choked in their 5th semi finals and off went the collective wish of many Indians (especially girls) to see talented, handsome and fighting Kiwis win the world cup this time!

But Kiwis lost the plot in the last 2 matches and were comprehensively beaten by Aussies and Lankans and will return home a dejected team.

The Lankans, on the other hand, will want to go back to 1996 where they defeated Aussies in the finals to win the World Cup for the first time!

5 comments:

Cuckoo said...

off went the collective wish of many Indians (especially girls) Huh huh.. I am quite happy. :)

My prediction is slowly coming true. :)

Btw, Y'day's match was worth watching.

Ranjeet said...

Cuckoo: Kyu jale me namak chidak rahe ho?

abhijit said...

Murali is not easy to play. It was Dhoni and sehwag's badluck that they were batting against him. NZ players do not know how to play spin. Australia dominated them becoz of Mr. Warne. But anyways well played NZ and Fleming. At least they are exiting at second best level in tourney.

Abhijit Dharmadhikari said...

I am so unhappy. I favoured Kiwis, but they didn't play upto their potential. :-(

Ranjeet said...

Abhijit (Anabhishikt): I agree 100%with you . Murali is a magician and always a match winner. Even Aussies find it hard to play him when he gets in his rythm. But I always feel that Indians should know how to play Murali better with all their experience on turning tracks and playing Murali for so many years now.
Yes,Kiwis played extremely well throughout the tournament except in the last 2 matches. Fleming led fro mthe front and was an astute captain.


Abhijit (Pratibimb): Me too. :-( As I said in my earlier post, the only chance Kiwis had was to play Murrali better, and they would have won this one. Malinga was magnificient too in this match.