Mahela Jayawardene
The third match of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 at the Mahinda Rajapaksa International Cricket Stadium, Sooriyawewa, Hambantota in Sri Lanka again had an obvious outcome.
One might have been hoping for a Canadian victory but today was not that day as this Group A match ended like everyone knew it would.
Sri Lanka won the toss and elected to bat first, knowing their own conditions the best, this would have been the evident choice.
Opener Tharanga made 19 runs of 31 balls was run out by Ashish Bagai, an unfortunate dismissal but gave Canada the break through they desperately needed. Opener Dilshan looked completely at ease before the delievery from Rizwan Cheema, but the damage was already done as Dilshan made 50 runs of 59 balls.
Captain Sangakkara was a stone throw away from a century but missed it making a smashing 92 runs of 87 balls before he was caught and bowled by John Davidson. Jayawardene managed to stick around almost till the end, just finished making his century of 81 balls before his wicket was taken by Davidson again. Jayawardene’s innings was the one that ultimately lead to Sri Lanka’s cake walk win.
The balance batsmen didn’t do much, a point that should have been observed by all the teams competing, showing fully Sri Lanka’s weakness that of their middle order, this is definitely something they should worry about, and now that it is exposed for the world to see, some plan of action will have to be devised for when they play the world class teams.
Perera was also run out by Bagai at 11 runs of 11 balls, Angelo Matthews made 21 runs of 16 balls, his wicket was claimed by Harvir Baidwan on a caught and bowled, Baidwan also took the wicket of Kapugedera who made just 2 runs of 3 balls. Samaraweera made 18 runs of 10 balls and Kulasekara made 7 runs of 3 balls, both remained not out at the end of the Sri Lankan innings.
Due credit must be given to Canada who fought as hard as they could, anyone who saw the match would know how tight Sri Lanka was kept initially and they played the Canadian bowlers with caution, as a result, the Sri Lankan’s put up a large total of 332 runs at the loss of 7 wickets.
This total could be chased by the Canadians in 6.64 runs per over, something everyone assumed they’d never be able to do but tried to anyway.
Kulasekara claimed three wickets that of opener Gunasekara who made only 1 run of 10 balls, Tyson Gordon made 4 runs of 10 balls and Khurram Chohan who also made 4 runs of 8 balls.
Perera also took three wickets, that of Davidson on a duck, Surkari who made 6 runs of 10 balls and Captain Ashish Bagai who made 22 runs of 47 balls. Muttiah Muralitharan took two wickets, one of Rizwan Cheema who looks promising and showed immense talent, made 37 runs of 35 balls the highest individual total of the Canadian innings and Balaji Rao a tail ender who made 6 runs of 7 balls.
Mendis and Samaraweera both took a wicket each thereby cleaning the Canadians “oAt” (Canadian accent saying “out”) in 36.5 overs and making only 122 runs.
The Man of the Match went to Jayawardene for his 100 runs, a good performance from him and the Sri Lankan side.
The Canadians can end up being a spoiler in the end, maybe you never know, on a particular day it can be anyone’s game. Canada shouldn’t be dismissed just yet even though they lost by 210 runs.
Tags: Canada, Cricket, Hambantota, ICC Cricket World Cup 2011, Mahela Jayawardene, Man Of The Match, Sri Lanka, World Cup
