great bowling by Malinga.... Angello Matthews could not do a Dhoni..

What differentiates Rohit Sharma from Lasith Malinga…  Both play for Mumbai Indians… Rohit is a super star in IPL ~ this time Malinga had some bad games in IPL… Rohit fails when it comes to playing for the Nation; and slinga Malinga almost won it for them yesterday in Champions Trophy.

You see this advertisement too often in TV – Dhoni speaking on the decision he took on that day at  New Wanderers way back on 24th Sept 2007, that one delivery remains frozen in the memories of all cricket lovers – Misbah bends to play that fatal scoop; ball going high on the air, landing in the hands of Sreesanth ~ the bowler was Joginder Sharma….. India won by 5 runs.  India scored 157 ; there was Rudra Pratap Singh, S Sreesanth, Yusuf Pathan, Irfan Pathan and Harbhajan but Dhoni preferred the little known Joginder and won…..

Not sure whether it has to do anything with the overdose of T20 – but teams are struggling out there with low totals ~ the other day WI almost made a mess of the target set by Pak and yesterday Sri Lanka almost successfully defended their low 139 till Angelo Matthews tried what Dhoni did but failed miserably. 

Watching the game was painful as Kiwis struggled as runs had dried up in the chase… not what you expect when the two McCullums are around, not when Brendon is there…… the pitch hardly mattered.  Towards the end, Malinga's dipping slower full tosses had New Zealand batsmen hopping and hoping in what was expected to be an afternoon stroll. The chase swung dramatically. From coasting at 48 for 1 New Zealand stumbled to 49 for 4. From 70 for 4 they fell to 80 for 6, but then, crucially, they were allowed to get away with a relatively quieter phase when Malinga was taken off and brought back only after brothers McCullum had taken off 31 off the requirement. Malinga came back and seemed like he could strike with every ball. 

There were loud unending appeals almost every ball, it was supreme drama with the balls remaining taken out of the equation ~ actually when the match ended there were more than 13 overs to be bowled – yet there was high drama, even when we had no stakes – neither was Team India involved, nor are the teams in our half.  Rangana Herath is a quality bowler, especially in the subcontinent and he proved his class with Shaminda Eranga  also striking.  Martin Guptill,  buoyant with his form against England batted freely.   Vettori got a hard decision and somehow Malinga was not bowling after that when McCullums crept painfully.   Nathan was out once caught behind but the bowler Eranga did not appeal.  

Slinga Malinga was at his best with his dipping full tosses and almost won the match for the Lankans.  After McCullums’ departure, Kiwis needed 24 runs with three wickets in hand.  At another Malinga had 2 overs defending a lowly 11.  In the 34th over, Bruce Oxenford erred providing reprieve for the Kiwi batsman and for the team also…. Remember this Umpire who had only 2 buttons to press and yet pressed a wrong one on an earlier occasion and he is still out there.  Sadly, Lankans had exhausted their DRS…. Then came another shocker where Southee was plumb in front, ball went to third man for four and Tucker gave runs. 

Then came the wrong decision…… Angelo gave the ball the Dilshan – 4 to win – last pair on play….. Mitchell McClenaghan, a left-hander  was on strike.  There were none in close catching position.  2 singles flowed…… . McLenaghan  on strike and Dilshan with all his experience committed the offence of bowling a wide; ball went to third man – throw was ok, not sure whether Sangakkara collected it cleanly and removed the bails…….. but there was no need for referral as the Umpire signalled it a wide… so on completion of the first run, NZ had infact won the match………..  Srilankans almost audaciously pulled it out with 138 though eventually it was not.

With regards – S. Sampathkumar.

10th June 2013.