Sri Lanka Team for West Indies is declared:
Mahela Jayawardene (capt), Kumar Sangakkara (wk), Tillakaratne Dilshan, Chaminda Vaas, Chamara Silva, Upul Tharanga, Chamara Kapugedera, Malinga Bandara, Kaushalya Weeraratne, Nuwan Kulasekara, Ajantha Mendis, Jehan Mubarak, Ishara Amerasinghe, Mahela Udawatte, Thilan Thushara.

As predicted by this site, Jayasuriya is headed for the pavilion. He has served the Sri Lankan team pretty well and t was anyway time for him to step down, I just wish he’d read my blog and announced his retirement instead of waiting for this day Maybe he did read my blog and thought that i was like the usual press after his blood - but only if he’d have read the whole stuff he’d have known that I had held no one above him all this while

In Jayasuriya’s period Sri Lanka got the opportunity to hold the cup - a moment which may not come again soon in the life of this small island. He gave a new way to approach the game not to just this country but to the whole world. Attack was something unknown to the openers and he not only showed them how to attack but also mastered the art to perfection.

Anyway, He’s gonna collect a good pension at the IPL but he should watch out, since Brian Lara didn’t exactly do well to keep his name high in the ICL version last edition.

The Surprise was the resting of Muralitharan. Now, failure is something that can happen to anyone in Australia including the Australians, and Muralitharan would’ve been useful in West Indies for sure. Yes, he has to be retired too, however there was a series or two left in him.

It is mostly the “Dhoni experiment” that has caught the eyes on Sri Lankans and maybe, Australans?

Well, it’s good that the Aussie tour of Pakistan is cancelled, I shudder to think that Harbhajan Singh may have been blamed for the demise of Ponting Era. Well, Ponting and Hayden watch out!

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My Cricket player rankings are out! And you won’t be able to easily guess who is the Most Valuable Player!!

A Total of nearly 400 players took the field in 2007.

I have put out different ODI Ranking lists for teams and players. Do check each one out!

ODI Batsmen Rankings 2007 (all teams)
ODI Bowler Rankings 2007 (all teams)
ODI Best Wicketkeepers/ Fielders 2007 (all teams)
ODI Most Valuable Players - All Rounders 2007 (all teams)
ODI Team Rankings 2007 (all teams)

There are many good players waiting to be born out there. There are some players from unknown countries who if perform as per their statistics would become Superstars, or other perish their records accumulated against similar unknown nations.

Did you know there is an allrounder called “RN ten Doeschate” who plays for Netherlands? Well if you check out his performance, he was the Most Valuable Player of 2006!! His record was much above that of Jacques Kallis!!! In the 6 matches that he played, he scored 259 runs at a phenomenal average of 51.80 at a strike rate of 103.6. And he topped this with a bowling figures of 7 wickets in 6 matches at a strike rate of 39.4 balls and took 2 catches. well check out the complete rankings now!!

*These rankings are based on Players who’ve played 5 matches or more. These rankings are prepared solely by myself based on owned algorithms.

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Sri Lanka vs Australia ODI match Melbourne 29 February, 2008 - A Fun Report

Other possible headlines
- Hayden snubbed. Dropped.
- Will this be the last innings by Jayasuriya abroad? or maybe the last ever?
- Without, Chaminda Vaas, the attack looked impotent (initially).
- Gilly was on fire.
- Ponting just refused to score. He took 11 balls to score 1!!
- the victory was brought by Kulasekara and Amerasinghe, two rookie bowlers

Sri Lanka won the toss and chose to bat! Not surprising, but last week at the same venue they had chosen to bowl first and predictably lost. As predicted here, the only semblance of a chance at Sri Lanka beating Australia lay in batting first. Surprisingly Vaas and Hayden were dropped. Hayden apparently may have been snubbed since a lot of people felt he was let off too lightly. And Cricket Australia had indicated that the Aussie cricketers had double standards.

Well, Perera in his new role started slowly. With Lee and Bracken bowling as well as ever, Sri Lanka was very cautious. However, they started losing wickets soon. Jayasuriya nowadays plays small cameos and did another such one. Will this be the last innings by Jayasuriya? Maybe the last one abroad?

For once Sangkarra magic did not work and Sri Lanka were down at 4/61. Here Jayawardene was joined by comparably successful Dilshan Tillekaratne and they enabled Sri Lanka to get to a respectable total. Sri Lanka juiced every ounce of their batting. I mean they were bowled out on the last ball scoring 221 which didn’t seem a big score to defend.

Without, Chaminda Vaas, the attack looked impotent. Australia began on a very positive note, and in no time had 100 on board without any loss of wickets. Gilly was on fire. It was just too good too be true. All bets were now on Australia winning easily. It looked too easy and the party had already began. Just a trifle too early. Newbie Kulasekara came for his second spell to join Muralitharan. And Hopes fell. And Ponting just refused to score. He took 11 balls to score 1!! A team which was right on top scored 1 run in 4 overs!! Australia were suddenly choking on themselves. From 107/0 they went to 123/6 and Sri Lanka could sense an impossible victory. And most importantly this victory was brought by Kulasekara and Amerasinghe, two rookie bowlers. A potent signal that the time for change of gaurd has come for Sri Lanka. A late rearguard action by Brett Lee and Bracken brought Australia over 200, but then in a stroke of genius Jayasuriya was introduced with Australia just 13 runs away. Well, Jayasuriya just need the minimum, one ball, to seal the victory!

(the above are written in a funny mood and not intended to hurt your sentiment - i doubt if any actual players gets time to read - so please don’t (get) hurt yourself defending them)

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