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Journalism of Courage
About a decade ago Aravinda de Silva, playing at No 4, complied a knock against India in a World Cup semi-final that is still rated as a classic. Today another two-drop Sri Lankan batsman played a memorable knock at the same stage of the tournament. With a haze of the Aussie yellow on the horizon at Barbados, history repeating itself after 10 years can’t be ruled out. The signs are too vivid to miss.
Skipper Mahela Jayawardene’s immaculately-paced 115 from 109 balls—he had a mere 15 in 43 balls—made Sri Lankans look like a side that had mastered the shorter game and that seemed to have timed its peak performance with surgical precision. Such was the overwhelming Lankan show today and the loud local support from the fellow Islanders, the Sri Lankans seemed all set to travel to Barbados if not go further home with the silverware.
Actually, Jayawardene took it upon himself to make this point today. He weathered the storm of the frequent fall of wickets at the other end to play the perfect anchor.
He played a waiting game and his patience paid off. The New Zealanders faltered, as some sloppy bowling and indifferent fielding saw them missing out on driving home the advantage of taking frequent wickets. The one incident that summed up the innings was Bond dropping Jayawardene on the fence. As the Lankan skipper hit a Jeetan Patel full toss to the fine leg fence, Bond, like a football goalkeeper, tipped it over the fence for a six.
Jayawardene had sustained the pressure while the Kiwi seniors had faltered.
The two captains had said they key to the match will be the seniors. But in the first hour that was not the case. Like it happens in so many pressure situations and in times of nervousness, the keys somehow went mysteriously missing. And so it was left to the raw wiry juniors to come out and break up the semi-final deadlock.
One was told that Sanath Jayasuriya and Shane Bond knew the right combination but somewhere in between sweaty palms and jittery brains cells unable to sustain the overload of pressure they faltered. The big showdown that was supposed to be the main act was reduced to a side-show or virtually a no show.
Sanath Jayasuriya on the big day played all over a ball that he would usually dispatch with disdain. James Franklin marked it as a full length but it was actually it was a yorker length deliver. Jayasuriya, despite having the sharpest eye, got conned and while trying to play across lost his stumps.
While at the other end Upul Tharanga, whose position in the side has been repeatedly questioned because of the presence of former skipper Marvan Atapattu on the sidelines, was busy demystifying Bond. The New Zealand pacer did his bit to undermine his reputation. Twice in the first over he drifted on the leg side and all Thranga needed to do was guide to the fine leg fence.
With the ‘keys’ missing it was the raw tangled wires that worked had opened the lock. But since it was Tharanga’s effort of 73 runs off 74 balls that had more weight than Franklin’s effort of 9-1-46-2, he actually played a big role in putting in the foot in the door to help his captain take the spotlight.
