Lankan Lion has Kiwi in breakfast, Kangaroo for dinner?

(Murali the Magician, again the wrecker-in-chief)


Australia is not the team to step and skid on banana skin. That’s for lesser cricketing mortals, like India or Pakistan. Even South Africa. And thanks God, finally there seems a team with the wherewithal and the guile to upset the Aussie applecart.

Lankan triumph against New Zealand in the first World Cup semifinal conveys the Lankans are here for business. You simply don’t have a better balanced team in the World Cup. Not even Australia – with no slow bowler of worth in their ranks -- can boast of such combination.

The batting order looks a never ending one with each of them having distinction either in the bail-out act or the belting act. And his yesterday’s ton meant Mahela Jayawardene too came to the party and the timing could not have been better.

The bowling is potent enough to bring disorder to any batting order. Australian bats, provided they get past South Africa today, would struggle to see the ball coming off Lasith Malinga’s hands. Vaas may have lost couple of yards but no waning in guile – remember how he and his partner-in-conspiracy Sangakkara stumped Lara? Dilhara Fernando has also developed into an intelligent bowler and he put it on display in that last over against England.

Also, the mere sight of Muralitharan licking his lips and tossing the ball up at the end of his bowling mark is enough to send shivers down the spine. All those innuendoes and cat-calls from the Australian gallery are still fresh in his mind and Murali always loved to sizzle in sizzlers.

Come Saturday, the Lions would be ready to have Kangaroo for dinner.

Duck Tales

(Fleming lbw Vaas for zero, fourth time in a row. AFP Photo)



The Lankan Lions finally brought down the high-flying Kiwis in the Super Eight clash yesterday and it snapped New Zealand's record sequence of nine ODI wins.

When Fleming was trapped by Chaminda Vaas for a duck, some interesting statistics came to the fore. This was Fleming's fourth duck in a row against Sri Lanka and it was Vaas who got rid of him on all four occasions! And, hold your breath, on each occasion, Vaas has removed him leg before wicket!

For those who has a special liking for numbers, here are details of Fleming's duck details!

8.1.2006 Fleming lbw Vaas Napier 0
20.10.2006 Fleming lbw Vaas Brabourne St.Bombay 0
6.1.2007 Fleming lbw Vaas Auckland 0
12.4.2007 Fleming lbw Vaas Grenada 0

Overall, we are told, Fleming has been dismissed without scoring six times against Sri Lanka - 17th time overall in ODIs.

Vaas has claimed Fleming's wicket 11 times - the most by any bowler. Brett Lee and Waqar Younis has captured Fleming's wicket seven times each.

Fleming the captain, with 14 ducks against his name, this equals Arjuna Ranatunga and the third in the skipper's duck-list is Sourav Ganguly, who had nine noughts during his captaincy.

After Back, It’s Finger: Injury Stalks Anderson in WC

Shane Warne’s dark horse, i.e. England, suffered a jolt well before kicking off their World Cup campaign. No, it’s not arriving in the Windies with their generally non-playing captain Michael Vaughan. This time the bad news is that young pacer James Anderson has been hospitalised in St Lucia with a suspected broken finger.

Anderson, who missed most of the winter tour with a back injury, reportedly injured the little finger on his right hand, which is his bowling hand, during fielding practice ahead of Friday’s opener against New Zealand.

The team think-tank, however, is still optimistic that the pacer would be available for the tie against the Kiwis.