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Sri Lanka through to the semis

I got this very angry mail from a reader today -- actually, a reader who specialises in angry mails to me.

He goes, hey, weren't you the one who said this was going to be a low-scoring series, and then yesterday you point out that damn near 600 runs were scored in a day, you should have the guts to admit your mistakes, and since you make mistakes yourself and don't admit them, what moral right do you have to criticise the BCCI and the selectors, and so on and so forth.

Phew! Not quite sure what I did to attract that amount of ire. But anyways -- the real question in there is about the pitch, and how it is playing contrary to everyone's predictions. (By way of aside, I am at least in good company on this one -- every single reporter and expert got it wrong, the ICC too thought this would be a rain hit tournament, as witness the hasty introduction of the bowl-out option).

The reason? The day before the tournament began, I was checking the CNN weather reports. For the first two days, CNN called this partly-cloudy -- with satellite pictures backing it up. What we got instead was brilliant sunshine. For day three -- today -- the forecast was cloudy, with occasional showers. So guess what we got? 42 degree heat out in the middle, and humidity in the 90s.

Not sure what that says, about the "moral right" of weather satellites to transmit high-tech pictures, of meterologists to interpret them, and of news sites including CNN to actually publish weather bullettins -- and yes, I am being fractionally facetious, here.

Meanwhile, what this unforeseen spell of extremely hot weather has done is sucked up every drop of sub-surface moisture remaining from the rains of last week, and baking the pitch into a hard, flat track of the kind where you can run a tank over it and the treads wouldn't even show.

And classically, when an overwatered pitch dries out and goes hard, it starts to turn -- and those two days of sunshine have produced just that result, here, with Sri Lanka's array of spinners, Muralitharan, Jayasuriya, Chandana all getting turn (Dharmasena, of course, never tries to turn the ball, so he doesn't get mentioned in that list).

And while on that, With which aside, back to the game of the day -- Sri Lanka, versus New Zealand, conquerors of Zimbabwe in the only pre-quarterfinal match of this tournament on day one. And a predictabe result, albeit with some unpredictable hiccups midway through.

Ranatunga, with the evidence of the first two days before him, decided that he wanted to chase, rather than take first use of another decent batting track. And the Sri Lankan team looked to be as close to perfect as they can get it now -- the only argument would have been whether Mahanama, or Tillekeratne, rated the number six slot. Chaminda Vaas, recovered from his back injury and with seemingly no ill effects, gives the Lankans a hugely experienced opening bowler, Nuwan Zoysa is developing in the Chaminda mould and between offies Murali and Dharmasena, left arm spinner Jayasuriya and leg break bowler Upul Chandana, they seemed to have the spinning bases pretty well covered.

New Zealand needed to make optimum use of the first 15 overs. If they went through that phase at 22/1 in 5, 36/1 in 10 and 56/1 in 15, credit goes entirely to the Lankan opening bowlers who, in conditions of sapping heat and humidity, bowled with enviable control, backed by a superb fielding outfit.

The pressure of not getting runs during the opening overs was bound to tell on the Kiwis -- especially since they were aware of the quality of the opposing batting lineup, and the need for at least 250, hopefully 30 more, to really pressure the Lankans on the chase. And that pressure brought on the mistakes, resulting in a mini-slump between the 15th and 20th overs. It also brought Adam Parore and Craig McMillan, the former easily the best player of spin in the New Zealand ranks, together.

New Zealand could have been in even worse plight had Dharmasena held on to a mistimed sweep by Parore off Murali when the batsman was on six, and the score was 75/3 in the 19th over. Dharmasena, normally a reliable fielder, spilt it, then indicated that he had got the sun in his eye. And from then on, Parore never played a false shot, anchoring his side through for a good part of the remaining overs.

McMillan meanwhile had his good moments, and some of the other kind, but on the whole kept his head and rotated strike well. The Kiwis moved along thus: 79/3 in 20, 100/3 in 25, 118/4 in 30, 129/4 in 35, 152/6 in 40 and 169/7 in 45. And for the Lankans, after the two pace bowlers had done their bit, it was the spinners, and the fielders, all the way.

Murali in particular got prodigious turn, Dharmasena was his usual accurate self, and Chandana and Jayasuriya played very good supporting roles. But the real key lay in the field -- the Lankan fielders seemed to be all over the place. For the Kiwis, it was a dilemma -- there were no fours to be had (in fact, the last 128 balls of the innings did not contain a single boundary) and with the field mostly well up inside the circle, even the singles were fraught with risk.

There were several near misses off direct throws -- and as many as three run outs, testifying to the pressure out there. And with the Kiwis losing wickets at regular intervals, there never was any real hope of them putting up anything close to a defensible score.

Former South African great Barry Richards, rated by many as the greatest opener of all time, had a nice point to make, in the TV commentary box, the other day when South Africa prepared to chase a mammoth target. "Large targets keep you focussed," Barry said. "It is the smaller ones, below 200, that make you relax and go off the boil a bit."

Sri Lanka, today, epitomised that assessment. Jayasuriya's habit of pushing with bat away from his body to the line outside off -- when the right arm fast bowler is bowling round the wicket and angling in, or the left arm fast bowler is coming over the wicket -- has been mentioned before (to sound criticism from some readers, if I recall right). Simon Doull here got his first ball of the Lankan innings dead right, pitching outside off, bringing it in with the seam, taking the inner edge for the ball to flash just over the stumps, Parore diving way to his right to pick up a beauty.

The next two dismissals, though, owed more to overconfidence bordering on arrogance. Or perhaps, as Richards said, the lack of focus that follows a small target. Chandana, the most correct of players, slashed wildly at one short and wide outside off. And Aravinda D'Silva played an airy drive without getting to the pitch, to reduce Sri Lanka to 5/3.

A good ball, two bad shots, and an upset looked on. If it didn't materialise, it was due to two things. One, Arjuna Ranatunga had been there, done that, many times before -- in fact, you cant think of too many batsmen you would rather have coming in at such a situation. And the other factor was that for all the early success, New Zealand really lacked teeth in the bowling department.

Fleming tried it all -- attacking fields, constant bowling changes, the works. But once Ranatunga had talked Kaluwitharana out of his normal exuberance and got him to drop anchor, things took on a certain inevitability. Kalu played an uncharacteristic knock -- in fact, I dont remember the last time I saw him play a copybook forward defensive shot, of which there were several today. He kept his head, didnt overhit the ball, rotated strike well, and more than kept his end up in a partnership of 127 runs that helped take the game away from the Kiwis.

At the other end, Ranatunga was calm, canny, and in complete control. That guy's batting reminds you of that old Chinese torture -- the death of the thousand cuts. A nudge here, a nick there, a push into this gap and a glide into that gap and suddenly, he's motoring along quite nicely and you are left wondering what the panic was all about.

His comment at the end, while receiving his man of the match award, was illuminating. Asked if he felt any panic at the fall of the three early wickets, the response was, "When the stars fall early, I get a break."

He's been called arrogant, autocratic, and other names you don't want to mention on a family site like this, but you have to admit that on the cricket field, the man is selfless. In terms of technique, ability and temperament, he rates far higher than the batting slot he now occupies, but he's let his stars hog the limelight, staying in the shadows until such time as his own special skills are needed.

Helping the Ranatunga-Kaluwitharana combine was the fact that the target was not dauntingly large, neither was the run rate. The Lankan progression shows just why they never needed to panic: 16/3 in 5, 38/3 in 10, 66/3 in 15, 95/3 in 20, 114/3 in 25, 134/4 in 30, 152/5 in 35 and 184/5 in 40, meant that there was never a point in the game when the Lankans needed to get over 3.5 per over. And the Kiwi bowlers helped things along by giving them the odd gift balls, straying off line and letting the Lankans collect boundaries at regular intervals.

It was a clinical win, and sets up an interesting semifinal. Both sides are outstanding in the field. Both sides bat deep -- though South Africa could have the edge here, if they stick to the same combo as before, with Nicky Boje coming in at 10 (wouldn't Cronje like to add some pacy teeth to his attack with Makhaya Ntini, though? Dawson, on the evidence of the first game, can't quite cut it against the Lankan batting lineup).

So the real contest is South Africa with a largely inexperienced bowling lineup, versus a Lankan bowling and fielding outfit that moved, today, like a Swiss chronometer. Should be an interesting match up.

But of course, before that is the India versus Australia encounter on Wednesday, which should, given the conditions, turn out to be another cracker. Stay tuned.

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