The Matara Mauler strikes Zimbabwe

Sanath Jayasuriya had been building up to this for a while. Today, it all fell into place -- and the Lankan captain produced an innings that bludgeoned the opposition into submission.

Zimbabwe came into the first game of the second half of the round-robin in buoyant mood. Despite losing to India on Sunday, they had made a good fist of the chase, and reinforced the notion that they were good, and getting better all the time, at hunting down targets.

So when Heath Streak won them the toss, and opted to chase, Zimbabwe -- needing a win to stay in the tournament -- must have figured they had a better than fair chance to ruffle a few feathers.

Zimbabwe went in without any change in the lineup, while Sri Lanka rested Avishka Gunawardene and brought in Dilshan. "Just experimenting," was how Sanath Jayasuriya characterised the change.

With the wicket having had the benefit of two days of watering and rolling, the ball seemed to come on quite nicely early on. Sanath Jayasuriya had a relatively quiet start, by his standards that is, but cut loose with a vim in the 10th over, with Bryan Strang getting the full benefit of the signature Sanath treatment -- 6, 4, 4, 4, 0, 4 for the over, to power the Lankan captain to his 50 and Lanka to 69/0 in 10.

When the 100 came up in the 15th over (the second 50 taking just 30 deliveries) it looked as though Lanka was on course for a 300+ score. An over later, Kaluwitharana -- very much the junior partner in the relationship -- walking back, having sacrificed his wicket to keep his captain active in the middle. Kalu played one into the covers and raced the single. Jayasuriya, on touching down, took off for the second without looking to see what his partner was up to (Kalu was in fact standing rooted in his crease) and ended up at the same end as Kalu, with the latter stepping out of his ground to play human sacrifice.

Jayasuriya gave himself a mental shake, and got back onto his destructive course, with Mbwangwa being the next victim (36 runs in four overs). By the 19th over, he had powered to 87 off 66 deliveries, and visions of all kinds of records were being raised.

Travis Friend took him out with what seems to be the bowler's trademark line -- pitching middle and leg and straightening on leg. It is a risky line to bowl -- the slightest error, and he gets the wide called or, worse, glanced fine. A touch too full, and he gets hit through midwicket. But Friend appears to have worked this out to a nicety -- he bowled the line consistently against the Indians the other day; and here again, he held it well, forcing Jayasuriya to go way across to the off aiming to glance. He missed, and the leg stump went over in what was almost an action replay of the Yuvraj Singh dismissal the other day. (Check out the graphical snapshot of the Jayasuriya knock, see also the region summary and wagon wheel, linked on the left panel of this link, to get the full picture of the knock.)

From then on Zimbabwe, powered by tight bowling by Friend, Viljoen (easily the pick) and Grant Flower and backed by electric fielding, clawed back into the game. In the 22nd over, Jayawardene attempted a paddle to leg and Andy Flower, anticipating superbly, moved to leg to whip off the bails before the batsman could recover.

Viljoen then struck, in the 28th, taking out Sangakarra with a top spinner on off which the batsman tried to cut, from too close to the body. The pace and skid on the ball beat the shot and Sangakarra lost his off stump.

With the wickets falling and the boundaries drying up, a certain element of frustration crept into the Lankan batting. Russell Arnold tried to break the strangehold, aiming to swing Grant Flower over midwicket, but hit too early and found square leg. Lanka, from being 103/0 in 15 overs, had just about made it to 196/5 in the 38th, and the batting wheels seemed to be coming unstuck.

Marvan Atapattu played his usual anchoring role at one end, getting to his 50, but Sri Lanka at 228/5 in 45 looked in bad shape. And the prospect worsened when Dilshan, attempting to up the tempo, slapped a ball from Grant Flower on middle and leg to Travis Friend at deep backward square. An over later, Vaas played one to midwicket and Heath Streak, in a display of agressive fielding, went for the ball and flung the stumps down at the batsman's end to end Atapattu's vigil. 234/7, 46.2 overs gone, and Lanka looked well short not only of the 300 that at one point seemed certain, but even of a defensible score.

What was hurting Lanka the most was the drying up of boundaries -- Jayasuriya had 12, plus two sixes, Kalu had a couple, Atapattu had one early in his innings. But then, for the next 176 deliveries, the ball didn't get close to the rope.

It was left to Vaas to change all that. Streak brought himself back in the 48th and to the fourth ball, Vaas wound himself up and swung flat and hard, back down the ground, for a huge six. One ball later, he then took one from outside off and swung it right out of the stadium, over wide midwicket. Friend bowled the 49th, and ball three saw Vaas come down the track, taking one on the full, and power over long on. To the next ball, he stayed back, got under it and lifted on the up, same direction, same result. Next ball, Vaas attempted an encore, but this time hit too early, got the trajectory a bit flat, and picked out the man on the boundary. Weeraratne, however, produced a six and a four to end Streak's final over, and Lanka, with 38 runs in the final three overs, had a more than decent 276/9 in its allotted 50 overs.

If the Lankan start was explosive, then Zimbabwe's beginning had all the fizz of a Diwali firecracker left out in the dew. The Lankan new ball bowlers bowled a restrictive line and, backed by alert fielding, choked down the Zimbabweans. 23 runs at the end of 8 overs wasn't the kind of start a team looking to chase 276 needs, and the story got far worse in the ninth over when Vaas produced a superb rising delivery to take out the surprised Douglas Marillier. The batsman was coming forward when the ball reared up at him, and all he could do was fend it away for Jayawardene to hold at slip. Off the very next ball, Vaas produced one of full length on off straightening on to middle to trap Stuart Carlisle bang in front. 24/2 in 9, and Zimbabwe found itself right in middle of a horror story.

They needed a hero, and had two likely candidates in Alistair Campbell and the in-form Andy Flower. Only, Zoysa in the very next over joined the party with one quicker through the air, lifting and seaming away off a length, to find Flower's edge through to the keeper.

26/3 in 10, Zimbabwe -- bad enough in isolation, but seen in context of Lanka's 69/0 at the ten over mark, horrendous. By then, the ask had also gone above the 6-an over mark, 251 needed in 240 where, at the start of the innings, the ask was just 5.54.

There was something of the buttered slide about the Zimbabwean innings around this point -- a feeling accentuated by Nuwan Zoysa in the 14th over. Having pulled up in his previous over with a dizzy spell brought on, presumably, by the heat and dehydration, Zoysa produced a ball identical to the one that took out Flower. This time, it was Campbell who fell into the trap, forced to play at the lifting, away-seaming delivery to make Kaluwitharana happy behind the stumps.

The two opening bowlers had pretty much finished off the match inside the first 15 overs. Consider the figures for their respective first spells: Vaas 6-2-15-2 and Zoysa 7-2-14-2.

Muralitharan took over in the 16th over and promptly bowled Guy Whittall with the one going through with the arm.

In his next, Murli bowled one from wide of the crease, curving it in, the making it turn dramatically to trap Grant Flower on the back foot, bang in front of middle. 46/6, and Heath Streak and Dirk Viljoen, the two men out there, had only pride to play for.

Pride carried them to the 36th over, before Streak (25/55) fell. Having restrained his shot-making and focussed on just staying there and taking singles, Streak nudged one around to the leg side and took off. Sanath Jayasuriya, at short fine leg, raced around, fielded, and fired the throw to the bowler's end to catch Streak out of his ground. 108/7.

Same over, a ball later, and Arnold floated outside off, turning it in. Bryan Strang went into the parody of a square drive, playing all over the ball for it to curl back and crash into the stumps.

Oh well, to cut a long story short, Zimbabwe lost. And ensured that barring a miracle or three, they won't get into the final. For those who believe in miracles and Santa Claus, what it takes is for Zimbabwe, tomorrow, to beat India by a massive margin, and then to sit back and hope that the day after, Sri Lanka will in their turn hand India a severe thrashing.

Which will level India and Zimbabwe on points, leaving Zimbabwe the hope of edging India on run rate. Given the margin of today's defeat, it doesn't seem too likely, though.

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