The ‘hosts jinx’ has struck and the West Indies, after their heavy defeat to Sri Lanka, are out of the World Cup. Their third consecutive defeat in the Super 8 stage means that they have to hope and pray that England and Sri Lanka make a mess of their remaining matches and lose them for the hosts to qualify for the semifinals. Looking at the way the West Indies have been beaten by the Australians, New Zealanders and now Sri Lankans, it is hoping for too much for them to revise the level of their game and beat England and South Africa. To blame the schedule as Brian Lara is doing now is to hide behind excuses, for the schedule was known more than a year ago to everybody, and if the prayers had any observation on it, they should have made them to their respective boards to take up with the ICC.
More than any schedule, it was the veteran Sanath Jayasuriya who took the game away from the West Indies after Lara’s team had begun well by capturing two early wickets. Instead of tightening the screws, the West Indies bowlers bowled all over the place, creating the angles for Jayasuriya to use his strong forearms and whack the ball.
There is nothing much a fielding captain can do when the bowlers cannot restrict their line. Jayasuriya enjoyed himself immensely as he went to his 25th One-Day century, proving once again that age is no bar to performance at the highest level. The Sri Lankans will be happy that their captain Mahela Jayawardene has got back among the runs, for in a tournament of this intensity, an out-of-form captain can mean a distracted captain, and that’s not what is needed. Kumara Sangakkara has not quite contributed with the bat, though he has been superb behind the stumps. Sri Lanka have a terrific player in Dilshan, who has shown great understanding of the situation when he comes in to bat, and his adapting aggressively or watchfully according to the needs of the side, has been a highlight of this event.
Sri Lanka’s shock weapon, Lasith Malinga, got rid of Gayle, who could have given just the start the West Indies wanted. What Malinga brings is not only an unusual action that is hard to pick by regular batsmen but almost impossible for the tail-enders. Dilhara Fernando also bowled well, though his temperament is still suspect when bowling under pressure.
Vaas and Murali were magnificent as always, hardly giving anything away though, Murali did cop a bit of stick. Sanath Jayasuriya capped his century with a fine spell of bowling where he got the ball to turn a bit and mixed his deliveries cleverly to pick up three wickets. The Sri Lankans looked to have regained the momentum that they had lost after the defeat to South Africa. Australia and New Zealand seemed assured of a semifinal berth, and it will be between South Africa, England and Sri Lanka for the remaining two spots to go through to the finals.
