Today is another day,another wicket and another match - the Compac Cup final between Sri Lanka and India at the R. Premadasa Stadium under lights.The Sri Lankans who had no difficulty in stuffing the Indians on Saturday,should stay focussed and not let complacency set in when they front up to the Indians and there should be no letting up till the Compac Cup is held aloft by captain Kumar Sangakkara.
On Saturday Sanath Jayasuriya and Thilana Kandamby were unfortunate to miss well deserved hundreds.
After the Jayasuriya, Kandamby show, Angelo Mathews took centre stage to demolish the highly rated Indian batting line up Those feats are history now and what matters is how the Sri Lankans perform today.
There is no doubt that the two skippers Kumar Sangakkara and Mahendra Singh Dhoni would be asking the gods to look kindly on them and help them win the all important toss. Winning of the toss would mean 50 per cent of the final being won.
The two skippers will sure have their hearts in their mouths when the coin is tossed.
On Saturday dashing left hander Sanath Jayasuriya came back to his batting form which he is renowned for.He was all concentration and determination as he began to unwind and play the strokes that has earned him bags full of runs in all versions of the game in his illustrious career.
Another repeat is expected from Jayasuriya. It is said that if Jayasuriya fires, the other batsmen tend to strike form. The 307 runs the team made proves this.
What was very noticeable was that the Indian pacemen Asish Nehra, Rudra Singh and Ishant Sharma did not pitch short and allow Jayasuriya to play his famous square cut,which in recent times has brought about his downfall.
Maybe they were reserving the short pitched ball to lure Jayasuriya today. Jayasuriya must guard against this and instead of going for his shots square of the wicket, should endeavour to play in front, going over the top when the opportunity presents itself.
When Jayasuriya was on song, it was irritating to hear Danny Morrison and Mike Haysman, the two TEN SPORTS commentators constantly referring to Jayasuriya as old man. Instead of being insulting, Morrison and Haysman would do well to concentrate and describe Jayasuriya in much more respectable terms and not belittle the great man, remembering that he has been tagged as the greatest one-day cricketer by two respected and brilliant writers in Scyld Berry and Don Cameron.
Morrison and Haysman can learn from the brilliant Tony Greig.
Jayasuriya has come in for a lot of stick in recent times for his failures with the bat. With this solid and well crafted knock of 98, he cocked a snook at his detractors.
When under fire for his failures, the only way Jayasuriya could hook these barbs is by letting his bat do the talking, like he did on Saturday before a packed audience who cheered this gutty cricketer all the way through his innings.
When Nehra got a ball to keep low and catch Jayasuriya in front two short of a dream hundred, and when umpire Kumar Dharmasena raised the dreaded finger there was a deafening silence by the crowd who sadly watched the great man walking back to the pavilion. Dharmasena a former team mate of Jayasuriya who had to perform that unpleasant task would have told Jayasuriya - "Sorry mate, you got to go".
After Jayasuriya set the stadium alight, young Thilana Kandamby blossomed and showed what he is capable of by running to a quickfire unbeaten 91, before running short of overs and missing out on three figure score.
After the batting lessons from Jayasuriya and Kandamby, right arm medium pacer Angelo Mathews ran rings around the Indian batsmen bowling a devastating spell to have the dream figures of 6 for 20 which earned him the man of the match award.
Mathews bowled his medium pacer on beautiful line and length and his in dippers especially was a lesson in this art.
The greatness of a batsman or a bowler is consistency. It is hoped that Mathews will maintain this consistency and deliver today too.
As for the Indians, they must have spent sleepless nights licking their wounds and wondering as to what hit them. The Lankans must guard against an Indian backlash.
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