rapa
04-23-2007, 10:45 AM
For the 3rd time in the history of Sri Lankan Cricket, and for the second consecutive time since 2003, Sri Lanka is through to the semi finals of a Cricket World Cup.
Sri Lanka making it to the semi finals 3 times (within 11 years), out of 9 world cups played so far is a good indication that how well developed the game of Cricket in this country during last few decades. England (the inventors of the game of Cricket) on the other hand failed to make it to a semi final of a World Cup, after their last appearance in a semi final in 1992.
For a small country like Sri Lanka, this is a great sporting achievement. So, what ever the result going to be in Tuesday’s semi final against New Zealand, we should be happy about the performances of our cricketers in this world cup. But, let’s hope that it would be “Sri Lanka all the way” as great Wasim Akram predicted before the tournament.
New Zealand’s History in World Cup Semi Finals
For New Zealand, this is the 5th time to be featured in the last 4 of the Cricket World Cup. They were semi finalists in 1975, 1979, 1992 and in 1999.
But they’ve never won a world cup semi final in the past 4 occasions they’ve featured in semi finals, which is an encouraging factor for the Sri Lankans.
I believe New Zealand’s most successful world cup campaign so far was in 1992. As one of the host nations, they won all their league matches except for the match against Pakistan. The league match against Pakistan was a Do or Die for the Pakistani’s, with New Zealand already qualified for the semi finals at the top of the points table.
Pakistan was required to win that last league match for them, in order to qualify to the 4th semi final spot. An incredible bowling spell of 4 for 32 by Wasim Akram, and a brilliant century (119 N.O) by Ramiz Raja, lead Pakistan to the victory of that match, assuring them a place in the semi final round.
New Zealand, who were the hot favorite for winning the tournament by that time, met Pakistan once again in the first Semi Final at a home venue Auckland.
New Zealand batting first, made 262 for 7 in 50 overs. Ironically, Pakistan lead by brilliant partnership between Javed Miandad and Inzamam Ul Haq, show Pakistan home in the 50th over with scoring 264 for six.
The world Cup of 1992 went into the history, as a tournament where New Zealand lost only to Pakistan (twice) and Pakistan ultimately winning the tournament.
Sri Lanka’s History in World Cup Semi Finals
Sri Lanka’s first ever appearance in a World Cup Semi Final was in 1996, when they met the co-hosts India in Calcutta.
The match ended giving a huge black mark to the Indian cricket, after bad crowd behavior. Sri Lanka were offered the winners “by default” after India was restricted to 120 for 8, chasing down 251 to win.
Next time Sri Lanka appeared in a World Cup semi final was in 2003, against Australia. Sri Lankan bowlers did it really well to restrict the defending champions to 214, raising the hopes of Sri Lankan cricket fans. But the batsmen failed to finish off the job, resulting in a humiliating loss against the defending champions Australia.
Sri Lanka’s Chances in This Year’s Semi Final
The wicket in Kingston going to be a fast bouncy track, which most commentators points out as “unfavorable” for Sri Lanka. Cricket pundits always say, Sri Lanka is a better team in sub continent conditions but fail in other conditions. But, last year Sri Lanka trashed England 5 – 0 in the ODI series in so called “fast and bouncy” tracks in England. Later that year, Sri Lanka squared the series in New Zealand.
With type of bowling attack Sri Lanka having today, a fast and bouncy wicket is going to be favorable for Sri Lanka more than anything else. Vass, Dilhara and Malinga will love to extract the extra bounce, and Murali will turn the ball even on a glass surface. Even without the conditions not supporting, these bowlers did a great job so far in this world cup.
Our batsmen on the other hand, will also love to bat on a wicket where the ball comes to bat more lively. People like Sanath and Sangakkara loves to see the ball coming to the bat faster. I can see, these 2 as the key batsmen for Sri Lanka in Tuesday’s semi final.
Marvan to Replace Tharanga?
This has been a great debate over the time among Sri Lankan fans, the media and also may well be among the selectors and the players. But I guess now it’s the time to make a tough decision.
Some one may think, changing the batting line up at the face of a semi final is a bad thing to do. But, a player like Marvan with all his experience behind him should be able to settle pretty quickly, and serve the country when he’s asked for. After all if experience matters in cricket, it should matter at a time like this more than any thing else.
Hopefully, we’ll see Marvan replacing Tharanga in the semi final, but still we don’t hear a steady word from the Sri Lankan selectors.
What to Do with Maharoof?
So far, (except for in the game against Australia) only team change we’ve done was rotating the 4th bowlers position among Dilhara and Maharoof. Dilhara was th most successful one out of the two players, and was offered a “rest” in the match against Irealand. But some what unexpectedly, Maharoof too came into form with the ball in the same match!
Now the selectors are in a tough decision, whether to remove the man of the match in the last super 8 match, and replace him with Dilhara or not.
In my opinion, both should play in the semi finals. Russell Arnold was given the chance of being the 7th batsman in the team, and he was preferred over Marvan Atapattu because of his ability to ball.
But so far, we haven’t seen much contribution from Arnold both by the bat or the ball. So, what’s th difference in going out with 6 batsmen or 7 batsmen, if your 7th batman doesn’t score?
Therefore I personally believe it’s good to remove Arnold from the team selection, and keep Maharoof as the 7th Batsman. (We saw he’s batting well against Australia in the last match)
This will allow us to go the match with 4 top form fast bowlers, and one world class off spinner to share the 50 overs we have to bowl. From the batting side, we have the strength of Sanath and Mahela coming back to form, and Chamara Silva always in form. Dislshan too can contribute with bat in the middle, and Maharoof and Vass for hard hitting in the tail. Addition of Marvan will fill the gap in the top of the order.
May be 2 changes would seems as too much for the semi final, but now we are at a point where we cannot take risks of giving more chances to players not in form.
All in all, it’s 2 more days away from the big game, and we’ll receive some news about the team selection during this 2 days.
Past Records of Sri Lanka Vs New Zealand
Another interesting fact I foud prior to this match is, both Sri Lanka and New Zealand has played exactly 526 ODI’s each (in total against all opponents) so far prior to this match. New Zealand has won 226 matches so far, with a winning record of 45%. Sri Lanka has won 240 matches, with a slightly better winning record of 47%.
The two teams has met 67 times in ODI’s, with New Zealand having won 34 out of them. Sri Lanka has won 29 encounters so far.
Sri Lanka making it to the semi finals 3 times (within 11 years), out of 9 world cups played so far is a good indication that how well developed the game of Cricket in this country during last few decades. England (the inventors of the game of Cricket) on the other hand failed to make it to a semi final of a World Cup, after their last appearance in a semi final in 1992.
For a small country like Sri Lanka, this is a great sporting achievement. So, what ever the result going to be in Tuesday’s semi final against New Zealand, we should be happy about the performances of our cricketers in this world cup. But, let’s hope that it would be “Sri Lanka all the way” as great Wasim Akram predicted before the tournament.
New Zealand’s History in World Cup Semi Finals
For New Zealand, this is the 5th time to be featured in the last 4 of the Cricket World Cup. They were semi finalists in 1975, 1979, 1992 and in 1999.
But they’ve never won a world cup semi final in the past 4 occasions they’ve featured in semi finals, which is an encouraging factor for the Sri Lankans.
I believe New Zealand’s most successful world cup campaign so far was in 1992. As one of the host nations, they won all their league matches except for the match against Pakistan. The league match against Pakistan was a Do or Die for the Pakistani’s, with New Zealand already qualified for the semi finals at the top of the points table.
Pakistan was required to win that last league match for them, in order to qualify to the 4th semi final spot. An incredible bowling spell of 4 for 32 by Wasim Akram, and a brilliant century (119 N.O) by Ramiz Raja, lead Pakistan to the victory of that match, assuring them a place in the semi final round.
New Zealand, who were the hot favorite for winning the tournament by that time, met Pakistan once again in the first Semi Final at a home venue Auckland.
New Zealand batting first, made 262 for 7 in 50 overs. Ironically, Pakistan lead by brilliant partnership between Javed Miandad and Inzamam Ul Haq, show Pakistan home in the 50th over with scoring 264 for six.
The world Cup of 1992 went into the history, as a tournament where New Zealand lost only to Pakistan (twice) and Pakistan ultimately winning the tournament.
Sri Lanka’s History in World Cup Semi Finals
Sri Lanka’s first ever appearance in a World Cup Semi Final was in 1996, when they met the co-hosts India in Calcutta.
The match ended giving a huge black mark to the Indian cricket, after bad crowd behavior. Sri Lanka were offered the winners “by default” after India was restricted to 120 for 8, chasing down 251 to win.
Next time Sri Lanka appeared in a World Cup semi final was in 2003, against Australia. Sri Lankan bowlers did it really well to restrict the defending champions to 214, raising the hopes of Sri Lankan cricket fans. But the batsmen failed to finish off the job, resulting in a humiliating loss against the defending champions Australia.
Sri Lanka’s Chances in This Year’s Semi Final
The wicket in Kingston going to be a fast bouncy track, which most commentators points out as “unfavorable” for Sri Lanka. Cricket pundits always say, Sri Lanka is a better team in sub continent conditions but fail in other conditions. But, last year Sri Lanka trashed England 5 – 0 in the ODI series in so called “fast and bouncy” tracks in England. Later that year, Sri Lanka squared the series in New Zealand.
With type of bowling attack Sri Lanka having today, a fast and bouncy wicket is going to be favorable for Sri Lanka more than anything else. Vass, Dilhara and Malinga will love to extract the extra bounce, and Murali will turn the ball even on a glass surface. Even without the conditions not supporting, these bowlers did a great job so far in this world cup.
Our batsmen on the other hand, will also love to bat on a wicket where the ball comes to bat more lively. People like Sanath and Sangakkara loves to see the ball coming to the bat faster. I can see, these 2 as the key batsmen for Sri Lanka in Tuesday’s semi final.
Marvan to Replace Tharanga?
This has been a great debate over the time among Sri Lankan fans, the media and also may well be among the selectors and the players. But I guess now it’s the time to make a tough decision.
Some one may think, changing the batting line up at the face of a semi final is a bad thing to do. But, a player like Marvan with all his experience behind him should be able to settle pretty quickly, and serve the country when he’s asked for. After all if experience matters in cricket, it should matter at a time like this more than any thing else.
Hopefully, we’ll see Marvan replacing Tharanga in the semi final, but still we don’t hear a steady word from the Sri Lankan selectors.
What to Do with Maharoof?
So far, (except for in the game against Australia) only team change we’ve done was rotating the 4th bowlers position among Dilhara and Maharoof. Dilhara was th most successful one out of the two players, and was offered a “rest” in the match against Irealand. But some what unexpectedly, Maharoof too came into form with the ball in the same match!
Now the selectors are in a tough decision, whether to remove the man of the match in the last super 8 match, and replace him with Dilhara or not.
In my opinion, both should play in the semi finals. Russell Arnold was given the chance of being the 7th batsman in the team, and he was preferred over Marvan Atapattu because of his ability to ball.
But so far, we haven’t seen much contribution from Arnold both by the bat or the ball. So, what’s th difference in going out with 6 batsmen or 7 batsmen, if your 7th batman doesn’t score?
Therefore I personally believe it’s good to remove Arnold from the team selection, and keep Maharoof as the 7th Batsman. (We saw he’s batting well against Australia in the last match)
This will allow us to go the match with 4 top form fast bowlers, and one world class off spinner to share the 50 overs we have to bowl. From the batting side, we have the strength of Sanath and Mahela coming back to form, and Chamara Silva always in form. Dislshan too can contribute with bat in the middle, and Maharoof and Vass for hard hitting in the tail. Addition of Marvan will fill the gap in the top of the order.
May be 2 changes would seems as too much for the semi final, but now we are at a point where we cannot take risks of giving more chances to players not in form.
All in all, it’s 2 more days away from the big game, and we’ll receive some news about the team selection during this 2 days.
Past Records of Sri Lanka Vs New Zealand
Another interesting fact I foud prior to this match is, both Sri Lanka and New Zealand has played exactly 526 ODI’s each (in total against all opponents) so far prior to this match. New Zealand has won 226 matches so far, with a winning record of 45%. Sri Lanka has won 240 matches, with a slightly better winning record of 47%.
The two teams has met 67 times in ODI’s, with New Zealand having won 34 out of them. Sri Lanka has won 29 encounters so far.