A memorable tie and two hat-tricks

With the tournament hotting up with the conclusion of each match, a memorable tie and two hat-tricks marked last week's 2011 World Cup matches played in India and Sri Lanka.

The newsmakers were India and England, Kaemar Roach of the West Indies and Lasith Malinga of Sri Lanka. India and England played out a heart-stopping tie and Roach and Malinga had batsmen tumbling as they performed dream hat-tricks. This is the type of fare that delights cricket fans no end.

Perhaps inspired by the 'I am Sri Lanka' logo of the sponsors of Sri Lanka Cricket SLT-Mobitel goes, Malinga's bowling Spell had 'slinger' Lasith Malinga specials written all over it. And the foray into the Kenyan team was, I would venture to say, in tsunami style.

Express pace

It was one of the rare and finest of express pace bowling seen in a long while. He first gave indications of what was in store for the hapless Kenyans when he had Seren Waters paying homage to him as it were, when with a ferocious in swinging yorker he hit him on the leg to have him in a kneeling position.

Then in his final spell he let loose yorkers that thanksfully evaded the Kenyan batsmen but hit the wickets like thunderbolts. They were fortunate that the missiles did not hit them on their feet.

Malinga is in line to join the yorker bowling greats of the calibre of Jeff Thomson, Wasim Akram and the present Pakistani coach Waqar Younis who were skilled masters of this difficult art and who had no peers during their halcyon days.

Malinga's demoralizing spell of 6 for 38 in 7.4 overs tells the story. He missed the first two games against Canada and Pakistan with a back injury which he picked up on the eve of the game against Canada.

Short spells

To rest or risk him was the dilemma that faced the selectors before the game against Kenya. Orders would have gone out to skipper Kumar Sangakkara from the selectors to bowl him in short spells lest he aggravates the injury.

And Sangakkara did just that as his figures show. He produced seven ruthless overs where he completely destroyed the batting, not letting the Kenyan batsmen from making an impression.

Two of my team mates at St. Benedict's College, Kotahena, Ranjit Fernando a former Sri Lankan opener/wicket-keeper and now a selector and D. Cyril Ernest who played for then Ceylon and one of the finest of spinners produced by the country, watched the Malinga show and made their comments on Malinga's bowling.

'Awesome spell of sustained bowling that would probably be never seen again. It was simply fantastic. I am glad that I came all the way from Los Angeles and watched this magic spell.

Stingers

'His yorkers were like stingers and the Kenyan batsmen must thank their gods that the stingers did not hit their legs. It may have resulted in amputation of the toes from some of them', said Dr. Ernest.

He is a precious commodity. The likes of Malinga comes once in a life time. On his day he is a match winner. We have got to treat him as something precious and nurse him through the shorter and the longer versions of the game. His spell was stunning', said Fernando.

Before the Malinga magic, another 'bullet train' from the Caribbean in the form of Kaemar Roach mowed down the cricketers from Holland. He too performed the dream hat-trick

The tie that was played out at the house full M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore was a thriller. Whenever or wherever India play, cricket mad Indians pack the venue. It was no different in Bangalore.

Thriller

The two teams entered the stadium with victories under their belts against Bangladesh and Denmark. This game was billed to be a thriller and a thriller it was;

Before going on to describe the action that unfolded out in the centre, it would be interesting to read what former Australian leg spinning sensation Shane Warne had to say about the outcome of this game.

Warne made bold to predict that there was very little to choose between India and England and that a tie would be a fitting result. And believe it or not that's how it ended. Great on you man.

Playing in conditions that are familiar to them and having a team strong in all aspects India are the hot favourites to emulate the deeds of Kapil Dev's India team of 1983 when they won the World Cup in England.

England on the other hand who gave the game of cricket to the world has surprisingly not laid their hands on the trophy from the time the limited over World Cup has been in existence. It was first played at the then Mecca of cricket - Lords in 1975.

Stuffed

After their convincing 'Ashes' victory over arch rival Australia, they were stuffed in the limited overs series that followed and they were written off when they arrived in the sub continent to contest the 2011 World Cup.

In their first game they ran into a formidable Irish team who went near to 300, making a formidable 292. England struck back strongly to make 294.

When India made 338 in 49.5 overs, with India's cricketing god Sachin Tendulkar making 120 it looked as though England were out of the picture. But a beautiful waltz from captain Andrew Strauss saw England back in the picture and in making 338 for 8 in 50 played out a heart stopping tie.

England cannot be written off this time round. And we are in for some really entertaining cricket in the coming weeks.

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