Krish Srikkanth captained India in that
tour to Pak when Sachin Tendulkar made his debut … Cheeka had Kapil Dev,
Vengsarkar, Ravi Shastri – playing under him. Sachin after relinquishing Captaincy played
under many other captains. When Dhoni
rose to Captain, read that in a match, after a delivery, he moved towards the
bowler for giving some advise, Dinesh Karthik, a senior at that stage, also
reportedly started moving .. Dhoni – stopped, asked DK to wait there itself,
went over and passed on his instructions …. Some hailed it as clear assertion ……….
Now in a different yardstick, people say that Lankans have an advantage !!
The World T20 which has seen Netherlands
being bowled out for a lowly 39; NZ 60; Eng 88; Aussie 86 …… has moved to the
next stage… today – WI play Lanka in the Semis; while South Africa would play
India tomorrow in the other Semi finals. Lankans are called ‘bridesmaids’ as they could make to semis or better six
times, but yet to win once … there also is the chokers, whom we expect to do
now.
Cricinfo writes that in their previous
match, Sri Lanka were without full-time T20 captain Dinesh Chandimal, who was
suspended due to an over-rate offence, and hence Lasith Malinga picked up reins. Such is the
wealth of captaincy options that Chandimal may not play in the semi-final and
Paul Farbrace, Sri Lanka's
coach, said that the experience provided by the likes of Mahela Jayawardene and
Kumar Sangakkara was of huge benefit on the pitch and in helping young players
to prepare ~ added, you have Dilshan, Anjelo Matthews too. Having former Captains in the side is now
stated as a great advantage……… many a times, having too many ex-captains would
only add to confusion in a powerplay of egoes…
Lankan Lions are powerful – they have
reached the last four or better in six of the previous eight events, going back
to 2007. The prize has eluded them every time. Their semi-final in this tournament
will be a rematch of the final from last time around, when West
Indies stole the hosts' thunder. Sri Lanka's passage to this point
has not been as serene as some predicted, although they managed to top Group 1
on run rate. They were pushed hard by fellow semi-finalists South Africa, then
ambushed by England on a dew-drenched evening in Chittagong and it required a
show of bottle, with Rangana Herath playing the genie, to haul themselves past
New Zealand in the final match.
Paul Farbrace, Sri Lanka's coach and the only
Englishman still left in the competition, expects that his team would beat WI
and would lift the cup too. They rely on
quality spinners Ajantha Mendis, Rangana Herath and Sachithra Senanayake. The coach Paul Farbrace had a brief
first-class career as a wicketkeeper with Kent and then Middlesex and Kent and
was with the England women's team and then the
Under-19s.
Windies are high on octane ~ they leaked 178
against Australia
(but still managed to win) and are on a six hitting spree with their Captain
Darren Sammy leading from the front. Samuel
Badree at the start of the innings, and Sunil Narine through the middle and end
overs, have been successful. Darren Sammy alone has caused immeasurable damage
to the opposition bowling figures during the end period, scoring 99 off 39
balls. Sri Lanka and West Indies have played five Twenty20 internationals so
far, all of them in the World Twenty20. While Sri
Lanka won the first four, West
Indies beat them in the big game, the final of the 2012 edition,
by 36 runs.
Away from this contest, India has some
concern as Yuvraj Singh didn't take part in Wednesday's training session after
suffering a blow to his ankle while playing football – according to Team media
manager, he had a blow on left ankle, arising out a tussle for the ball near
the goal. Yuvi should recover in time …..
but this is not the first time, players pick up injuries doing things not
related to cricket and why do coaches thrust on players things which will not improve
the cricketing abilities…..but hazard injuries.
Incidentally, I saw Senanayake too
wearing a full-sleve while bowling against New Zealand… !! – to end, Indian
women made 106/7 with Mithali Raj top scoring 39 – restricted Pak to 100 for 9 and
booked a place in the 2016 Women's World T20 in the qualification play-off in Sylhet. Six
teams - the four semifinalists and the two winners of the play-off games -
qualify directly for the next edition of the tournament, while the other teams
go into a separate qualifying tournament.
In the Women T20 WC – Aussie play WI in the 1st Semi
today and tomorrow Eng play SA.
With regards – S.
Sampathkumar.
3rd April 2014.