***Official*** South Africa in Sri Lanka 2014

[viriya]

Classic Mendis stats padding

Knew that would come from you .. could argue that he should've been bowled earlier considering how he has the knack of taking wickets.

Malinga the masochist comes back to get some more treatment.

 

[viriya]

he has picked up two now but as you say, think its a little late..goes without saying we will have to bat really well if we are to win this one!! seems like a big breeze there, anyone tell me if that is affecting the fast bowling and hence filling the team with spinners?

Malinga was definitely affected by the breeze.. Sena needed a few to get used to it as well..

With SA it's all about getting them to bat last these days it seems.

 

[YorksLanka]

bad day at the office from us? what is worrying is the bounce that our bowlers are getting from this track, they will be the same but with an added 10-15 mph to deal with also...

 

[viriya]

bad day at the office from us? what is worrying is the bounce that our bowlers are getting from this track, they will be the same but with an added 10-15 mph to deal with also...

Fielding was atrocious for sure.. definitely the worst I've seen this year. 2-3 missed chances and countless misfields..

Chances of this being chased is very near 0% - especially when we don't have Thisara in the line-up. Dilshan or Sanga would have to conjure some magic for SL to even come close.

 

[Maximas]

Yeah, bad day, Malinga had a shocker and we had a poor day in the field, Herath the only bowler to embrace the conditions and trouble the batsman, as good a spell as I've seen from him in an ODI tbh.

 

[viriya]

Only positive is that Herath will get to bowl all day in the Test matches..

 

[Maximas]

The top 3 will decide this chase, if Kusal fires or Sanga and Dilshan put a big partnership on like they often do - game on, if they don't - forget about it.

Well batted SA by the way, punished us very well

 

[OverratedSanity]

SA can do much better than Kallis in odis

 

[karan316]

Knew that would come from you .. could argue that he should've been bowled earlier considering how he has the knack of taking wickets.

Malinga the masochist comes back to get some more treatment.

Yap, Matthews missed a trick here, a long spell by Mendis in the middle overs would have made a lot of difference, he would have picked a couple of wickets which would have made the SA batsmen a bit more cautious.

And again, there's no stats padding like Maximas said, he bowled a very decent 49th over with two batsmen in full flow. Such things happen in the death overs, you might pick a wicket or two or you might go for plenty. You can't say that just because he had it easy in this match. He is in fact a lot more useful than his stats.

 

[Maximas]

Mendis was completely ineffective today save for one good piece of bowling to get a good batsman out and a lucky dismissal that could have gone for 6 on another day long after it mattered, that is absolutely stats padding. Did you see his spell whilst bowling with Herath when the game was in the balance? Was milked with remarkable ease

 

[YorksLanka]

i suppose the fact that he doesnt spin the ball much will make him easy to milk especiallyon such a big playing surface as Sooriyawewa..

 

[YorksLanka]

so we will have to make history to win this one, tough ask but hopefully we can do it..

 

[Maximas]

i suppose the fact that he doesnt spin the ball much will make him easy to milk especiallyon such a big playing surface as Sooriyawewa..

Yeah, that's the issue, especially with the WC in mind, but usually in the SC there's enough there for him

 

[Maximas]

Well, got the start required at this early stage, think a century partnership is gonna make this real interesting

 

[YorksLanka]

hmm lets build a ground at huge cost in the middle of nowhere, with no decent infrastructure around it and with a massive breeze blowing across it constantly..#greatwork

 

[Maximas]

gotta love SLC, although tbf the government wants to develop this city quite a bit I hear

 

[Maximas]

Wouldn't be Kusal Perera if he didn't get out in such a soft way after such a promising start

 

[YorksLanka]

he has got us off to a great start, hopefully the others can back him up and get us home. i do like Mahela batting at five. good move to hold middle order together

 

[YorksLanka]

odds on a run out between these two? guaranteed when Dilly bats...

 

[smash84]

Wow. Apparently the wind is stupidly strong. Should make the game quite interesting