Group B - Pakistan, South Africa, New Zealand, Sri Lanka

[Legglancer]

Bond given the treatment from Sanath and Tharanga

 

[Xuhaib]

Good stuff Lanka.

 

[shortpitched713]

Bond will be devastating on this pitch. NZ will be safe if they get 180.

Greig.

 

[TT Boy]

Greig.

Definitely, was a good wicket and New Zealand will at least fifty runs short of having a competitive total. The PVA did it’s job, held the wicket together quite nicely. It was slow and low but not that troubling. The problem that arose for New Zealand was that they did not have a game plan for the pace bowlers and paid them far too much respect. Murali was always going to be the real danger but being in the mire before he even comes on doesn’t help. And I doubt they will be a worse dismissal all Champions Trophy then Jacob Oram’s. Was plumb to Jayasuriya but getting bowled to Murali like that was embarrassing.

 

[Nishant]

Great work by sri lanka....just when i thought that they were out in terms of contenders for the trophy, they come right back! It was a good pitch and |NZ just made hard work out of it! The bowl was hardly spinning for vettori! By the was, this Patel guy is quite good! Better than vettori....or am i just being too complimentary towards Jeetan Patel?

 

[Beleg]

Awesome performance by Sri Lanka.

Muralitharan showing again why he is the best bowler cricket has ever produced.

 

[JBH001]

Playing Bandara over Murali would be damn stupid and suicidal, IMO.

Murali's economy is down in the last 2 years, but what people who do not analyse these properly forget is that between , Mid 2005 and up until after the VB series, Murali was bowling during Power Play . This meant his economy rate was getting a hammering because obviously during Power Play spinners are easy to lift over the circle .

Murali was having to bowl during Power Play during this period because the support seamers to Vaas (and occasionally Vaas) was getting caned quite early on and Murali appeared to stem the tide better (despite going at an economy rate of around 5 and not his usual 3.7 odd - because the seamers got caned over 6-7 an over) .

So this needs to be borne in mind when considering Murali's economy rate decline .

Having said that he has definitely become less of a wicket taker in ODIs and more a run limiting bowler in ODIs . But unfortunately that is the nature of ODIs and if the others before him have failed to get wickets and a few batsman are already well set , not only Murali but even God will struggle to get wickets in ODIs and hence his role changes to that of a run restricter , with a hope of choking the runs to the point of making batsman make mistakes . And this often happens when the batsman take a risk or two , usually against the less inocuous bowler at the other end and therefore others get rewarded for Muralis hard work in choking the scoring .

Bandara's success in the VB series in Australia is a prime example of this .

Hmmm, fair points Jason - I did not take the Power Play into account.
That might explain Murali's econ of 4.75 this year upto the CT.

Anyway, great work by Sri Lanka, hope they can keep it up against SA on Tuesday.

 

[JBH001]

Playing Bandara over Murali would be damn stupid and suicidal, IMO.

Murali's economy is down in the last 2 years, but what people who do not analyse these properly forget is that between , Mid 2005 and up until after the VB series, Murali was bowling during Power Play . This meant his economy rate was getting a hammering because obviously during Power Play spinners are easy to lift over the circle .

Murali was having to bowl during Power Play during this period because the support seamers to Vaas (and occasionally Vaas) was getting caned quite early on and Murali appeared to stem the tide better (despite going at an economy rate of around 5 and not his usual 3.7 odd - because the seamers got caned over 6-7 an over) .

So this needs to be borne in mind when considering Murali's economy rate decline .

Having said that he has definitely become less of a wicket taker in ODIs and more a run limiting bowler in ODIs . But unfortunately that is the nature of ODIs and if the others before him have failed to get wickets and a few batsman are already well set , not only Murali but even God will struggle to get wickets in ODIs and hence his role changes to that of a run restricter , with a hope of choking the runs to the point of making batsman make mistakes . And this often happens when the batsman take a risk or two , usually against the less inocuous bowler at the other end and therefore others get rewarded for Muralis hard work in choking the scoring .

Bandara's success in the VB series in Australia is a prime example of this .

Hmmm, fair points Jason - I did not take the Power Play into account.
That might explain Murali's econ of 4.75 this year upto the CT.

Anyway, great work by Sri Lanka, hope they can keep it up against SA on Tuesday.

 

[Mr Mxyzptlk]

By the was, this Patel guy is quite good! Better than vettori....or am i just being too complimentary towards Jeetan Patel?

Considering that you appear to be basing your comment on one game, perhaps a tad.

 

[open365]

Massive change in performance from these two sides, didn't see most of the game but i'm glad to see Murlai taking wickets again and Jayawardena getting close to 50.

 

[thierry henry]

Great work by sri lanka....just when i thought that they were out in terms of contenders for the trophy, they come right back! It was a good pitch and |NZ just made hard work out of it! The bowl was hardly spinning for vettori! By the was, this Patel guy is quite good! Better than vettori....or am i just being too complimentary towards Jeetan Patel?

Patel looks a good bowler, but he has an awful domestic record over quite a long period of time. It's odd.

Patel does, however, spin the ball a LOT more than Vettori. Vettori hasn't been a big turner of the ball for a long time. He's pretty much just accurate these days, an economical ODI bowler who is generally rubbish in tests. A batting all-rounder, actually.

 

[thierry henry]

Drop Marshall bring in Taylor imo.

 

[Bahnz]

The reason why Patel has such an ordinary first class record is because all the pitches he used to bowl on in New Zealand were seamer-friendly green tops, which gave him nothing to play with.

 

[Pratters]

Welcome to cw Bahnz and Patel does seem a good prospect.

 

[Perm]

I think you've got a pretty good point bout Patel and his domestic record, the pitches in NZ are all pretty green and definately suit pace bowling more than spin. I don't know why one of the groundsman don't try and make one of the pitches a bit of a turner, see what a bit of variety does for the domestic cricket. Bit like in Australia how traditionally the SCG takes turn, Wacca works well with pace and bounce and the Gabba is good for swing.

Also, Taylor can't play in this tournament unless it is as a replacement for somebody who officially leaves the tour party. And for somebody to leave the squad requires a pretty good reason, like injury or family crisis or something like that.

 

[dinu23]

go lanka! pakistan and Sri lanka to qualify.

 

[JASON]

just got home.. missed the first innings

Cant stand these commentators :/

Agree they were extremely one sided and biased towards SL. (And I am a Sri Lankan !! )

Ranjith Fernando is pretty ordinary as usual but , Yardley seemed to have joined the SL cheering squad forgetting that commentators must be neutral. (I know he was Ex SL Coach... but still not good ! )

 

[JASON]

NZ, Pakistan and SL all in with a chance of qualifying still.

NZ must put this behind and concentrate on winning their last game as do SL , who must beat SA and not get carried away by this win in the next game of this group on Tuesday at Motera.
For that game I would play the same team or consider Bandara in place of CK .

Overall I would go with the same Team for the game at Motera.

 

[shortpitched713]

SL vs. SA will be the first very crutial match in this group, considering that its a must win for both teams. I'm tipping SA to just pip it, as SL will be too overconfident after the win, just like the match against Pakistan when they had just trounced the Windies.

 

[haroon510]

a very tough and unpridictablem tournment. i say pak and sl would qulify for sami final. as a pakistani fan i won't complain if pakistan loses it in sami final since they are going trough alot of though time but i expect them to get to sami final at least.