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Delightful innovations

LONDON: After Sri Lanka’s Mahela Jayawardene had reversed-swept him off the back of the bat during the World Twenty20 Super Eights win over New Zealand at Trent Bridge on Tuesday, Jacob Oram smiled.

The all-rounder’s expression, a mixture of bewilderment and admiration, neatly summed up the reaction of many people watching the match and was just the latest example of Sri Lanka’s enduring penchant for cricket unorthodoxy.

Extraordinary shot

Jaywardene’s teammate Tillekaratne Dilshan has wowed crowds at the tournament with the ‘Dillscoop’, an extraordinary shot where he goes down on one knee as if to sweep only to lever the ball past the wicketkeeper’s head.

But there is nothing new about Sri Lanka changing the way cricket is played. It is now more than a decade since opener Sanath Jayasuriya revolutionised the approach to batting at the start of the one-day innings by lofting the ball over the infield and even carving the ball for sixes square of the wicket on the off-side.

Jayasuriya’s dynamism helped Sri Lanka win the 1996 World Cup and was an example of how the island’s players were allowed to remain true to their natural style.

The most obvious example is in the array of unorthodox bowlers who’ve taken the field for Sri Lanka — off-break star Muttiah Muralitharan, mystery spinner Ajantha Mendis and round-arm pace bowler Lasith Malinga.

But thought, as well as talent, plays a part. Jayawardene, best known as a classically elegant batsman, was not the first man to reverse sweep a bowler off the back of the bat. — AFP

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