The Hindu : Sport : Sri Lanka's top order has been prolific

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Sri Lanka's top order has been prolific

Kunal Diwan

Skipper Sangakkara reinforces his faith in Lasith Malinga

— PHOTO: AP

THE SLINGER:Lasith Malinga wasn't as deadly as Sri Lanka would have liked him to be in the match against England on Saturday. But his captain feels that he would come good in the semifinals.

COLOMBO: An ‘Earth Day' advisory that popped up on the front pages of most dailies in Sri Lanka urged people to turn out the lights for an hour, between 8.30 p.m. and 9.30 p.m., on Saturday.

This appeal to save the planet was blatantly violated at the Premadasa Stadium, where floodlights blazed over Sri Lanka's utter domination of England in the last quarterfinal match of the ICC cricket World Cup 2011.

But there was a black out too — ask Andrew Strauss and he'll tell you how exactly that worked — and the two responsible for pulling the plug on England's campaign were Sri Lanka's openers Upul Tharanga and Tillakaratne Dilshan.

Tharanga and Dilshan refused to get out, collaborated for 231 runs, the highest opening stand ever in a World Cup chase, and summoned for England the same darkness they'd plunged Zimbabwe into in the league phase, when they had helped themselves to a hundred each and put the game far and beyond the opposition.

Through the tournament, Sri Lanka, the 1996 champion and now in its fourth World Cup semifinal, has been served by its top four. Dilshan, bumped up the order, has accumulated 394 at 65.66, Tharanga 363 at 72.6, Kumar Sangakkara 363 at, phew!, 121, while Mahela Jayawardene has chipped in with 200 at 40. So, decisively prolific has the top order been that there's been little left, except for the occasional mopping up, for the lower middle order to do. The skipper, Sangakkara, has repeatedly reinforced his faith in Chamara Silva, Angelo Mathews and Thilan Samaraweera. On Saturday night that belief was extended to Lasith Malinga, whose side-arm exploits have dried up following a hat-trick (his second in World Cups, the first being the four in four that wrecked South Africa in 2007) against Kenya.

Six of his eight wickets in this tournament came in that match, and the Lankan's economy rate has been 5.64, a shade above his overall 4.95.

Having returned for the quarterfinal after sitting out a few league games, Malinga wasn't as deadly as Sri Lanka would have liked him to be, although the slinger did set-up Eoin Morgan nicely, following up his toe-crushers with a slower one.

Malinga finished with one for 46 in 10 overs and when Sangakkara was asked if the bowler had lost the zing of novelty, he said that too much shouldn't be read in one performance.

“Everybody studies the opposition and when you do that, you know how a particular bowler bowls. Malinga will surely come good in the remaining games,” the skipper said.

With three Asian countries in the last-four — and the grandmother of all contests looming large in Mohali — the home advantage has, well, been driven home.

Sangakkara too acknowledged the situation, saying that a first ever all-Asian World Cup final was a distinct possibility if his players made sure that “they cover all the basics we have to cover.”

“On Asian pitches, fitness counts for a lot, that's one of the major factors you've to reckon playing in this heat,” he added.

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