Australians were trapped in Ajantha Mendis Jinx

Yesterday, Srilanka and Australia played their second Twenty20 match at Pallekele International Cricket Stadium, Kandy, Sri Lanka. The toss was won by the Srilankans and they chose to bat first.

Mahela Jayawardena and Tillakaratne Dilshan opened the batting innings for Srilanka. Tillakaratne Dilshan was unsuccessful again as he got out after scoring 4 runs only. Mahela Jayawardena batted well till 19.2 over and got out scoring 86 runs in 63 deliveries that included 12 fours and 1 six. Rest other players did not make it big, they just contributed few runs here and there. Finally Srilanka managed to put up a total score of 157 runs on board in 20 overs loosing 9 wickets (SL - 157/9, 20 over). Brett Lee and John Hastings took 3 wickets each.

Australia needed 158 runs to win the match and start the innings with the openers Shane Watson and David Warner. Both of the started pretty well and the start given by Shane Watson was outstanding. For the first 6 overs, Shane Watson belted the bowlers hitting the ball in all the corners of the ground. He scored 57 runs in just 24 deliveries that included 6 fours and 5 sixes. He got out in Ajantha Mendis delivery by giving a straight catch to Thisara Perera. After the fall of Shane Watson, Australians lost 3 more wickets in just 3 runs. After this, Australian skipper Cameron White took the charge along with Steven Smith and were back on track. Srilankans started to struggle a lot in getting a wicket. Finally Ajantha Mendis struck back with his 4th wicket and broke the partnership. After this, they were back on track and managed to keep pressure on the Australians till the end of the innings. Australia could put up a total of 149 runs only with the loss of 9 wickets in 20 overs (AUS - 149/9, 20 over). Ajantha Mendis was the highest wicket taker in the match. He also created the world record in T20 history by taking 6 wickets and the first Srilankan to get 5 wickets in a match.

Srilanka won the match by 8 runs. Man of the match was Ajantha Mendis for taking 6 wickets and creating a new T20 world record.

ICC World Cup 2011 updates: Day 2 match 2

The second match of the day was played between Srilanka and Canada at Mahinda Rajapaksa International Cricket Stadium, Hambantota, Srilanka. Srilanka won the toss and elected to bat first.

Srilankans gave a pretty good start with the openers Upul Tharanga and Tillakaratne Dilshan. Both put up a partnership of 63 runs in 11.5 overs. After the first break, Srilankans came back even stronger with Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayewardena who scored 92 runs and 100 runs respectively. This helped Srilankans to put up a very good total against the Canadians. Srilanka managed to score a total of 332 runs with the loss of 7 wickets. Jimmy Hansra was the only bowler to manage to give a run rate of less than 6 runs per over. He bowled 9 overs with an average of 5.22 runs per over.

Canada needed 333 runs to win the match which was supposed to be an almost impossible target for them as they were facing one of the strongest team. Right from the start of the second innings, Srilankas picked up wickets which kept pressure on the Canadians. They could not resist the Srilankans bowling attack and kept on loosing wickets regularly. By 36.5 overs, Canada managed to score a total score of 122 runs and lost all its 10 wickets.


Srilanka won the match by 210 runs. Man of the match went to Mahela Jayewardena for his quick century.

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ICC World Cup 2011 updates: Day 2 match 1

On the day 2 of the ICC World Cup 2011, 2 matches were played.

First match was between New Zealand and Kenya which was played at MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai. Toss went into the favor of Kenya and they elected to bat first. They gave a very slow start, with an run rate of around 2 runs per over. Even this slowness did not stop NZ from picking up wickets. First wicket was fell in the last delivery of the 7th over. Kenyans started to loose wickets regularly but could not score enough. They some how managed to put up a total of only 69 runs before loosing all the 10 wickets. By 23.5 overs, Kenya lost all 10 wickets and ended up scoring 69 runs. Hamish Bennett picked up 4 wickets, Tim Southee and Jacob Oram picked 3 wickets each.

The total was just an cake-walk the kiwis. By 8 overs, Kiwis chased the total successfully. They scored 72 runs with no loss. Martin Guptill scored unbeaten 39 runs and Brendon McCullum scored a unbeaten 26 runs. New Zealand won the match by 10 wickets.

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ICC World Cup 2011 updates: Day 1

On Saturday, first match of the ICC World Cup 2011 was played. It was between the hosts India and Bangladesh at Mirpur. Bangladesh won the toss and they let the Indians to bat first. At start i was afraid that India might loose the match as the pitch is well known for its second innings. Virender Sehwag stayed long and played well. He scored a magnificent 175 runs in 140 deliveries and got out. On the other hand Virat Kohli played gave a good standing and he scored his debut World Cup century in the first match itself. This partnership helped India to put up a huge total of 370 runs with the loss of 4 wickets.

In response, Bangladesh gave a flying start that brought them back to the winning track. This partnership was shattered when Munaf Patel bowled Imrul Kayes. After this, the asking rate started to increase and the pressure kept on building up. By 50 overs, Bangladesh managed to score 283 runs with the loss of 9 wickets.

India won the match by 89 runs. Man of match was Virender Sehwag for his brilliant batting innings. Next India will take on England at Chinnaswamy stadium, Bangalore on 27th of Feb. Bangladesh will be playing against Ireland on 25th of February at Shere Bangla National Stadium, Mirpur.

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Champions League Twenty20: Wayamba Elevens vs Victorian Bushrangers

Yesterday, Wayamba Elevens faced Victorian Bushrangers at Centurion, Tshwane. This was one of the important and a must win match for the Victorian Bushrangers in order to make it to semis. Wayamba Elevens had already lost 2 matches that makes them to walk out of the tournament once this prelims is over. Wayamba Elevens won the toss & elected to bat first.

Mahela Jayawardene and Jeevantha Kulatunga opened the batting innings for the team. They gave a very good start in the very first over scored 9 runs in that over. Jeevantha Kulatunga got duck out in James Pattinson's first delivery. Even Mahela Udawatte got duck out in the very same over where Wayamba lost its second wicket with a total score of 9 runs. Jehan Mubarak and Mahela Jayawardene put up a 71 runs partnership which helped the team to come out of a very bad situation. But after the break of this partnership, Wayamba Elevens were totally destroyed. They lost remaining 7 wickets very quickly. By 16.3 overs, they lost all the 10 wickets and made a total score of just 106 runs. Peter Siddle took 4 important wickets which helped them to restrict the Wayambas to land up with 106.


Victorian Bushrangers needed 107 runs to win the match and keep the hopes alive to enter into semis. Aaron Finch and Brad Hodge started the batting play for the Bushrangers. Brad Hodge got out quickly and so was Matthew Wade. Aaron Finch stayed till the end of the their batting innings. David Hussey came in to bat with Aaron Finch and made a good partnership of 77 runs. David Hussey remained unbeaten scoring 47 runs from just 28 deliveries which included 4 fours and 2 sixes. By 13.2 overs, Bushrangers made a total of 108 runs thereby defeating the Wayambas by 8 wickets. Man of the match was Petere Siddle.


After this victory, the Bushrangers have to win their last match with a huge margin so that even if Chennai Super Kings with lower margin, Bushrangers will enter into semis. CSK are looking very dominant and have more chances of making it to semis.