france and england through, what fun !

now we need only fiji and argentina (even scotland will do though) to get through to make this a truly upsetting but highly pleasurable rugby word cup.
if anyone wants to see nz, aus, or sa, win, go watch a match any other day.

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kumar sangakkara, time to let the bat do the talking

before the world cup i said in another blog that all the members of sri lankan cricket team, especially mahela jayawardene who was going through what is called a "bad patch" at that time, must perform if we are to go all the way. and they did. champion teams shouldn't have "passengers". this is especially true when it comes to twenty20 cricket.

unfortunately, in spite of my great respect for kumar sangakkara, i have to say he is looking like a passenger at the moment.

here are his stats for current icc world twenty20 tournament
Kenya v Sri Lanka - 30(18)
New Zealand v Sri Lanka - 14(19)
Pakistan v Sri Lanka - 18(10)
Bangladesh v Sri Lanka - 20(29)

overall strike rate (sr) is 107.89%. all the other sri lankan batsmen have 125+ srs for this tournament. without the kenya match he would have a below 100 sr.

in t20 it is unacceptable for a batsman to have a below 100% strike rate whatever the conditions. in fact preferably they should have a 150+ rate. in the last game against Bangladesh sangakkara ate 9 balls (one and half overs, 7.5% of the innings) for nothing and most of that in the first 6 over power play. this also creates pressure on other batsmen, especially on his on field partner. after 3 dot balls and a single other batsman will feel the need for a boundary in the next ball, to get the team through. at the end of tenth over during which he got out, sri lanka were 61/3 (at 101 sr) but if we deduct his 9 dots the rate is 120. we scored 86 runs (at 140+ sr) for 2 wickets in the next 10 overs

so it is time he lives up to his (well deserved) reputation and perform. otherwise we won' go all the way even if we get through tomorrow.

hope we meet pakistan at the final (and south africans or indians at the semi final) if we go through.

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some observations on t20
sour grapes?
australians are are already coming out with lukewarm statements about twenty20 cricket. hope we do not follow them down that sour grape path if we get kicked out. yes test cricket is the best, but t20 is good, as is 50 over cricket. more the better imo.

momentum index?
presentation of stats has to be updated for t20. runs per over (rpo) and required rpo rates are meaningless here. (for example, if a team scores 20 runs in the tenth over, run rate goes up by 2, and required rate goes down by 2; an index with that kind of volatility cannot mean anything). same goes for crude projections they currently use.

what is required, in addition to balls and runs comparison, is a momentum (thus volatility) indicator. while run rate for last 5 (or less) overs may do, for a really valid one, we need calculus (duckworth-lewis already uses calculus). anybody wants to create one? fans do not need to understand how it is calculated as long as it works and informs.

blue vs silver
whose bright idea was it to change sri lankan colors? new uniform sucks imo, though australians fared worse. back to royal blue please. (btw imo new sl grey/silver and indian light blue are quite different though most ppl will not realize that until they see the two teams together).

ads and sirasa/shakthi/mtv
problems with maharaja broadcast of t20 matches to sri lanka continue. as theena reminded me, it is true that others had similar problems (especially with regard to screen crowding advertisements) but this is by far the worst. others usually miss only the first ball of the over and sometimes they did interrupt the ad midway if it was eating into the ball. however at sirasa, in addition to the first ball, they cut to the ad, before the last ball of the over is fielded (so we do not know see the runs, the fielding, and sometimes the wicket). we miss the last ball completely in case of a wide or a no ball, or if the idiot on duty at sirasa do not know how to count beyond 5. so far not one ad was interrupted.

as a result of all that, we are forced to watch cricketers talking about insurance in place of their performance on the field. sri lanka insurance (among other advertisers) should be mindful about how their ads are presented.

if we go to the final and this continues, we should publish a list of brands that deprived sri lankan cricket fans of their full enjoyment during that match. only problem with that plan at the moment is that i would probably use some other method to watch it ad free

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ps
talking of ads; most of them are for cement, insurance, and other financial services. did anyone say we are in an economic crisis? may be such ppl should observes the reality.

england, pl send australia home!

request to english tewenty20 team;
in the name of cricket, please please kick the "rusty" (! as if that is an excuse) australians, in their ridiculous figure hugging dresses, out of the tournament.

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ps
hope unprofessional idiots at mtv/sirasa/shakthi can show at least few matches without losing several balls due to ads and screen blackouts. today during a 5 over period of english innings against zim, during which i kept count, they managed to lose at least 5 balls including one wicket and one chance. then again that should be expected, they are habitually unreliable (look at their so called "news"!). we better figure out how to get mobile cable tv.

very well done! we are proud of you

sri lankan cricket team, which did a great job in proudly flying the sri lankan flag on the way to the final, did the same in the final even though they lost. they showed great character in never giving up to last.

great work and thanks.

congratulations to australia! gilchrist in particular. he made the difference and we did not have any answer, though we tried our best.

we will have to wait four more years to taste kangaroos meat it seems. grrr... here i was waiting to take big bite of that :-)

as for the rain delay, bad light, etc.
first , i think 38 overs was the wrong length after the delayed start.
it is clear that even without the second brief rain interruption, or any cloud cover, 38x2 overs could not have been bowled before darkness fell. they should have reduced the no of overs further from the start or carried the match to reserve day if they wanted a longer game.

secondly, it was certainly ridiculous to start after the second interruption without formally reducing the overs and setting ( and informing all concerned ) the new target .

that second interruption and the confusion was partly responsible for our loss imo.

thirdly it was wrong of australians to celebrate before the match was formally over. i am not quite sure but according to a friend of mine umpires cannot stop a match bc of bad light.( if anyone know better pl correct me) as such even though they made a mess of it, umpires were at least following the law.

all that left a bad taste

but it was great match as far as cricket is concerned and australia won it fair and square.

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ps
terrorist pussies were up to their usual tricks tonight. typical behavior. what more can you expect? does anyone really think talking peace and appeasement of such people will work? esp. when we saw tonight the results of that part appeasement, the cfa? they will carry out attacks even when they are reduced to handful. a sustainable peace that respects the principles of democracy, justice, human rights, and freedom, and ltte as it is now, are simply not compatible. as such there is only one way to go.
anyway will write more about this later

saturday night here and there

sweat dust and pluck
scent of blood ... blue david roars
warm night rumbles

before i get too 'civilized' or something for my own good;

ඇර ලංකා, ඇරෝ !
කැංගරැ මස්, කනෝ !

:-)

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prediction:

mcgrath will get the man of tournament ... as a consolation.