It was a treat to watch Mahela Jayawardene in the first semi final of cricket world cup 2007. His inning will be placed as one of the topmost ODI inning in all time great innings list. He came at a stage when Sri Lanka was struggling after losing their top two batsmen JayaSurya and Sangakara. Jayasurya is the only batsmen in Cricket history who has scored the equal number of runs in the two semifinals that he played. In 1996 world cup semifinal against India he scored 1 run and now he scored the same against NZL in this semifinal, quite an amazing feat. When Jayasurya was returning to pavilion then Vaas showed him that he got out on a straight ball.
Now let get back to the match. Upal Tharanga also played a good knock while riding on his luck. He scored 73 runs of 74 balls. Two bad decisions could have damaged Sri Lankan chances but they had their Captain at their disposal. Jayawardene once was scoring at such a slow rate (29 runs of 61 balls) but just after 35 overs he started playing some great shots. It was a treat to watch his sixes and fours against the bowling of Mr. Bond. This inning will certainly go as one of the greatest inning ever played in ODI history in all Cricket chronicles. He was not out at 115 runs of 109 balls that means that he has scored his last 86 runs in just 48 balls.
Well i was betting on Sri Lanka to win this match before today and Jayawardene has proved me right. Now the ball is in New Zealand court and i firmly believe that they will crumble against the supreme bowling attack of Sri Lanka. Cheers to Sri Lanka who is trying hard to play the finals (In last 6 world cups, Asian teams have played 5 World cup finals and have won 3 finals). As i hoped NewZealand batting crumbled in the match despite some good knocks from Styris and Fulton, and Franklin and Patel later in the match. Murlitharan as always gave his best and demolished the NZL sedan. Sri Lankan fielding was as acrobatic and agile that even RSA will find hard to compare them, their team spirit and commitment has no parallel and i think Sri Lanka deserves to win this world cup and if they do so then no body will be more happier than me.
My heart goes sad when i look at the situation of New Zealand team as they were good but Sri Lanka was a better team this time and they deserve to play in the finals. But i feel we must congratulate Stephen Fleming and his team for a good show of NZL in this world cup. He is the most unfortunate captain in ODI history. Stephen Fleming announced his resignation as captain of ODI side in post match conference and best tribute for him came from rival captain Mahela Jayawardene "Stephen's been a great leader for New Zealand for some time, and you could learn a lot from him," he said. "He was a very attacking captain, but it's been a long time [at the top] and he probably feels he needs a break. He's been one of the top captains of the last ten years."
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