Sports

My impressions of the World Cup Final

By Rev Bro Nimal Gurusinghe

I am sure that millions of Sri Lankan cricket fan are highly disappointed to see Sri Lanka losing in the final match. Now it has become history. Bygones are bygones. All the same Sri Lanka must be happy and proud, because our country became the runners-up in two consecutive World Cups. Not many countries can be proud of this achievement.

I congratulate our cricketers for this great achievement. During the whole tournament our players played very hard. They gave their best to the team. All of them played like professionals and showed the crowd that we are second to none. Our gallant cricketers kept the Lion Flag flying right through the tournament. They really brought honour and glory to our land. Hats off to Kumar Sangakkara and his team mates! I appreciate their team spirit and passion to win. It was evident the way they played in the entire tournament. Before we entered the final we lost only to Pakistan by 11 runs.

If our star bowler Lasith Malinga played that day definitely we would have won that match. Meanwhile India, before entering the final, lost to South Africa and figured in a tie with England. If you compare both teams in this angle Sri Lanka had a better side. If the final was played on a neutral venue, the result would have been different.

All the same that particular day India played like champions. Really speaking on April 2, 2011 India was the better side and they deserved to win. It was a gem of an innings by skipper M.S. Dhoni. It is difficult to perform like that specially when you are under pressure. He rose to the occasion and displayed an object batting lesson. He made sure that his country won the match. It was a memorable innings. I will always cherish that excellent and spotless innings.

What happened in the Final?
It was all over. All the same as an ardent cricket enthusiast I would like to put forward my opinion on our performance in the final. Sri Lanka won the toss and decided to bat. It was the correct decision. When we saw the pitch it was an ideal batting wicket, any team could score about 350 runs. At least a team should score about 350 runs. At least a team should score 330 runs to give a good fight against the strong Indian batting line up. Our lads had scored only 9 runs for the first five overs. Our score was 83 when the 20th over was finished. But in the end Sri Lanka managed to reach 274 runs. Thanks to Mahela, Sangakkara, Nuwan and Tissara.

Their contributions helped us to make this formidable total. Mahela Jayawardena played a magnificient innings. He played with a lot of responsibility and determination. Unfortunately after playing such a glorious knock he ended upon the losing side. If our openers had given us a better start and little more runs we could have reached at least 300.

While fielding we started with a very high note by sending Virender Sehwag to the pavilion in the very first over. Then again when the score was 31, we got the prized wicket of Sachin Tendulkar. At that time our players were overjoyed and started to celebrate the World Cup victory. But they forgot that India had another five match winning batting stars in the team. From there onwards India started building up the innings. Gambhir and Kohli put up a 83 runs partnership and maintained a healthy run rate. Then Dhoni replaced Kohli and put our bowlers to the sword. After Gambhir’s departure man of the series Yuraj Singh walked in and joined his captain. Both of them put the icing to the cake for all Indians to celebrate.

Questionable selection criteria
Ajantha Mendis really bowled well during the whole tournament. His economy rate was 3 runs per over. It was very strange our team preferred Randiv in place of Ajantha Mendis. Suraj Randiv was not in the final 15. I am sure he must have felt like a fish out of water. Naturally be could not take a single wicket.

No doubt Muralitharan is a cricketing legend. But that day he was not fit to play a match, especially an important final. It was evident from his movements. Rightly so he could not take single wicket.
If he was in good health he would have taken at least two wickets. Giving a farewell to a player and winning the World Cup are two different things. Did we want to give Murali a farewell or win the World Cup? Ultimately we achieved neither. Why did we expose a half fit player for the prestigious World Cup final? Then again it was a surprise to see Kapugedera for the final match. It became a laughing stock.

This lad never played a single match during the entire tournament, but was asked to deliver the goods in the final. Any sensible cricket fan cannot understand why Randiv, Murali and Kapugedera played in the final. Instead I feel Ajantha Mendis, Rangana Herath and Chamara Silva would have fared better.
Whatever said and done our cricketers have put Sri Lanka into a very high position in the world cricket map. I thank the cricketers for the hard work and dedication. May they go from strength to strength.

* The Sunday Times has decided to dedicate this column to its readers so that they can comment about contents in our sports columns and features and also write their own thoughts on various sports with letters to the editor.Their views however are not necessarily those of the newspaper.

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