Sunday, June 14, 2009

Sri Lanka vs Ireland Highlights - Super 8s

SL Bat

Ireland Bat


Watch cricket highlights - Sri Lanka vs Ireland from the Super 8s of the 2009 T20 Cricket World Cup.

Scoreline: SL 144/9 Mahela Jayawardene 78 (53) - Trent Johnston 4-1-18-1, Alex Cusack 3-18-4
Ireland 135/7: Niall O’Brien 31 (37), Mooney 31 (21)

Fore-play: Team down at 14/2 and like he has done for years, Mahela Jayawardene bails Sri Lanka out. All those classy shots on offer here. What made the SL innings a lone-man effort (with some support from Sanath) was the uncertainty of Chamara-Mubarak lurking below him.

Ireland did most things perfectly today even with Mahela’s innings, but in the end it came down to Murali, Malinga and Mendis. Sri Lanka have been banking too much on them and as mentioned earlier on this site, against a more experienced side that plays spin well, SL could well come unstuck.

Pre-play: With all the beauty associated with a giant-killing game, you’d have to believe that Murali-Mendis and Malinga will be too much for the (relatively) inexperienced Irish, whatever they can summon with the ball. But on an individual player note, it would be good to see Kevin O’Brien come good.