Story (08)The Lankan battle,Bladescape vs. AOTF

[Jaztheman]

Oooo it's all going wrong!

Jayasuriya was brilliant and his knocks, if accompanied by others, would of won you the match. Mendis seemed to be the only decent bowler. Not a good match for you.

Keep it up.

 

[bladescape]

Test Top Tens:
Batting:
7.M.Jayawardene
Bowling:
6.Mendis
7.Murali

 

[bladescape]

1st ODI:
Sl:
Sangakkara
Vandort
M.Jayawardene
Sameraweera
Paranavitana
Dilshan
Vaas
Mendis
Indrasiri
Muralidaran
Malinga

As usual with ODI's,Sanga opens and Warna's dropped,also Sameraweera skips to Sanga's test spot.
With Dilshan taking number 6 over.
I've also done the threatened work,Vaas batting at 7,with both Mendis and Indrasiri playing.

WI:
Gayle
D.Smith
Chanderpaul
Sarwan
Barath
Bravo
Ramdin
Sammy
Miller
Nurse
Jaggernauth

Barath,Nurse and Jaggernauth in for R.Hinds,Collymore and Peters.

Match:
WI innings:251/7,50 overs.
Gayle 83
D.Smith 56

Mendis 3/43
Indrasiri 2/52

SL innings:254/8,48.5 overs.
M.Jayawardene 81
Paranavitana 53

Jaggernauth 4/41
Miller 2/66

MOTM:Mahela Jayawardene

Result:SL by 2 wickets.(With 7 balls remaining.)

Reaction:
Phew, that was close!!!
100+ opening partnership had me sweating,but both of the young spinners bowled well to reduce them from a 300+ score.

My reply started badly with both Sanga and Vandort going early.
Jaya,Samera,Parana and Dilshan led a fight back.
There was still a few runs left to get when Vaas came and went for a golden duck.
Mendis hit a few around but the run rate was 8 by the time he was out.
Indrasiri saved me,he took guard,hit Jaggernauth's fourth ball,Indri's first,over his head for four.
the last two balls followed suit.
So Dilshan finished it up with some lusty blows from Murali,as Indri only got 21.

 

[Jaztheman]

Your middle order saved you and some useful runs down the order. You need to buck up your bowling though.

Good win.

 

[age of the fall]

I'll get the first match done after school today, don't expect much, I have the feeling my ODI team is going to struggle!

 

[bladescape]

Well,mine did.
Considering that I still needed about 50 when the Windies got into my tail,I almost lost the match,still not entirely sure how Indri,Mendis and Murali got me those runs.

 

[age of the fall]

Sri Lanka

Sangakarra
Vandort
Jayawardene
Samaraweera
L.Silva
J. Silva
Dilshan
Dias
Murali
Malinga
de Silva

West Indies

Gayle
D.Smith
Chanderpaul
Sarwan
Barath
Bravo
Ramdin
Sammy
Peters
Benett
Collymore

Sri Lanka 235/10

J.Silva 66
Jayawardene 34
Bravo 3/59
Sammy 3/63

West Indies 239/3

Chanderpaul 89*
Sarwan 52*
Malinga 1/44
de Silva 1/58

Result:West Indies win by 7 Wickets
MOTM:Chanderpaul

Reaction: Well, I expected a loss here, and Its pretty safe to say I was dominated. My batsmen never really took full control of the batting pitch and got out to stupid shots. 235 was never going to be a good total. And my bowlers had nothing to work with, but a few more wickets and we could have put more pressure on the batsmen. Looking for a big improvement from both batsmen and bowlers in the second ODI.

 

[Jaztheman]

Good God, you really were dominated in that match. Massive win for West Indies and you have to see a big improvement, like you said, in the next few matches.

 

[bladescape]

2nd ODI:
Sl:
Sangakkara
Vandort
M.Jayawardene
Sameraweera
Paranavitana
Dilshan
Vaas
Mendis
Indrasiri
Muralidaran
Malinga

I'm not breaking a winning combo.

WI:
Gayle
D.Smith
Chanderpaul
Sarwan
Barath
Bravo
Ramdin
Sammy
Nurse
Peters
Bennet

Peters is back and is joined by Bennet to replace the spinners.

Match:
WI innings:211,49.4 overs.
Gayle 54
D.Smith 35

Muralidaran 5/41
Dilshan 2/21

SL innings:158,37.2 overs.
M.Jayawardene 55
Sangakkara 34

Bennet 4/41
Nurse 3/26

MOTM:Bennett

Result:WI by 53 runs.

Reaction:
Lack of time means this will be a very short summery.
Indrasiri and Mendis disappointed this time round and I'm going to change team next match.
Dilshan's part timers actually proved effective.
Jaya yet again led the way with a captain's knock,but had no support this time around.(Apart from Sanga and a few 20's around the place.)

 

[age of the fall]

Gah. Bad news for Blade and our reader. The ICC08 file on my FD seems to have corrupted, and won't even open for me. All I get is a black screen.. Me and blade will have a talk to see what we are going to do.

 

[age of the fall]

Sri Lanka vs west Indies 2nd ODI

Sri Lanka

Sangakarra
Vandort
Jayawardene
L.Silva
J. Silva
Dilshan
Fernando
Murali
Malinga
de Silva
Mendis
Dias and Samaraweera have been dropped for Mendis and Fernando, in an attempt to strengthen bowling.

West Indies

Gayle
D.Smith
Chanderpaul
Sarwan
Barath
Bravo
Ramdin
Sammy
Miller
Benett
Peters

Collymore has been dropped for Miller, WI bringing in a spinner.

West Indies 186/10

Chanderpaul 42
Bravo 29
Fernando 4/34
Murali 2/30

Sri Lanka 188/3

L.Slva 60*
Jayawardene 55
Miler 2/38
Bennett 1/37

Result: Sri Lanka win by 7 Wickets
MOTM: Fernano

Reaction: What a match for my Boys. Great to see the tally come to 1-1. Boosting the bowling was a great idea and worked great to my favor after a average bowling performance first match. Batting was solid like it always is. Along with Jaya and Silva, Sangakarra also managed 47. Looking forward to the last match, and really hoping that I can win the series 2-1

Managed to Fix my earlier problem, turn out I just had to take the save files from the corrupt version on my flash drive, and put it onto my computer version. No worries, sorry for the scare!

 

[bladescape]

Something wrong Age!
You said Mendis and Fernando,but Fernando and Gallage are written down!

 

[age of the fall]

Ah, ended up changing the team last minute, forgot that I changed my mind about gallage

 

[bladescape]

3rd ODI:
Sl:
Sangakkara
Jayasuriya
M.Jayawardene
Sameraweera
Paranavitana
Dilshan
Warnapura
Vaas
Mendis
Muralidaran
Malinga

Jayasuriya and Warnapura in for Vandort and Indrasiri.

WI:
Gayle
D.Smith
Chanderpaul
Sarwan
Barath
Bravo
Ramdin
Sammy
Miller
Nurse
Jaggernauth

Spinners are back.

Match:
WI innings:191,49.4 overs.
Gayle 78
Bravo 53

Vaas 6/45
Malinga 4/48

SL innings:192/5,46.3 overs.
M.Jayawardene 51no
Paranavitana 48

Miller 3/25
Jaggernauth 1/25

MOTM:Chaminda Vaas.

Result:SL by 5 wickets!

Reaction:
Woot!!!
My pacemen finally pick up their first ODI wicket this season to rip the impudent Windies to pieces!!!!!
Jaya was great again and Jayasuriya got 39 on return aswell!!!

Top ODI tens:
Batting:
2.Jayawardene
Bowling:
2.Mendis
9.Lasith Malinga

 

[age of the fall]

Sri Lanka vs west Indies 3rd ODI

Sri Lanka

Sangakarra
Vandort
Jayawardene
L.Silva
J. Silva
Dilshan
Fernando
Murali
Malinga
de Silva
Mendis

no changes from a winning side.

West Indies

Gayle
D.Smith
Chanderpaul
Sarwan
Barath
Bravo
Ramdin
Sammy
Miller
Jaggernauth
Bennet

Spinner Jaggernauth in for Medium pacer Peters

West Indies 224/7

Barath 45
Ramdin 45
Murali 3/23
Mendis 1/30

Sri Lanka 161/10

Sangakarra 33
Vandort 31
Miller 4/31
Bennet 3/44

Result: West Indies win by 63 runs
MOTM: Miller

Reaction: Holy collapse batman! The bowling was solid on a pitch offering little for the bowlers, but we let them get away a bit after having a bad start with Barath and Ramdin having a partnership of 84 for the 6th wicket. Still, I thought 224/7 would be easy. Sadly, I was wrong. After a partnership of 60 for the fist wicket, it all went downhill with he next few scores being 0,7,20,16,0. After that it was fairly obvious switch way the match was going and that my bad ODI form was going to continue. This series loss drops me to 8thy in the rankings, only in front of Zimbabwe and Bangla. I think I need to improve.

ODI Top 10

Batsmen

4. Sangakarra

Bowlers

5. de Silva
7. Murali