da bet esporte： Plays of the Day for the second ODI between Sri Lanka and India in Colombo
Sriram Veera in Colombo31-Jan-2009
Speed often kills, greed sometimes kills © AFP
Run Forrest run
It’s a nice line for a movie. Not always in cricket. Virender Sehwag,who was in complete control in the middle and had started to indulgehimself against the seamers, ran himself out. He whipped ashort of a length delivery from well outside off through midwicket andran two. Speed often kills, greed sometimes kills. He turned for thethird run, perhaps thinking Muttiah Muralitharan wasn’t going to get his throwquickly to the bowler. Muralitharan relayed the throw to Sanath Jayasuriyastanding near the 30-yard circle. The ball reached the bowler ThilanThushara who broke down the stumps, with Sehwag making a desperatedive at the crease.To run or not to run
Mahendra Singh Dhoni pushed the ball towards long-on and set off for a run.Just a tiny snag in the operation, though. Yusuf Pathan was caughtball-watching and only responded after he realised there was no mid-onin place. Dhoni had a few words to say to Yusuf. Next over, Dhonicalled Yusuf again for a quick single. This time, Yusuf respondedimmediately. He shouldn’t have. There was no run in it and he wascaught well short of the crease. As he walked off he spit the chewinggum in the air and flayed it with his bat. Wonder if it got stuck onhis bat.Shout loud and long to get the umpire’s nod
It’s a nice philosophy that works many a time. Nuwan Kulasekara hitSachin Tendulkar’s pad with an in-cutter and turned around to screechout an appeal. The umpire Brian Jerling was impassive. Kulasekara persisted with the appeal. Tendulkar decided it was time to show his bat to Jerling, indicating an inside edge. Mistake. The umpire showed the fatal finger. The replays didn’t reveal any edge but showed that the ball was missing leg stump. Ah well…Version two: Yuvraj Singh is caught in front by that man Kulasekara again. He knows his umpires well. Again, he let out a long cry from hell that moved Gamini Silva enough to lift his finger. Yuvraj was dead in front of the middle stump but Silva missed out a minor detail – a big inside edge.Shout loud and long but have a look at the batsman too
Dhoni tried to glance a delivery down the leg side off Farveez Maharoof and the bowler went up in appeal for a catch. He pleaded. Jerling kept quiet. Maharoof was turning red when Jerling asked him to have a look at the batsman. A puzzled Maharoof turned to see that Dhoni had long vacated the scene. A sheepish grin spread across his face when Mahela Jayawardene enveloped him with a bear hug.Six thrills
Adam Gilchrist once said that the greatest thrill about hitting asix is that the batsman knows that it’s a six a fraction of a second beforethe rest of the stadium knows. Yuvraj would have reallyappreciated that feeling today. Hitting sixes is not uncommon for himbut he swung his nemesis – Ajantha Mendis- over long-off today. Hehit Mendis for a six in the previous tour but that was an act ofdesperation before Mendis swallowed him in the same over with aperfect carom ball. However, today, Yuvraj had pocketed the queen(red) and won that board game.Crowd trouble
Ishant Sharma was hit by a nut/stone/unidentified flying object by some nutter in the crowd when he was standing at fine leg in the 24th over. But to blame the crowd for one person’s moment of madness would be wrong. They have been a lovely crowd actually, swaying to the tunes belted out by the local band and enjoying the game under the lights. Play was held up for five minutes when Jayawardene went with the umpires to the offending area to pacify the crowd while the Indians got into a huddle near the pitch. Security thickened immediately around the boundary line.Old trick fails some times
Ishant speared one down the leg side, evading the attempted glance from Thillina Kandamby. Dhoni, perhaps egged on by the appeals when India batted, let out a shout. The thought had to be applauded: Belt out an appeal to escape from a wide. However, umpire Brian Jerling proved a killjoy and extended his arms. Hopefully, in gully cricket, it still works.Stumped
The equation for Sri Lanka was 56 from 39 balls when Zaheer Khan yorked Maharoof. It was the perfect yorker that squeezed under the bat and hit leg stump. Well, almost perfect. The bail didn’t fall. What’s more, the ball proceeded to run away to the fine-leg boundary. A reporter wondered whether the stumps were sponsored by Fevicol. Alas, Maharoof didn’t prove tooadhesive, though. He fell in the next over, yorked by Ishant, who thanked him as he departed.