SRI LANKAN CRICKET

Mahela Jayawardana As A Batsman

2007-07-11T11:46:00.000-07:00

Mahela Jayawardane As A Batsman

Mahela Jayawardane is a fantastic batsman in both test and one day form of the game now. He is one of the batsmen who play all the shots in the cricket book. Mahela plays all his shots all around the ground. He is one batsman that any cricket fan will appreciate saying “wow, what a player”. Timing is gifted to him. The balls will fly very quickly to the boundary when they come from the centre of his bat.

Mahela is one of the best players of spin in the world cricket now. It is a treat to watch how he uses his wrists to push the balls to the gaps in the leg side for singles. He also can push the ball down the ground to long-off and long-on for singles without any kind of trouble.

Another feature of his batting is that the way he uses his feet against the spinners. Mahela comes down the pitch to hit the ball over the head of the bowler or over extra-cover. He also plays the slog-sweep whenever he wants to distract the bowler of his line and length. If he gets a short pitch delivery, he will pull the ball over mid-wicket or he will play the late-cut if the ball pitches outside the off stump.

Mahela is brilliant in both front foot and back foot when it comes to facing the fast bowlers. He is a treat to watch when one considers about driving the ball.

His cover drives and straight drives are models for any youngster to learn how to play those shots. Jayawardane is a good cutter of the ball as well. Anything short outside the off stump will end up in the boundary ropes.

The trademark shots of mahela’s batting are pull and hook shots. He is not afraid to hit the ball in the air. Whenever he play that shot it will ends up going over the ropes. Mahela can make the ball go along the ground whenever he wants to by controlling his pull shot.

Mahela As The Captain

2007-06-21T11:13:00.000-07:00

When Mahela was a young boy playing for Nalnda college,many have belived that one day he'll play for the sri Lankan national team.He played for the first 11 team when he was 14.

Mahela Jayawardana

2007-06-14T23:22:00.001-07:00

10 years ago a talented young right handed batsmen made his one day international debut against Zimbabwe. He made 74 in that match. That day most of the cricketing masterminds provoked that one day this lad will be a world class player. After 10 years he has fulfilled that profit. Today he is not only a world class batsman but also the captain of his side. He is none other than the Sri Lankan captain Mahela Jayawardana.

Mahela made a promising start to his career when he made a century (120) against England in Melbourne under lights. He has smashed the ball to all parts of the ground and took Sri Lanka to a stunning victory chasing over 300 runs.

But soon after, his one day form was shattered. His one day average was dropped severely. He was getting lots of starts but couldn’t capitalize on them. He couldn’t make a centaury for about 125 matches. The peak of this bad patch was the 2003 world cup where he made only 23 runs in 9 matches.

Mahela is a naturally gifted player. He is one of the most exclusive timers of the cricket ball. The talent was always with him. But his problem lies with his shot selection. He tried to play too many shots too early in his innings and got into trouble. Mahela was criticized lot of times for getting out after making twenties and thirties and not getting the big ones consistently.

Patience and the ability to mix caution with aggression was not the problem with Mahela because his test career is glittering with success. He averages nearly 50 in test matches and his highest score of 374(which is the 4 highest score in the test match history) shows that he is a fantastic test player. But his run scoring in overseas conditions is something that he has to work on because his performance their shows a significant difference when compared with his career statistics.