What's the deal with Dilhara bowling the final over?
Sri Lanka survived a huge scare when they scraped off a 2-run victory against the England today in Antigua. What surprised me was, Vaas still had two overs to bowl when England needed 12 runs to win in the last over. It is true that it was probably too risky to have him bowl the last over when he might have been a little stiff having not bowled since the 14th over of the game but having saved 2 overs of the greatest seam bowler we have, it puzzling not to see him come back to attack in the 48th over. Credit to Dilhara for pulling off a spectacular victory, but I sense Vaas has not been used in this tournament to his full potential.
posted by Hitch at 4/05/2007 06:26:00 AM
10 Comments:
agree with you on vassy being the greatest seam bowler we have,yet i feel Dilhara posed a greater threat in that specific match as to limiting scoring/taking wickets.
imho vaas doesn't have the best record with the old ball especially in the last over under pressure. memories of 15+ and even 20+ overs are just too many.
personally.. i was surprised jayasuriya wasn't thrown the ball. But of course dilhara did a massive job!
Well Bopara is not a particularly good player of fast bowling so i thought that Dilhara was probably the best option. Although i was expecting Jayasuriya to bowl i knew once Malinga's final ball was cut for four, Mahela woul opt to bowl dilhara.
As for Vaas, i think Murali's final over screwed all hopes of bringing him back on. As we all know Vass can be a bit expensive at times especially in the latter overs.
I thought bringing in Murali to bowl to Bopara and Nixon who had already got their eye in was a particularly bad move by mahela. But don't forget the move to bring fine leg up in the last over. What the hell was he thinking? Almost won England the match.
I am pretty certain that I heard Vass sniffing earlier on in the match - shortly after he started bowling. Maybe this is why he wasn't given the ball...Hope to bejesus he does not get a cold at this point.
If he does, he has a couple of days to recover :)
I think Mahela doesn't like Vaas much cause he is threatened by his seniority.
its not the first time dilhara has bowled at the death...nd even the last time he did a good job. lately vaas has been expensive whenever he comes at the later stages plus dilhara was bowlin well the whole day...so good choice by mahela
did u actually watch the match? If you did the fact that Dilhara bowled shouldn't come as much of a surprise...
did you? he already gave away 9 runs in the last over and 2 left in the last ball is considered very gettable.
the fact that dilhara only gave 9 runs off the final over was very good. the pitch was a complete featherbed towards the end of the england innings and the batsmen were just picking spots and playing their shots. didnt u guys see murali get carted for a 6 and 4 in the previous over? vass is a seam bowler, ie he's most potent with the new ball. if vass bowled the last over the batsmen wuda just advanced down the pitch and hammered him over the rope, and thats happened before.
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