Punter & Australia - Down & Under

After a day of upsets, peace and quiet settles in. Bangladesh and the Australians are sent packing home.

I'm not going to concentrate on the Bangladeshis too much, but they deserve to be mentioned. Again I was disappointed by Ashraful's batting. The youngster is so talented and can gets starts in almost every match, but he has a nasty habit of throwing it away. Mortaza the batsman and the bowler came to the party even though he was on the losing side. Credit has to be given to Trent Johnson and also the O'Brein brothers. Ireland deserved to win and they did that by scoring their highest T20 score.

Australia also are sent home packing by Sangakara's men. The Australian batsman struggled against Mendis and couldn't read him at all. They found Muralitharan more easy!! Imagine that. The Australian batting line up is strong but it failed to click again. I don't understand Ponting and his decision to send Haddin ahead of the Hussey brothers fails all common sense. Maybe he was sent because he is probably Australia's best player of spin, but wouldn't a set Mike Hussey be more dangerous ?

The Australian fielding was up to it's usual standards as Warner pulled a beauty to dismiss Jayasuria.

Chasing 160, I was expecting alot from Jayasuria, but sadly it was not to be. Sending Dilshan opening turned out to be a brilliant move and the skipper, Sangakara's innings sealed the door for Punter and his men.

The Australian bowling line up lacks teh intensity. Brett Lee was fiesty in his first spell and the bouncer to get rid of danger man Jayasuria said just that, but sadly coming from injury he has this no-ball problems. No - balls are not acceptable in this format where a free hit follows it. The Aussies also lack a genuine spinner. Nathan Hauritiz did impress me yesterday but will he be consistent and come up with the wickets the Aussies require in the middle over. Micheal Clarke's slow left arm spinners seemed to do the trick but Sangakara had the game well within his reach. Mitchel Johnson, Watson and Bracken didn't trouble the men from the Emerald Isles and the Aussies clearly missed the services of Symonds both with the bat and the ball.

The heroes for Sri Lanka were the usual Dilshan and Sangakara. Dilshan was outstanding as he continued the form from the IPL. He tends to get his runs so easily that runs tend to flow when he is at the crease. Sangakara was outstanding as he paced his innings well and stayed through till the job was finished. Another hero was Mubarak, who caught my eyes. The young man was outstanding and helped finish the job along side his captain.

I hope this at least teaches Punter and his men to be humble. They are no more the world champs and we can clearly see that now.

A new era has begun - The new has come and the old has passed.

Good going Sri Lanka, humbling the 'invincible' Aussies.

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Posted in: Ashraful,Australia,Bangladesh,Bracken,Brad Haddin,Clarke,cricket,Dilshan,Ireland,Lee,Mendis,Michael Clarke,Mubarak,Muralirtharan,Ponting,Sangakara,Sri Lanka,T20,Trent Johnston,Warner