200+ partnerships & Sri Lanka

After the West Indies, the next best thing that could happen in the ongoing world cup would be the elimination of England who can only play a spoilsport with lack of talent and hard work. And this was very much evident when England became the 2^nd team after the mighty losers-West Indies to be the team to hand over a 10 wicket win to a sub-continent nation. But, if England has lost to Sri Lanka by 10 wickets with over 200 on board, questions will definitely be raised regarding their caliber in international cricket. England is not that bad a team to lose so badly in the crucial stages of a tournament.

I think I have just got to Enjoy what's fun and funny with the English language keeping in mind the way the English campaign is going on. An effortless win for Sri Lanka yesterday seemed as though the Sri Lankans were playing some Netherlands and not England and the game was not a quarter-final but just another game in the league stage or some stupid friendly match. Though England have not been favorites to win the cup or make it to the semi-finals, such a bad thrashing was not at all expected by anyone. Sri Lanka never needed Muralitharan to do the damage.

An ordinary Herath and Mendis were enough to restrict the Englishmen from posting a demanding total. In fact, Muralitharan didn't even bowl his full quota of 10 overs and instead settled with 9 overs despite being the most successful bowler with two wickets to his credit. Let alone taking a wicket, there was not even dropped catches to say that England missed a chance. In the 1^st match between Pakistan and West Indies, West Indies posted just 112 on the board and a 10 wicket win for Pakistan was almost expected. But things would not have been the case had they got a decent 200+ on board.

After the 4^th quarter-finals between the teams mentioned above, one has to notice the Sri Lankans having two 200+ partnerships, with the 1^st one coming against Zimbabwe and the second yesterday. They just fell short of breaking their record for the highest 1^st wicket partnership when they lost their first wicket for 282. Yesterday, had this been known beforehand, may be the Sri Lankans would have conceded another 40 runs which would have seen them into the record books. As a matter of fact, Sri Lanka hold the record for the highest 1^st wicket record against England in ODIs when they made 286.