Paul L Dineen CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/>
Well, well, well… that was an actual game of cricket. It may have taken two pretty ordinary matches for Sri Lanka to remember what a cricket bat should be used for but boy did they use it well last night. Well to be fair it was their captain, Shanaka, who proved that cricket bats can be much more than a vessel for delivering cricket balls to fielders.
The Australians batted first with Finch looking solid once again and Warner continuing to be Warner, which is a good thing. Then came the familiar taste of Australian Apple Crumble as Maxwell fell for 16, followed by poor Josh Inglis who was run out for a first ball yucky ducky (look it up, it’s a thing). Stoinis was looking solid until he out-Hulked himself by looking to hit the ball back to Australia only to be stumped after forgetting it’s best to hit the thing if you’re going to walk 3 metres down the pitch. What are they teaching kids in school nowadays? The rest of the innings was left to Smith and Wade who admirably dug in and managed to get the Aussies to a respectable, yet not unreachable (derrr) total of 176. I really like Wade coming in at 7 although to be fair if we’re praising him then it means we’ve seen too much of him and too little of the top and middle order. Still, he’s like a taser in your back pocket when you’ve used all your shivs and star knives. As for Smith, I did poo-poo him a little in my last report, however I understood last night how his “new” role in the team could work. Plus he tonked two sweet sixes and you know how I love me some sixes.
On paper 176 looked insurmountable for a Sri Lankan batting outfit that seemed to be investing runs in Dogecoin, rather than putting them on the board. Still, they managed a relatively slow but solid start, only losing one wicket after 8 overs. Come the 13th over after the fourth wicket entered the shed and along comes Dasun “Boom” Shanaka. Watching two more wickets tumble, thanks to Joshy H and J Richo and not too many runs scored, Shanaka looks up to the scoreboard and sees 50+ runs needed in 3 overs. At this point you can literally see his lips mouth the words ‘Fuck it, I’ll do it myself” and hits Josh “Mister Consistency” Hazelwood for 22 in his next over. Wiley Rocket League legend Jhye Richardson steps up to the plate, ready to harsh Shanakas boost and drop some Shadow Defense (sea, I did a little bit of research into what the kids are into). This amounted to another 18 runs being scored. Which leaves me to the final over and a pet hate of mine in this form of the game. Yes, yes, Kane Richardson was put to the sword artfully but Shanaka who hit two fours and a six to tie the game with one ball to go. So with all the pent up excitement everyone readied themselves for a deliciously sneaky single or a massive six to seal the game. But what do we see instead? A wide. A WIDE! I am not a fan of this approach as a core part of death bowling in T20. I’d rather watch an underarm (bowling, not flesh/fetish). It’s the fun sucker of the most exciting part of short over games. Like a creepy uncle coming to a friends only 18th.
Regardless, Shanaka was brilliant and this all bodes well for the upcoming 50 over games which start on the 14th of June. Can’t wait!
