Turns out that everything between the Australians and Sri lankans was more or less the same- decent bowling from both sides, but nothing special, and lots of light-gray shots and top edges from both as well. The difference was Adam Gilchrist who demonstrated his clean hitting with only about half a dozen unintended mis-hits (acceptable by modern standards).
Was the Gilchrist caught and bowl chance off Fernando costly. None of the commentators seems to bother about that, as it would have made some difference, since no Australian could break away in the last ten overs.
The only disappointing thing was that Sri Lanka did not have some special defensive fall-back plan for say 3-5 overs, in case wickets did not fall. They got Dilshan to replace Fernando (when Ausssies targeted him), and then got Fernando back. But as mentioned in my preivew blog just before the finals, something more drastic was needed.
I will post a report of the World Cup soon, as a follow up to my book. The Aussies are ahead, but not by as much as most of us believe they are (as we saw the finals came down to one magical innings plus tons of luck for both sides). Most teams have not used their resources well, except Australia/Sri Lanka....
But the era of light-gray shots has set-in worldwide (the Malinga six was just as effecient as any other). Just that Australia have made a science out of it. Can someone please tell us how many boundaries in this World Cup were played along the ground and how many were smacked one bounce into the fence? How many mis-hits landed safely, if not for six....
It is time to relax a bit...more later
Saumil
saumilzx.com Mumbai
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