|
Mendis
– man of the tournament
Lanka
crowned champs
Sri
Lanka emerged champions of the Canada Cup four-nation
Twenty-20 cricket tournament when they defeated Pakistan
by five wickets with six balls remaining in the final
played at the King City ground, Toronto, on Monday.
It was a real team effort that won Sri Lanka the title
with experienced Sanath Jayasuriya and champion bowler
Ajantha Mendis leading from the front to seal this memorable
victory.
The final took place in a carnival atmosphere with a
huge Sri Lanka crowd gathered to encourage our cricketers.
This was the first time such a big crowd of Sri Lankans
had turned up to see a cricket match in Canada. They
overshadowed the poor Sri Lankan Tamil crowd who were
rather unsuccessful with their protest during the final.
Sri Lankan came to the final after losing their first
round match against Pakistan by three wickets. However
they controlled the final with more confidence to fashion
out this win with one over to spare. Chasing a target
of 132-7 Sri Lanka reached it in the 19th over when
Chamara Kapugedera (17) and deputy skipper TM Dilshan
(7) were at the wicket in an unbroken 18-run partnership.
Sri Lankan experienced opener Jayasuriya led the way
with a quick 40 in 34 balls with three fours and two
sixes while young Mahela Udawatte gave him fine support
scoring 25 in 19 balls with three fours and a six off
Umar Gul, the most successful bowler of the previous
Sri Lanka match with four wickets.
Jayasuriya used his vast experience and played his usual
game giving his team a fine start with 66 runs off just
seven overs. Skipper Jayawardena did not stay long being
dismissed for five by his rival captain Shoaib Malik.
Sri Lanka then were 82-3 in 11.4 overs. Mubarak who
scored 39 in 29 balls in the previous Pakistan game,
fell lbw to Fawad Alam for eight. Kaushalya Weeraratne
who gave a superb all round performance in the last
game against Pakistan was able to score only 12 runs
before Gul bowled him.
Pakistan key paceman Shoaib Akhtar was unsuccessful
going wicketless for 40 runs in 3 overs. However skipper
Malik took 2 for 17 in 4 overs.
Earlier for Pakistan opener Salman Butt top scored with
44 in 41 balls inclusive of four fours and a six while
Misbah-ul-Haq scored an unbeaten 23 in 25 balls. Sri
Lankan key spinner Mendis once again did most of the
damage with 3 for 23 in four overs collecting 11 wickets
in three matches to take the man of the series award.
Jayasuriya was named man of the final for his blistering
knock of 40. Mendis received a completely furnished
luxury house in the UAE while Jayasuriya received 2000
Canadian dollars plus a car as his award from the main
sponsors of the tournament Al-Barrakah whose chairman
Imran was the chief guest. Sri Lankan High Commissioner
in Canada Daya Perera was the guest of honour at the
awards ceremony.
Sri Lankan coach Trevor Bayliss told The Bottom Line:
“We did a few mistakes during the previous matches
but in the final our players sorted them out to win
the game. They worked really hard and the newcomers
also contributed superbly. This is a good experience
for the forthcoming Twenty20 World Cup tournament and
we are looking forward to it. Mendis bowled really well
and our pacemen also did well to support him.”
Bayliss further said our players are very keen to play
here and the crowd support was very important in Canada.
He also thanked new manager Nishantha Ranatunga who
did a good job during the tour. Pakistan coach Geoff
Lawson said: “We played well but Sri Lanka outplayed
us in the final. The pitch suited Mendis and your fast
bowlers also did a good job to contain our batsmen.
Twent20 cricket is very interesting and I don’t
think winning the toss is important for this game.”
|
