Super Spells in WC

WORLD CUP SPECIAL Super spells in WC Chaminda Vaas Woe betide any late arrivals for Sri Lanka’s group game with Bangladesh in Pietermaritzburg in 2003: the match was as good as done by the end of the first over. Left-armer Vaas had woken up with a sore back but shook it off in time to take wickets with the first, second, third and fifth balls of the game. At the end of the first over Bangladesh were blinking at a scoreboard that showed them 5 for 4, with their No. 6 already at the crease. They made a modest recovery to 124, but Sri Lanka’s openers knocked that off without being parted in a match that lasted only 52.2 overs in all. Text by Dilanka Mannakkara Joel Garner England made a slow but sure start to their chase of West Indies’ 286 in the 1979 final at Lord’s: openers Geoff Boycott and Mike Brearley put on 129, but rather slowly, meaning the later batsmen had to hit out. Garner, toothpick-thin and skyscraper-high, had been subdued in his first nine overs, which cost 34 - but he was to turn the match on its head in his final spell. Zeroing in on the base of the stumps, first he bowled Graham Gooch for 32. Then he bowled David Gower and Wayne Larkins for ducks with successive balls, rattled the stumps again to send back Chris Old, and had Bob Tay- lor caught behind, transforming his figures with five wickets for four runs in 11 balls. Colin Croft wrapped things up in the Queenslander Bichel tore a next over, and Garner had his winners’ medal. page out of the Gary Gilmour book when Australia played Eng- land in Port Elizabeth in 2003. On a day when his team-mates returned combined figures of 1 for 181 on a slow pitch, Bichel seamed the ball around cannily to finish with 7 for 20. And, like Gilmour, he wasn’t finished: Aus- tralia looked out of it at 135 for 8, but Bichel (34 not out) combined with the arch-finisher Michael Bevan to spirit their side home Glenn McGrath with two balls to spare. “Pigeon” currently holds the record for most wickets (71) in Andy Bichel World Cup matches, and he also has the best bowling figures - 7 for 15 in 2003. But that was against lowly Namibia, and McGrath is probably prouder of the 5 for 14 that demolished West Indies at Old Trafford in 1999... or figures of 9-3-13-2 against Pakistan in the 99 final at Lord’s... or his 3 for 52 in the Lasith Malinga 2003 final in Johannesburg, South Africa appeared to be strolling to victory at Providence in which included both the vital first Guyana in 2007 when they reached 206 for 5 in reply to Sri Lanka’s 209. wicket (Sachin Tendulkar in the Malinga, Sri Lanka’s wild-haired round-armed fast bowler, was having an first over) and the last one as off day, and had figures of 0 for 48. But finally “Slinger” got his bearings. Australia retained the Cup. Ricky Shaun Pollock lost his leg stump to a slower one, then Andrew Hall was Ponting wanted McGrath to cleaned up by a toe-singeing yorker. After an over from Chaminda Vaas round things off in the 2007 cost only a single, Malinga returned, with just three needed to win... and Bridgetown final too, but in the had Jacques Kallis caught behind. Next ball Makhaya Ntini was also farcical finish to that match it was yorked, and Malinga had become the first to take four wickets in four too gloomy for him to bowl, and balls in any international match. Sri Lanka were suddenly on the verge of the game finished in the dark an amazing victory. Amid mounting tension the remaining four balls of with Sri Lanka, in a hopeless Malinga’s over produced only a single, then the parsimonious Vaas sent position, defending against the down a maiden to last man Charl Langeveldt. However, in Malinga’s next spinners. over Robin Peterson outside-edged the winning four to spoil the fairytale. =.

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