Related Links : World Cup 2007 : Scorecard
Ireland’s dreams of causing an upset in their farewell match of the World Cup was drenched by a clinical performance from Sri Lanka. The match turned out to be an utterly ridiculous affair at St George’s in Grenada with Ireland getting skittled out for 77 and then Sri Lanka knocking the runs in exactly 10 overs. Mind you this was a 50-over International and what a shame it is for everyone connected to the game to see such a poor game. The ‘one bad day’ of both Pakistan and India has devalued the tournament with the fans all around the world having to bear Ireland and Bangladesh (although they did beat the Proteas) put up those sorry performances in their Super Eights Matches.
Mahela Jayawardene and his team meant business right from the start. Just like Australia, they put the weaker opposition to bat first having won the toss. The opening start from Jeremey Bray and William Porterfield was a promising one as far as the scoreboard was concerned. The two batted together for 7.3 overs as Ireland lost their first wicket at 28. But then Farveez Maharoof who had given the breakthrough went onto take another three wickets which got Ireland at 46 for 4 as it was time for many fans to switch off their television sets to avoid watching a disgusting one-sided contest. It was pure seam movement from Maharoof who had used his height to good effect and he was given great support from the acrobatic Sangakkara behind the stumps. Maharoof was later the choice for the Man of the Match.
Muttiah Muralitharan and Chaminda Vaas were surprisingly included in the team today and out went the unlucky Malinga Bandara and Dilhara Fernando. Murali is unplayable for some of the better batsmen around the world and the Irish batsmen are no genius to pick his variations. Murali in a a spell of just 5 overs took four wickets as Ireland were kept down to 77 with their innings lasting only 27.4 overs. Maharoof bowled out his 10 taking those four wickets for 25. Chaminda Vaas was the other wicket taker with one scalp in 5.4 overs. The top scorer for Ireland was Bray with 20, he also faced the most deliveries among all the batsmen which is just 29 balls! There were five ducks registered in the innings and only three batsmen getting into double figures.
It was another failure for the Upul Tharanga, the talented left hander, out for a duck in the first over. It was a soft dismissal with Tharanga not bothering to put his cut shot along the ground. Likewise Kumar Sangakkara also fell going for an ambitious shot, he made 10. Sanath Jayasuriya and Mahela Jayasuriya saw the Sri Lankans through to an 8-wicket win with as many as 240 balls to spare! Jayasuriya had got 24 from 20 with 3 fours and a six while Mahela got 39 from 27 with six fours and a six. Now that was one of the worst matches in the history of the game, not Sri Lanka’s fault though for being utterly professional! Some of the experts believe that Sri Lanka should have batted first as that would have given their batsmen some time in the middle ahead of the Semi-Final. As far as Ireland are concerned, they need some more exposure as they have shown promise in their game to be the best amongst the minnows.