There would of been some red faces. Did you see the shots Pollock and Hall played when there was all the time in the world to get the runs?

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"Checkout the big brain on Brett" Pulp Fiction

I did, but I also noticed that they were both slower balls. Credit here must go to Malinga, he totally outfoxed the batsman. Many top order batsman are fooled by his slower ball. Besides, Pollock and Hall should not even have batted. Why dont you ask Kemp when he is going to "finish" a game for SA. He can only score when SA bat 1st. He is a luxury in the team at the moment. Surely Prince or Bosman cannot do any worse. Do not balme the bowlers, blame the batsman.

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434, world record for the shortest period. Whos choking now?

To start with, that was a game SL should have won easily. Advantage was given to the opposition during the last two overs of the Sri Lankan innings where Sri Lanka lost 4 wickets for just 1 run and unable to play out the 50 overs. The Murali run-out at the end was just rubbish.

During the lunch n' break Africans had the mental advantage over Sri Lanka. The Sri Lankan body-language on the field was just okay but not what was required. At least they did well to show what they showed. The SA body-language wasn't great either.

At the end of the day even though South Africa got the two points Sri Lankans do have the mental advantage. Shaun Polock again was targeted and went for so many runs in a such low scoring game. Arnold and Dilshan got a good workout. South africa promissed that they would paly Murali safe for his 10 overs not sacrificing any wickets but they gave him 3 (I think for 34 runs). Again Vassy did the early wicket and he was very tidy. It was so facinating that Mahela kept faith on Malinga. And Malinga proved that Mehela was right, he got 4 wickets under serious pressure and almost won the match for Sri Lanka single-handedly. Sanath bowled alright.

To me the highlight was the day was the shocking run-out of Murali to end the Sri Lankan innings. A team which sacrificed a wicket like that didn't deserve to win the game! It was a good game for the Sri Lankans where they were tested to the deepest and almost ended SA in a cry.

Well, it could be argured that Sri Lanka were getting a hiding until SA ALLOWED them back into by throwing away wickets at the end. The mere fact that Jayawardene admitted that his team was outplayed makes your comments look silly. Another fact is that it took a record breaking performance (4 wickets in 4 balls) from Malinga to give Sri Lanka any hope in this game. Also please look at Malinga's figures to the top order and not to the tail-enders. Pollock was targeted, yes but then so was Malinga and Maharoof. SA were cruising and Jayawardene's ca[taincy was poor. He never put pressure on SA (Particularly the Gibbs, Kallis) partnership and allowed them to work singles freely. ALso, he should have had more than 1 slip for Petersen at the end. Like I said the only reason Sri Lankans have anything to say about the game is because of Malinga. In ALL other departments,it was not even a contest. For proof, look at what happened when Sri Lanka played SA in the champions trophy (on the sub continent) last year. The same should have happened here. Also you are forgetting that it took a fighting partnership from Arnold and Dilshan just to get a respectable score. Sri Lanka were outclassed and should have got hammered.

I doubt that very much. SA will know and believe that they outplayed Sri Lanka. As far as I care, Sri Lanka can pretend that they have an advantage. Next time, SA will be more clinical.

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434, world record for the shortest period. Whos choking now?

Makes no difference as far as I am concerned - this was the best low scoring match of the WC thus far, if not thee bast.
Kallis was outstanding despite his criticts, I think he would have lifted a gear if he to.

Murali denied a Hat Trick by what (was it) the deteriating Harper.
SA deserved their win IMO, but the Sri lanka bowlers played welll.

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Ern

They sure need to. They were cruising home when Malinga's inspired spell nearly derailed them. Credit to Langevelt for seeing out a Vaas maiden.

I agree with the comments about Kemp. I was trying to work out what his role is if he doesn't bowl. There must be better batsmen than he?

Mind you, an inspired Malinga (which is what we get most of the time) can be a handful to any team, including Oz.

Hard to believe they throwed their wickets away. Perhaps Shaun Pollock was to hit a boundary but yet again he was deceived by a slow delivery. I didn't think that Hall throwed his wicket away either. He too was deceived. He was waiting for the quick stuff. Well, Kalis never throws it away. In that series in Sri Lanka where SA lost 5-0 this amazing Kalis was the Man of the Series (if my memory is right). He was trying to survive from a full delivery pitched outside the off stump.

Well, in the match against India, India enjoyed nearly 70% of the game. But didn't win the game :-) The comments made by Mahela reflects his own poor run with the bat. But it is true that SA had 90% of the game. It is the magnitude of the damage what matters not the duration of the damage. And that's the nature of the game.

It doesn't matter who performs and when he performs as long as somebody is there to stand up when it still matters. I think when he performed it still mattered!

Yeah, quite right Maharoof was targeted. I also understand Mr. Pollock is ranked 1 :-)

Agreed upto an extent but that doesn't make Graeme Smith better. He just had to get one more wicket and SL could have been kept easily under 150.

India too was crusing when they had Shewag and Dravid on the middle. But they didn't win the game. I admit Mahela did a few mistakes. Telling a one - he should have bowled Vassy as soon as Gibbs arrived to the wicket. Vassy has dominated Gibbs for so long. Anyway with all those mistakes of Mahela that was the first time that the opposition scored 200 against Sri Lanka in this WC (having played 3 test playing nations). And that is too with some effort. But true Mahela did a few mistakes.

That's not right. There will be good performances and not-so-good-performances in any given match. Just forget about the Malinga's performance. That was a score-225-and-win-the-game thing for Sri Lanka. When they eventually got out for 209 when they could have easily reached 220 was a great mental boost for the South Africans. Not only that, it had a negative effect on Sri Lankans. Murali's run-out was a shock. Not that he could have scored more runs had he stayed, just that, that was a wrong example from a senior player. To me that shocked the entire dressing room.

It was a fighting partnership. I never under-estimated that.

Well, then why SA didn't try to finish the match off quickly when they had just less that 30 runs to win with 5 more wickets in hand (that could have improved their Net RR)? They were afraid that's why.

SA conservatism strikes again, afraid to shut the game out quickly and easily, as it was they almost performed their finest choke yet. 5 to win 5 wickets left and they came a whisker away from losing.

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Mark.