simply beautiful

listenin to: nelly furtado

at the start of this world cup i thought that this would be one of my last chances to see the traditional classic old fashioned strokeplayer and the man that walked to take guard with only minor swashbuckling and modern day bravado in mind. last night's game was an indication that there may be some time left for what i thought was an endangered species. the sri lankan captain played a beautifully timed innings. general cliche terms it a 'captain's innings', which it was. jayawardena comfortably fits into the mould of a dravid or a kallis (to a lesser extent). sublime strokeplay with little fuss or pandemonium around them. operating more as a test batsmen his abrupt appearance at the crease forced him to find the guts to remain there. apart from holding his wicket amidst the collapse, jayawardena pushed sneaky singles and turned them into gutsy sixes by the end of the sri lankan innings.

there is diverse opinion on the new, young, gung-ho generation of cricket. with the pro 20 world cup taking place right here in south africa in september, the more traditional aspects of the game like tests and patient innings are being replaced by runs and wickts as fast as any team can pounce. but yesterday's game proved i may have been a bit too hasty in my lamentation of good old fashioned, thinking cricket. maybe the time has not yet come for the thinking tacticion to exit the game. i hope this to be the case.

today i like: cricket and home tomorrow
today i dislike: crazy weather cape town