srilankan -Dark Horse

Srilanka is the one of the best cricket team right now, a team that can compete the giants of cricket like the oz's and the South Africans.Srilanka entered the finals of the t20 world cup and were the favorites to win since they didn't lose a single match in that season. Their  performance was par excellence,the last time I have seen the Lankans perform so well was in 1996 ,when they had won the world cup, they had a brutal attack which comprised of Sanath Jayasuriya, Arvind de Silva and our very own Arjuna Ranatunga who was the skipper of the Lankan team. But after that team performance wasn't worth mentioning .The team suffered a lot under the captaincy of Jayasuriya,Attapatu and Mahela Jawawardana.

 Of late the performance of the Lankans has been extraordinary ,the Lankan team has a lot of new finds in their team one such amazing discovery is kumara Sangakara who is quite refreshing as a captain, he is quite cool and calm in the field which remembers me of the cricketing legend Sir Late.Hansie Cronje . I know this piece of my writing will be worth less if I don't mention about Tilekerantne Dilshan whose innovative batting earned him the player of the tournament in the recently held t20 world cup.Dilshan made 317 runs at an average of 52.83 in the tournament. His unique shot above the wicket keepers head has brought him much attention and the commentators terming the shot as Dilscoop. 

The Lankan bowling attack has improved and come good with the three M's Muttiah,Malinga and Mendis. The perfect blend of spin and pace as one could say. Lankans are one such team which has been benefited a lot by playing the IPL, wherein most of its players played the IPL and delivered their share of efforts to each team in the IPL.With experienced players like Jayasuriya, Jawawardana, Sangakara, Muralidaran and some new talents like Malinga and Mendis, the Lankans are the hot favorites to bring back the 2011 world cup.

Is this the end to the oz legacy?

Shocking but true the Australians didn't even qualify to the super 8 in this years T20 tournament. I have been watching Cricket for more than 15 years and I have never seen the Australian’s perform so badly. Recently in this years T20 the windies crashed the Australian by easily chasing there target in merely 15 overs, later the srilankan's won the second match against the oz's defeating them by 6 wickets.

Now a question arises is this the end to the oz legacy? When teams like Ireland were able to qualify to the super 8's. The oz's where shattered like this, way back in 1992 world cup (which was hosted in Australia) where they out in the first round itself. And after there was no looking back, they entered the finals in the 1996 world cup which was hosted in Asia. As every one knows after that was history Australia won three world cups in a row. The aussies broke the record of windies who had won 2 world cups.

The team was in the best of form when it had all the key players like hayden,gilly,mcgrath and warne but after losing all these players i some where feel, the team struggling like how the giants of cricket windies suffered when all it's amours like viv Richards, Walsh and Ambrose retired from the game. Now a biggest challenge for the oz’s is to prove them selves in the ashes which is going to be held in July. Will the giants fail again???or they are going to retain back there glory??? Lets wait and watch.