Lankan spinners fashioned road to semi final

Elmo RODRIGOPULLE reporting

Trent Bridge, Nottingham, Wednesday - It was the MAGNIFICENT THREE - Mendis, Muralitheran and Malinga who fashioned Sri Lanka"s victory over New Zealand in the final Super Eight match and helped them book their passage into the ICC World Cup Twenty20, here at Trent Bridge, Nottingham on Tuesday.

After Tillakaratne Dilshan 48 returned to form after his duck against Ireland, Kumar Sangakkara 35 and Mahela Jayawardene 41 not out who is in sparkling form took Sri Lanka to 158 for 5, the three Ms struck hard at the Kiwis to send them flying out of the competition.

This was a make or break game for both teams. The Lankans finally proved the better side and richly deserve their place in the semis. The Sri Lankans have won all of their matches and have stunned the cricket world and the three teams in the semi-finals fear them.

When the last New Zealand wicket fell, not only did the cricketers do the jig of joy, even the Sri Lankans on the ground and their supporters too jubilated proudly waving the lion flag. Manager and media managers of the team Brendon Kuruppuwas estatic after the victory said: "It was a team effort that helped the guys win the match. We had plans as to how we were to go against the Kiwis. We had to win this to make further progress.

"All plans worked beautifully and I am very proud of the guys and also proud to be their manager", said the former Sri Lanka opener who has a double hundred to his credit also against the New Zealanders.

Mystery spinner Ajantha Mendis and Muttiah Muralitheran have mesmerized all opposing batsmen with their well disguised deliveries. Not one batsmen has shown confidence when facing them. They just play by instinct and hope for the best.

Mendis has settled down to getting scalps on English wickets. There was a bit of apprehension when he arrived here. but he settled down nicely and quickly and is now the cynosure of all eyes here. His wide repertoire of deliveries have unsettled all batsmen.

Then Muralitheran has taken over. His doosra has the batsmen in a flat spin and together they have proved wonderful spinning twins. while Mendis and Muralitheran spin them, Lasith Malinga has instilled fear on the batsmen with his tremendous pace and lightning yorkers that batsmen try to get a quick single and get to the none strikers end rather than face him and have legs ankles in danger of being broken

On Mendis Mahela Jayawardena said - Mendis is something special.

We try to read him in the nets, but he still gets us out sometimes. Chasing Sri Lankans 158 for 5, the Kiwis made a brisk start, but they never recovered once the spinners came on and wickets began to tumble and that was the beginning of the end for the Kiwis. Isuru Udana who came back to the team finished with 2 for 17, Mendis was fabulous with 3 for 9 in 3 overs, while Jayasuriya, Muralitheran and Malinga one each bowlerd tight and economically to crush the Kiwis. The Sri Lankans now come back to battle the West Indians who beat England in Duckworth-Lewis game in the second semi-final at the Kennington Oval on Friday.