One ball. Three runs to get. What do you do?

Dilhara Fernando with the ball and an inexperienced Ravi Bopara, who had till then carved out a gem of a cameo, with the bat. Nails were spit out, heart beat faster, and some eye-lids shut.

Mahela Jayawardene had a few decisions to make. Should I bring in the fine-leg? Should I have a mid-off or a long-off? Ravi had pedaled one past short-fine-leg fielder earlier and so it was not an easy choice. He opted for mid-off. Over to you Bopara. Now, he must be thinking should I go for an inside-out drive past mid-off. Four runs and a win will await me there. Or should I go straight down the ground or opt for the cow corner?

Meanwhile, Fernando set out his trap. Classic school-boy tactic. He ran in, approached the stumps, the right-arm went up, came down but with the ball, still, in hand. He wanted to see whether the batsman was going to move around. Gamesmanship. Bopara was standing still that time; he had not backed away or charged. Now, surely, the batsman had to do something else. Well, not definitely, but he was made to think.

Bopara fell for it and when Fernando came around for the legal delivery, he backed away to the leg side. Aiming to hit inside-out past that man at mid-off. And it back-fired. It was not a yorker, nor a slower one - Mahela had told Fernando, 'No slower ones, no bouncer, just go for full and fast one- or a bouncer but a length-delivery. But, in doing the shuffle, with the nerves jangling for the last delivery, after all he is a newbie, and in the effort to go inside-out, he missed the ball. Simple as that. Cruel as that. The bat came down in an angle, the ball evaded the waft, the bat met air and the ball met the sticks. It was all over.

That talk of Mahela reminds me of one that the great Frank Worrell gave Wes Hall in the famous Tied Test against Australia in 1960-61. Worrell also gave some advice to Hall. Did Hall follow it? Rather than reading me, hear the legend Hall.

Listen to the audio commentary of the final 13 tense minutes from it. Included a fab speech from Wes Hall. Worth it.

Also, catch some video action from the game here.

Learie Constantine

Wrote on the West Indian great. Here.

Tendulkar's dismissal

It's ironic, or is it poignant, that two great Indian batsmen were dismissed in a similar fashion in their last World Cup game?
SMG and SRT. Gavaskar fell inside-edging Phil Defrietas while Tendulkar chopped on Dilhara Fernando.


Watch that left foot. He has landed on the heel and not on the toe. And whenever Tendulkar has done it, he has been in trouble. The balance goes awry, he is just short of the ideal position, the head is not over the ball, and he is searching for the cherry.

Everything else looks so perfect in the picture. The left-elbow is high, eyes on the ball, the bat-face pretty straight but alas... that heel landing has meant he was a trifle late on the defensive stroke. When that happens, the bat gets pushed out a little bit too much in front, a slightl angle is created for the ball to disatrously collide with the edge. Previously he has nicked them to slips and in this, in what could be his last WC
game, he has dragged it on. Pity.