ajantha mendia - from "the mbb" of 30th june 2008

this one is on cricket. so those of you who prefer lacrosse, may want to hit the delete button now. was watching the asia cup match between sri lanka and parkistan yesterday. chasing sri lanka's healthy 302 parkistan were not doing too shabbily by the 22nd over at 100 odd for 2 when along with murali, jayawardene introduced the new "spinner" ajantha mendis. the two of them bowled in tandem and the match effectively ended for the parkistanis. it was a what spin bowling is all about.

mendis played cricket for kandalama and moratu maha vidyalya and then for army in division 2. but, according to his coach in the army he developed all kinds of variety to his bowling on his own. flippers, off spin, leg breaks, googlies, top spinners and something called a carrom ball - all in one over. watching murali and ajantha at the wicket was the perfect treat for a head colded sunday evening. brilliant stuff.

mendis is a future of sri lankan spin bowling and i would advise you lot to go watch him. the jayasuriya of spin bowling.

read more about him here;

yes two cents, you can leave that stephen king at home.

talking of jayasuriya, he slammed a 100 against the hapless bangladeshis' today ( sri lanka 282 for 5 in 42 overs at the moment). it is also his 39th birthday. only ( the great) boycott was slightly older when he scored a century in one day cricket. some people ( not me of course) say he ( boycott not jayasuriya) batted like me. and, i too am nearing 39.

ps. sri lanka won the asia cup by beating india in the finals on sunday. jayasuriya scored a scintillating century and ajantha mendis had 6 for 13!