International men of mystery

Cricinfo: Watching Sri Lanka's Ajantha Mendis bowl is like trying to hold a conversation with a naturally quiet person in a noisy pub. What was that again, Ajantha? Didn't quite catch that - can you repeat it? Sorry pal, I thought you said something else. Hey, can we go outside? Can't hear myself think in here.

Mendis's run-up is plain to the point of innocence, but his fingers are all subtlety, inscrutably resistant to sharing their secrets. The batsman is left groping, searching for cues and clues. Eh? Come again? What was that? Can you give me that once more? And finally: what happened?



His mixture of legbreaks, offbreaks, doosras, googlies and topspinners is a perplexity for statisticians too. Cricinfo is calling him "right-arm slow-medium" at the moment, but cricketers translate "right-arm slow-medium" as "bowls in the nets if he's lucky". If he plays county cricket, Playfair will have to consider a designation like ROBLB or RSM@#&%?!

Others have already settled on the designation "mystery spinner", the epithet conferred almost 60 years ago on the Australian Jack Iverson. Mendis and he certainly seem to share prodigiously strong middle fingers. The ball settled into Iverson's grip like a marble for the squirting. Mendis, likewise, looks simply to caress the ball as he propels it, barely involving the palm of his hand at all, and holding one particular variation as delicately as an entomological specimen. Both bowlers possess the cardinal virtue of accuracy, and a liking for long spells.

Where they differ seems to be in variety and spin. Iverson spun his stock ball, a googly, massively, but his variations considerably less: batsmen finally figured on playing him as an offbreak bowler, albeit one who looked like he was bowling legbreaks. Mendis doesn't spin any of his options enormously; it is the combination of them, and the difficulty distinguishing one from the other, that makes him a handful.

There is always excitement when a bowler like Mendis appears. Batsmen scratch their heads. Captains and coaches confabulate. Cricket's telephone exchange buzzes.

The original "mystery ball", and still perhaps the most delicious, is the googly itself, the offbreak delivered by the legbreak action conceived on his family billiards table before being hazarded on the sward at Lord's by BJT Bosanquet - and thus sometimes known as the "bosie", and also the "wrong 'un". It's somehow fitting that such a double agent of a delivery should have multiple aliases.

At first the googly posed more preposterous difficulties than its progenitor: the first to take a first-class wicket bounced four times. But it soon swept the world: the South African XI of a century ago included no fewer than four specialist purveyors, and the Australian team of 1910-11 featured perhaps the best exponent of all. Certainly it was the view of Johnnie Moyes, who saw all its antipodean advocates, Arthur Mailey, Clarrie Grimmett and Bill O'Reilly included, that no Australian mastered the googly more thoroughly than "Ranji" Hordern.

[Hordern] was without doubt an amazing bowler. He took a long run, brought his arm right over, was a length as well as a spin bowler, and of medium pace. He didn't seem to be flighting the ball, yet did so, as the batsman discovered when he tried to move down the pitch to him. That wasn't easy as Hordern was slightly faster through the air, but the temptation was there, as I found to my cost in Victor Trumper's benefit game, only to hear Sammy Carter say, "Got you, son"... Sometimes you could see the tip of the little finger sticking up skyward like a periscope of a submarine, but only if you were concentrating on it. If you did see it, you recognised the approaching "bosie".

The first googly in Australia bowled Victor Trumper; a googly was also the last ball to defeat Donald Bradman in a Test match. Simply by existing, it had an effect on cricket's ecosystem. "If this sort of bowling becomes general I'm packing my bags," threatened Archie MacLaren, before deciding he could live with it. It even enjoyed an oriental translation into the "chinaman".

No other delivery, in fact, has had quite the same impact on cricket, and by never really being improved on, it also caused cricket to revert to being a batsman's game. In an incisive 1950 critique of Bradman's impact on cricket, the Birmingham Post's cricket correspondent WE Hall observed.


In due course we shall come to see Bradman as an inevitable part of the evolution of the game. From Grace's integration of forward and back-play the art of batting advanced until, in [Jack] Hobbs, a technique was perfected to master the "new" bowling, as it has been called. It was the last of the qualitative changes in cricket, a fact realised by one writer who said that the game needed a new type of ball to do what the "googly" once did. But there has been no new type of ball, and the only development left to batsmen between the wars was the quantitative one which followed, as surely as mass production followed the start of the Industrial Revolution.

Of course, mystery bowling is classically an individual pursuit, the result of lone experiment and lateral thought. Iverson is the archetype, his bowling having originated in a lifetime of nervous finger flicking with a table tennis ball; likewise were Iverson's protégé Johnny Gleeson, double-dealing Sonny Ramadhin, and whizz-banging Bhagwat Chandrasekhar self-taught cricketers.

Ramadhin and Chandra made the most of their bowling's hidden depths. Delivering a stock ball that spun from the off, both buttoned their sleeves at the wrist, as though to deflect the curious glare. Ramadhin bowled his offbreak with the middle finger down rather than across the seam, to sometimes startling effect. Ken Archer described playing with Ramadhin for a Commonwealth XI in September 1954 at seaside Hastings, when the bowler discovered that his quicker one seamed away with an ounce of extra effort; he could hardly bowl for his delighted laughter. Chandra's right arm was so withered from childhood polio that he could hardly hold a cup of tea to his lips. But with it he bowled googlies and legbreaks that seemed to set his whole body whirring like a child's spinning top. And like no other bowler, he haunted Viv Richards.

Read more.


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[Video] The New Murali? | Ajantha Mendis

Mendis in full flight, All his variations and dismissals narrated by Colin Croft for Sky Sports.

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[Video] The Mystery Spinner | Ajantha Mendis 4/50 Vs Basnahira N. | 2008

Basnahira North v Wayamba

Murali mark II?

AFP

April 11, 2008

Tougher days surely lie ahead, but Ajantha Mendis appears to be a spin bowler with a bright future based on the evidence of his one-day international debut for Sri Lanka against West Indies in Trinidad. He bowled impressively to collect 3 for 39 as Sri Lanka narrowly failed to win the opening match of the series.

It brought to mind Muttiah Muralitharan when he first stepped onto the international scene with his freakish bowling action. Mendis trapped Gayle lbw with a delivery that went straight on, bamboozled Darren Sammy with a flipper that totally squared him up and skidded through to hit the top of off-stump, before holding his nerve after Jerome Taylor clubbed him for six, tossing the next ball up having caught on the long-on boundary.

Even Ramnaresh Sarwan appeared clueless at times to what Mendis was delivering, and at one stage, after being deceived by the flight and the turn of a delivery, the West Indies vice-captain looked quizzically at the young spinner with an expression that seemed to suggest he didn't have a clue.

Dwayne Bravo, who won the Man-of-the-Match ward, agreed that it was difficult to pick Mendis.

"To be honest, when we saw his stats - after 19 first-class matches, he had 111 wickets at an average of 14.54 - we knew he had to be bowling something good," he said.

"Sarwan had problems picking him, and from the time we saw this, most of the batters retreated to the dressing room, and had a close look at his hand on the TV monitor.

"I actually went and had a look at his hand on the computer, and it was still really difficult to pick him, but I found that once you are prepared to watch the ball closely, it is half the job done.

He is a very good bowler, and we will have to go back to drawing board to try to come up with a way to score off his bowling freely."

The Sri Lanka coach Trevor Bayliss felt it was an promising effort from Mendis, and he too, believes he could have a long career in the game. "I could tell you about his variations if I knew what they were, and even a lot of our guys struggle to know what he is doing with the ball," Bayliss said.

"The poise that he had in the first ODI - not just what he was bowling - to be able to keep a lid on things under pressure in one-day cricket is a very good sign. This has been the exceptional thing from my point of view. To be able to maintain his composure and do what he normally does was brilliant."

Bayliss agreed that ODIs were not the best place to experiment, and many coaches may have dissuaded Mendis from doing things his own way, but he said he was prepared to Mendis continue with his natural game.

"We just told him to go out there and do whatever he has done in the past," he said. "But it's how young players handle the pressure of international cricket that's critical, and he handled it very well.

"From my point of view, the higher up the ladder you go in this game, it's more of a mental thing. It's how you cope with pressure, and if something is working for him at one level, it's no reason why it cannot work at the next."

Bayliss says the comparisons with Muralitharan will be inevitable, but for now he is just pleased to have young slow bowlers of the quality of Mendis and legspinner Malinga Bandara at his disposal.

"Who knows, one day on one of those typical pitches in south Asia, we will pick all three," he said. For the purists, this would be a delicious prospect.

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Army Cricket’s Golden Era

Finally, Sri Lanka Army SC has got a reason to walk with their heads held high in the cricket field – one of their ilk has made it to the national team.

Right arm medium paceman (some identify him as a spinner) Ajantha Mendis has just taken wing to join Sri Lanka ODI squad in the West Indies, and his inclusion in the national squad is a major achievement for his club, Army SC. Agrees Major General V.R. Silva, Chairman Army Cricket.

“We are naturally happy and proud,” says Major General Silva. “Mendis has done really well to earn his place in the national squad. It also is a remarkable achievement for Sri Lanka Army. This marks the first occasion since 1970 that a soldier played for the national team.” In 1970 Brigadier (Retd) H.I.K. Fernando represented Ceylon against an English team captained by Tony Lewis.

Mendis, who bowls a mixture of googlies, offbreaks, top-spinners, flippers and legbreaks, has turned in an outstanding performance in this year’s Premier League tournament with a record haul of 68 wickets; that surely must have offered him a fast track to the top. Add to that his show in the Inter-Provincial tourney where he won the admiration of Sri Lanka Captain Mahela Jayawardene. However, Mendis is not the sole reason for Army’s jubilation this season. His feats have come on top of a superlative show by his team. Army SC has emerged Tier ‘B’ Premier League champions.

“We won nine matches this season,” contends Major General Silva. “Eight of those were outright victories and the only first innings win came as rain intervened. I think it must be a record.” Right throughout, Army SC captained by Lance Corporal Navantha Ratnayake, remained ‘invincible’ and their proud chairman thinks Army cricket has entered its ‘Golden Era’.

“It was during 2002/03 season that we started playing cricket seriously,” amiable General recalls. “Within five years we have come on top of our segment in the premier domestic tournament. We have also produced a national player – it bodes well for Army.

“All credit should go to these cricketers. They practise hard and always do their best.”

Army cricket has had its fair share of struggles as well. At first the soldiers didn’t have a proper ground to do their practices and play their home matches. They had to play on burrowed grounds in Colombo. “First we used the ground that belonged to Artillery Regiment in Panagoda. It was not a proper cricket venue,” the General remembers. “Finally we managed to develop this ground (also situated inside the Panagoda cantonment) into a proper cricket venue. We were helped by Sri Lanka Cricket in developing it.” Now, they practise and play their home matches at Muthukumaru ground (named after the first Sri Lankan Army chief after independence, Anton Muthukumaru).

The Army SC clinched the Sara Trophy in 2005/06 and got promoted to the Premier League. In 2006/07 they ended up Tier ‘B’ runners-up in the limited overs tournament. They also produced the best batsmen in their segment in the premier tournaments – Indika Karunaratne (limited overs) and Manjula Soyza (Premier). This season they lost their limited overs semi-final to BRC on a toss of a coin after rain played havoc.

In their march to the top Army SC has been helped by two coaches, Saman Hewawitharana and Neil Rajapakshe.

“One thing I should mention about this team is that most of the players are soldiers,” General Silva points out. “They have a lot of potential and there’s not doubt about their fighting spirit. In one match they were bowled out for 57 runs and then conceded a first innings lead of over 120 runs. Finally they fought back to win the match.”

Rajapakshe has joined Army SC for this season and he was overjoyed seeing his players’ perfect run in the league. “With our victory we should be promoted to Tier ‘A’,” Rajapakshe points out. “But from what I gather Sri Lanka Cricket is planning to overhaul the Premier structure. I don’t know where we’ll end up.”

Army SC’s performance in the Premier League tournament:

Beat Saracens SC by an innings and 41 runs at BRC ground (Jan. 18, 19, 20 2008) - Army 393; Saracens 188, 164

Beat BRC by 10 wickets at Army ground, Panagoda (Jan. 25, 26, 27) – BRC 232 and 202; Army 347 and 91 for no loss.

Beat Lankan CC by 3 wickets at Panagoda (Feb. 1, 2, 3) – Lankan CC 164 and 283; Army 206 and 243 for 7.

Beat Sebastianites C&AC by 8 wickets at St. Sebastian’s College ground (Feb. 15, 16, 17) – Sebastianites 162 and 165; Army 198 and 130 for 2.

Beat Singha SC by 43 runs at Panagoda (Feb. 22, 23, 24) – Army 57 and 255; Singha SC 177 and 92.

Beat Air Force by 4 wickets at Air Force ground (Feb. 29, Mar. 1, 2) – Air Force 209 and 92; Army 156 and 146 for 6.

Beat Police by 6 wickets at Panagoda (Mar. 7, 8, 9) – Police 103 and 111; Army 156 and 61 for 4.

Vs Panadura SC at Panadura Esplanade (Mar. 14, 15, 16) Match drawn (Army on first inngs) – Panadura SC 197; Army 218.

Courtesy Lakbima

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The Mendis factor: Sri Lanka's new spin-king looks the heir to Murali's cricket throne

The 23-year-old army recruit was brought to the West Indies as a filler for Muttiah Muralitharan. One mesmerising spell of 10 overs in his ODI debut was enough to persuade Sportingo's Mark Rivlin that Ajantha Mendis is going to be a massive success.

Having been married for nearly 20 years, and therefore not having much to excite me in the evenings, I put my feet up with a cool beer and settled down to the last 30 overs of the West Indies chasing 236 in the first ODI against Sri Lanka.

And my testosterone levels were revived at the sight of what could be the future of international spin bowling.

When Ajantha Mendis was thrown the ball by Sri Lankan skipper Mahela Jayawardene I thought to myself, 'Ah, here's the gofer the tourists have brought along to replace Muttiah Muralitharan'.

My words were not just eaten, they were devoured by a truly mesmerising spell of spin bowling which was translated into fabulous figures of 3-39 in 10 overs. Any bowler in the world - Murali included - would be proud of these figures but, considering this was Mendis' debut in international cricket, they are astounding.

The 23-year-old, we were told, plays his cricket for the Sri Lankan army. I suggest he's going to make a right officers' mess of hundreds of international batsmen's stumps in years to come.

This guy is the real deal. We were told he is a finger spinner, and he certainly is. But he's also a whole lot more. He has the lot - wrist spin, doosra, leg-break, off-break and, in the case of Darren Sammy, stump break. The nearest comparison I could make would be legendary Aussie Jack Iverson, the so-called "mystery spinner" whose action and grip caused havoc in the '40s and '50s.

What I liked most about Mendis was his cheeky confidence. He knew he had the Windies top order under his spell and he strutted around like a new kid on the block that no one was going to mess with. This is the mark of a young player who has the potential to become massive.

All this is great for cricket. It will not be long before a legend in the shape of Murali finds himself in the commentary box, and his successor is ready for action. What a treat for the fans.

The game itself was one of those once-in-a-decade classics with Shivnarine Chanderpaul hitting a near-impossible 10 off two balls to win the game for the Windies (I wouldn't have minded a spread bet on that outcome). Chaminda Vaas, with more than 300 ODIs under his belt, couldn't tie Chanderpaul down for two balls.

Jayawardene will learn from this. In future run chases he should throw the ball to his junior spin doctor who, on Thursday's performance, will have his team-mates in stitches.

Roll on Saturday for the next instalment.


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[Video] Ajantha Mendis | The Mystery Spinner on debut

Although classified as a right-arm, slow-medium bowler, Ajantha Mendis is a spinner who bowls a mixture of googlies, offbreaks, top-spinners, flippers and legbreaks.

Batsmen have been confounded by the variety of deliveries he has up his sleeve and are at a loss to figure out what his stock delivery is.

Mendis was a prolific wicket-taker for Sri Lanka Army in the 2007-08 season and had taken 46 wickets at an average of 10.56 and strike-rate of 31 from six matches. His performances did not go unnoticed for Mendis was called up to the Sri Lanka squad for the tour of West Indies in April 2008 - Cricinfo Staff March 2008.

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The new Murali?

To steal shamelessly from Jon Landau, the man entrusted with selling a scraggy wannabe Bob Dylan by the name of Bruce Springsteen to the planet in 1975, I have just seen the future of spin bowling – and his name is Ajantha Mendis. Writes Rob Steen for Rob's Lobs on Cricinfo.

Until now, given the recent stumbles of Danish Kaneria and the apparent failure of several young Australian twirlers to live up to their billing, detecting the seeds of a new generation of spinners worthy of following the holy trinity of Warne, Murali and Kumble has been a troubling and deflating quest. Whisper it softly, but on the evidence of his international debut in Port-of-Spain today, however chastening his team’s astonishing defeat may have been, this wide-eyed 23-year-old member of the Sri Lankan army could well emerge as the leader of the new pack.

Friends in Colombo had warned me that something special was on the horizon, trumpeting Mendis as the owner of the freakiest fingers since Jack Iverson. They weren’t exaggerating by much. Googlies, leggies, offies and flippers all eased effortlessly from that precociously adaptable right hand, facilitated by three distinct modes of release – barely discernible to the devoted couch potato and leaving the batsmen groping and clueless.

The ball that bamboozled and lbw-ed Chris Gayle, just as the West Indies captain was threatening to turn a tricky chase into a jaunt, was a worthy calling card. The one that curved in and straightened to take off stump was utterly wasted on Darren Sammy. No less impressive was the way Mendis held his nerve after Jerome Taylor clouted him for six, tossing the next ball up in similar fashion and reaping the reward of an outfield catch.

With the game reeling groggily as the implications of the IPL set traditionalists against innovators, old world against new, Shivnarine Chanderpaul’s improbable sixes off the fifth and last balls of the final over in Trinidad were a profoundly welcome shot in the arm, a reminder that sport is more about drama and improbability than dollars and nonsense. The advent of Mendis could be that and much, much more.


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[Video] West Indies v Sri Lanka, 1st ODI, Trinidad '08 | 2nd Session H/L

West Indies 236 for 9 (Chanderpaul 62*, Gayle 52, Mendis 3-39) beat Sri Lanka 235 for 7 (Kapugedera 95, Silva 67, Bravo 4-32) by one wicket
Scorecard and commentary

Match package

Bulletin - Chanderpaul clinches final-ball thriller
Gallery Archive - Going, going ... gone

Courtesy Cricinfo.

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Lankans make sweeping changes for ODIs

CricketNext: Sri Lanka will use the three-match one-day international series against West Indies which opens here on Thursday to kick-start their preparations for the 2011 World Cup.

Sri Lanka have made sweeping changes to the squad which drew the preceding two-Test series 1-1 with their hosts, and seven new players have been included to boost their stocks.


"There are a lot of youngsters, and what we are trying to do is develop a team for the next World Cup," Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardene said.


"We are going to try a few guys, some exciting youngsters. We want to be competitive against West Indies and see where we are in terms of our preparation for the World Cup.


"It's going to be a very good series because West Indies are a very good one-day unit as well."


Joining the squad for the ODI series are openers Upul Tharanga and Chamara Kapugedera, batsmen Ajantha Mendis, Mahela Udawatte, and Jehan Mubarak, all-rounder Kaushalya Weeraratne, and leg-spinner Malinga Bandara.


They have replaced Michael Vandort, Malinda Warnapura, Thilan Samaraweera, Prasanna Jayawardene, Muttiah Muralitharan, Ishara Amerasinge, and Chanaka Welegedara.


"Test cricket and ODI cricket are totally different, and you need to totally focus yourself on the ODIs differently," Jayawardene said.


"We've got new guys coming into the set-up. Our challenge is to try and blend quickly as possible, get them going and play some good cricket. We're looking forward to it."


Sri Lanka will jointly host the 2011 World Cup with India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, and Jayawardene disclosed that his side is again setting itself the goal of reaching the Final as they did in the 2007 version in the Caribbean where they lost to three-time defending champions Australia.


"Cricket is going to go on, and players will come and go," he said. "We just need to make sure we have the right combinations going.


"It is just two-and-a-half years away from the World Cup. We need to make sure we get the personnel right and give opportunities.


"If you are going to bring youngsters in, those guys need to play at least 40 or 50 ODIs before the World Cup."


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[Video] Basnahira North v Wayamba | 2008

Basnahira North 298 for 6 (Dissanayake 88*, Peiris 77, Gunawardene 73, Mendis 4-50) beat Wayamba 198 (Mubarak 57, Pushpakumara 3-37, Vaas 2-22) by 100 runs
Scorecard

After raking up 298 in their alloted 50 overs, Basnahira North's bowlers dismissed Wayamba for 198 to complete a comprehensive 100-run win at the Premadasa Stadium in Colombo.

Chaminda Vaas, the Basnahira North captain, opted to bat, and his batsmen capitalised. Avishka Gunawardene's 73 off 62 deliveries set the tone at the top of the order, before Ruwin Peiris and Shanuka Dissanayake added 120 runs for the fifth wicket after Ajantha Mendis had struck three times to leave Basnahira North at 105 for 4 after 20.1 overs.

Peiris also perished to Mendis for 77, but Dissanayake stayed until the end as his team finished with 298 for 6. Dissanayake scored 88, while Mendis bagged 4 for 50. Farveez Maharoof was expensive, returning 0 for 74 runs off his ten overs.

Wayamba's chase came apart in the first over as Vaas struck twice to leave them struggling at 0 for 2. From then on Wayamba were never in the hunt. Jehan Mubarak top scored with 57, but the bowlers picked up wickets regularly to stifle the chase.

Gayan Wijekoon bagged two wickets while offspinner Muthumudalige Pushpakumara removed three late-order batsmen as Wayamba were bowled out for 198. The win put Basnahira North at the top of the points table, with a maximum of ten points from their two games.

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