mendis http://www.sportales.com/tags/mendis New posts about mendis How to Beat Mendis http://www.sportales.com/Cricket/How-to-Beat-Mendis.228209 so, finally India has proved that Mendis is beatable. He might be the best but he is not the God. This feat is achieved by India twice. This was done by India once in 2nd test match and now again in 3rd one day match.

This feat is achieved by not one but by three different batsmen. They are:

  1. Virender Sehwag
  2. M.S. Dhoni
  3. Suresh Raina

They have brought relief to not only other Indian players but also to other players of the world. The most feared “carom ball” of Mendis is now shown to be beatable by these batsmen.

They have shown that you can beat him both by attacking and by defense. If you are going for an attack then just don't allow his bowl to turn, but if you are going for defense then take care that you don't go in your shell.

You must always play game which is combination of attack and defense, a game which was played by both Dhoni and Raina. As I had expected that Dhoni would be one of the key members whose wicket would be crucial if Sri Lanka want to win any match. But in the 3rd match they couldn't get him out early and as a result they had to pay the price.

Its not that I would take any credit from the Indian bowlers but the fact that the terror which Mendis had created in the minds of Indian batsmen would have been lifted by some extent by the mettle shown by Dhoni and Raina recently and by Sehwag previously.

Now, I think that in the coming matches Indian players would be able to play Mendis more comfortably and confidently.

]]> Tue, 26 Aug 2008 08:02:35 PST The Mysterious Mendis http://www.sportales.com/Cricket/The-Mysterious-Mendis.185803 Ajantha Mendis of Sri Lanka has caught world cricket unaware. His freakish bowling style has come under limelight.. Sri Lanka is known to produce unorthodox cricketer. Mendis is difficult play because he his difficult to read of the pitch and his hand and impossible to read of the seam.

This is because of several factors. He has 6 bowls in his variety so if you are going to read his off his hand it is going to be really confusing and you'll end up misreading him very often. On the other hand if you read him off the tracking you are inviting trouble as he bowls at quicker pace and flatter trajectory and also he gets a noticeable amount of top spin on the ball. Of the seam, you can never read him off the seam as he bowls cross-seamed.

Now, is he that hard to play? I don't think so. There are a few glitches if I may say so. First, he doesn't spin the bowl very much. Second, because of this he maintains stump to stump line. Third, He gives substantial pace to the bowl. I think there won't be any problem if you play vertical bat shots instead of horizontal ones. Scoring in the V-area is the key. On other occasions if he strays in line the pace on his ball can be used for an easy boundary behind square, either side.

That my take on the new bowling sensation who has been compared to John Gleeson. He is a very good find for cricket. I wish him good luck.

]]> Mon, 28 Jul 2008 03:44:25 PST