Mahela's knock

[Howe_zat]

Mahela faced only 88 of 201 balls while he was at the crease. He was absolutely brilliant in getting off strike through the middle to keep his strike rate over a hundred throughout. If someone else at the other end had done the same, Sri Lanka could have shot past 300.

And he did it all without any risk whatsoever - staying there until the end was crucial for allowing Perera the freedom to hit out at the end - not to mention camly putting away bad balls for four and timed his acceleration brillianty.

Genuinely one of the best ODI innings I've ever seen.

Edit: To go nicely with the best T20 hundred I've ever seen, which he scored at Providence in May.

[8ankitj]

Fantastic knock. He raced to a better than run a ball hundred without anyone noticing the force of his strokeplay. Had an artist's touch to it, quite like what you see in Laxman's batting.

[vcs]

Add him to the long list of SL batsmen whose ODI averages don't come close to doing justice to their ability (Aravinda, Sanath).

[GingerFurball]

Originally Posted by vcs

Add him to the long list of SL batsmen whose ODI averages don't come close to doing justice to their ability (Aravinda, Sanath).

Sanath's average as an opener does. A mid 30s average is perfectly acceptable for an opener who strikes in the 90s.

[vcs]

Originally Posted by GingerFurball

Sanath's average as an opener does. A mid 30s average is perfectly acceptable for an opener who strikes in the 90s.

Ah yes, that's right.

[Howe_zat]

Originally Posted by GingerFurball

Sanath's average as an opener does. A mid 30s average is perfectly acceptable for an opener who strikes in the 90s.

Sanath deserves rather than more than "acceptable", though.

[Cruxdude]

Was an awesome innings. Really felt helpless when he was batting. I was watching the match at a theater with around 400 people, mostly Indians and you should have heard the applause he got on reaching the century. (His wife got some applause too for her gesticulations to him).

[Daemon]

His knock together with Dhoni just shows just how diverse cricket is and that theres no fixed one way that runs can and should be scored in ODIs. Such a fluent knock, brilliant.

[salman85]

Where does it rate in all-time ODI knocks?
It was a very good knock.But there are far too many other brilliant ODI innings for this to be even considered as an ATG great knock.

Where does it rate in the best World Cup knocks?
Again,too many WC knocks to chose from.Gilchrist,Inzamam,Aravinda,Steve Waugh etc have all played legendary WC innings.I'm not sure if this would be up there with them.The fact that this was not a match winning knock does play against Mahela,but there's not a lot that can be done about that.

And also where does it rate in terms of best knocks in a losing cause (overall or in WCs)?
In overall ODIs It would probably rank high in this list.Not the greatest,but right up there with the best knocks in a losing cause.In WC innings alone,it might have a shot as the best ever in a losing cause,but even that is arguable.

[keeper]

Only saw part of it but it was magnificent - more art than sport.

Prior to this my favourite brilliant innings in a losing cause (not ODI or WC) was this one, made even more poignant by the fact of chasing and the paucity of quality performance around him. It was truly superb.

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[Top_Cat]

Would still put it, by a bee's dick, below his knock in Adelaide. For pure batting, it's on par for me but when the situation is taken into account, I put Adelaide ahead because it turned into a famous win a match where everything was against Sri Lanka (to think they nearly forfeited it!).

It's definitely not the best knock in a final and, really, that's a reflection of how good most have been because Jayasuriya's was a gem.

[robelinda]

It rates with Gibbs's ton in the 99 world cup- good but usurped by something miles better at the end of the day

[honestbharani]

Awesome... as someone else said, I juz hated every strokefilled, sublimely ridiculous timing of his..


On another note, now is the time for SL to put all their eggs in one basket, and get Mahela to open in limited overs cricket (both ODIs and T20s) along with Dilshan.. You need to give your best players the best options to score runs..