I first saw Ajantha Mendis bowl about a year ago, in an inter provincial 50 over match. He bowled to Kumar Sangakkara, who was bamboozled by every ball he bowled and then finally edged the ball to slip and Mendis got his man rightfully. At that moment, I knew there's something special inside this man, and I'm sure Mahela Jayawardena who was the captain of that team also knew that there is a lot to come from this man.
He played his 1st first class match in November 2006 for Army in the Division 2 Lague tournament, where he went wicketless, and in fact, he actually played as a batting all rounder. He batted at number 5, but from there he developed into a lethal bowler where the abilities of division 2 batsman were not good enough to handle him. So, he took a remarkable 114 wickets at an amazing average of 14.54. He totally dominated the bowling and that caught the eye of the selectors who picked him for the Provincial tournament, where he was outstanding and was clearly not picked by any of the top ranked Sri Lankan batsman. Therefore, there was no doubt about his selection for the National side; it was just a matter of time.
Some people even wanted him to go to Australia for the CB series, but I think the selectors were right in picking him for the West Indies tour. He did brilliantly in the 1st ODI and almost won the game if not for the 6 off the last ball hit by Chanderpaul. But, after that everybody expected him to do something fantastic sooner rather than later, and sure he did.
His performance in the Asia Cup final will be a memorable one for a very long time. He made the 2nd best batting line up in the world absolutely clueless. He toyed with them, and they were like kids who batted for the 1st time in their life. In fact, it was funny to see them bat against him, unless if you are an Indian.
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. When Mahela was questioned about his varieties and how he manages them, Mahela said he has 6 types of deliveries and he's only using 4 of them... Not good news if you are a batsman.
Batsmen have been confused by the variety of deliveries he has up on his sleeves and are at a loss to figure out what his stock of deliveries are. I saw in some articles people saying that once the mystery is out and batsman finds a way to play him, he won't be successful. They say, what happened to Saqlain Mushtaq will happen to him. But, in my opinion, Mendis has the ability to stay ahead of the batsmen and will be a nightmare to many batsmen for a long time to come.
He's still a mystery. So, in the next year or two, he might bag heaps of wickets, but there will be a time when the batsmen would adopt to different techniques to counter him. There lies his challenge. It won't be easy for them to stop this man from achieving great heights in international cricket, because he is something special. And this battle between him and the batsmen over the world, would be a wonderful treat for any cricket fan to witness.
Some people even wanted him to go to Australia for the CB series, but I think the selectors were right in picking him for the West Indies tour. He did brilliantly in the 1st ODI and almost won the game if not for the 6 off the last ball hit by Chanderpaul. But, after that everybody expected him to do something fantastic sooner rather than later, and sure he did.
His performance in the Asia Cup final will be a memorable one for a very long time. He made the 2nd best batting line up in the world absolutely clueless. He toyed with them, and they were like kids who batted for the 1st time in their life. In fact, it was funny to see them bat against him, unless if you are an Indian.
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. When Mahela was questioned about his varieties and how he manages them, Mahela said he has 6 types of deliveries and he's only using 4 of them... Not good news if you are a batsman.
Batsmen have been confused by the variety of deliveries he has up on his sleeves and are at a loss to figure out what his stock of deliveries are. I saw in some articles people saying that once the mystery is out and batsman finds a way to play him, he won't be successful. They say, what happened to Saqlain Mushtaq will happen to him. But, in my opinion, Mendis has the ability to stay ahead of the batsmen and will be a nightmare to many batsmen for a long time to come.
He's still a mystery. So, in the next year or two, he might bag heaps of wickets, but there will be a time when the batsmen would adopt to different techniques to counter him. There lies his challenge. It won't be easy for them to stop this man from achieving great heights in international cricket, because he is something special. And this battle between him and the batsmen over the world, would be a wonderful treat for any cricket fan to witness.
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