Promising Youngsters

The series between West Indies and Sri Lanka involved a lot of new faces. With the lankans going in with a very young team there were a few who made use of the opportunity. Chamara Kapugedera has shown on a few occasions that he has a good temperament with the bat and he came good in this series. Kulasekara with the new ball was impressive and picked up some good wickets. But the stand out new face was definitely Ajantha Mendis, a young spinner. You cannot term him as an off spinner or a leg spinner because he bowls the conventional off spinner, a delivery that goes away and also an Anil Kumble type of googly. The batsmen just could not pick him and he is definitely a mystery spinner. There are already comparisons with Murali but that is not fair to this youngster because there can only be one Murali. But this fellow seems to have magic in his fingers and the prospects for him look really bright and Sri Lanka might have unearthed another gem of a spinner.
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As for the West Indies they might have finally found the answer to their search for an opening partner to Chris Gayle in Sewnarine Chattergoon. The similarities in the name to Shivnarine Chanderpaul is rather interesting. However the similarities dont end there, this fellow is also from Guyana and he is also a diminutive left hander with quite the same build. But his batting looks much neater than Chanderpaul's and it remains to be seen if it will be as effective. I was really impressed at the compsure he displayed at the crease and he looks at home at the international level with a good technique for an opening bat. He has made some neat 40s so far and West Indies will hope that he can convert them into big scores and have a long career at the highest level.

Good signs for West Indian cricket

West Indies have just squared the series against Sri Lanka with a well deserved 6 wicket win at the Queens park oval, T&T. The celebrations in the West Indian camp and the elation of the spectators present in the ground gives an indication of how much this victory meant to West Indian cricket. They had lost 7 consecutive test series before this and had not won a match at the Queens park oval since 2000. This was also just their 3rd win at home since the dawn of the new millennium.

'Flattering to deceive' has been the most commonly used phrase with reference to the Windies off late. This has been because of their tendency to implode from positions of strength. Winning test matches require a consistent and all round effort and the west indians had provided flashes of brilliance but had failed to stitch an overall effort to win matches.

The current West Indian team has a good look about it. Taylor,Powell, and Edwards form a potent pace attack with able support from Bravo and Gayle. On their day they can rip through any batting line up as they showed both in South Africa and again in this test match. These bowlers are gaining experience and are improved performers and this bodes well for the Windies. With Ramnaresh Sarwan back in the team the batting looks much better. When Gayle,Sarwan, and Chanderpaul are in good form they have the capability to post decent totals. What they need is for youngsters like Chattergoon who made his debut to consistenly contribute at the top of the order. They need to make better use of Bravo as a batsman and should play him at 5 or 6.

These are all good signs for West Indian cricket and it always makes me happy to see them doing well. One hopes that they will continue to build on this performance and become a decent test match team again.