CricketViewer.com

If a swollen balloon is suddenly punctured, then dragged, then rolled into a carpet and then beaten with iron clad sticks with a forger’s power, the outcome wouldn’t be too different from the Irish team, when it lost to Srilanka in the 45th match of super eights of world cup 2007.

The sweet dreams turned into nightmare and the minnows got the spanking which was feared from the start of tournament. The animadversion performance by the underdogs tarnished the already bland world cup. The super eights had already lost their charm due to mainly one sides matches, and to add insult to injury to the dismay of cricketing fans, Ireland in this match just managed to score 77 funny runs, in just 27.4 overs.

Mahela put the Irishmen in charge of batting after toss, but the buoyancy which was expected from the Irish team was no where to be seen. After a careful start by their openers, Porterfield and Bray in which they managed to score 17 and 20 respectively, it was all about bereavement, lamentation and mass mourning of Irish batting. When 5 of  your batsmen make ducks and no body goes further than 20 runs and just three of them hardly enter the double figures, what else, other than sorrowful ridicule, would you expect?

Farveez Maharoof, showed his mettle and blast Irish batting into innumerable pieces and sealed the deal with utter disgust and disdain. He snatched easily 4 wickets, in which three were got in just 4 balls. Muthiah Muralitharan isn’t the one to not to have a bite at the falling dear. He also enjoyed the carnage with 4 prize wickets. Vaas also took 1. There was also a run out. The skipper Trent Johnston could boast that he was too good to be ousted by any of Lankan bowler, so he decided to get himself run out, though he also played according to his team mode and didnt disturb the scorers.

Botha, Morgan, Carroll, Johnston, McCallan stood united on a grand bizarre duck. Both O’Brien brothers were the maimed victims of Muralitharan’s ruthless wizardry. In the wee hours of Irish batting, which came rather too soon, Langford-Smith and Rankin tried a little in vain to get some semblance of dignity back.

Langford-Smith and Rankin, tried to restart their struggle in bowling, and managed to get Tharanga and Sangakkara earlier. But in the meantime Sanath Jayasuriya had smelled the blood. He along with the skipper Mahela Jayawardene  performed the last rituals of Irish burial in this world cup. When they achieved the target in just 10 overs, in less than an hour, Irish fans were already out of the boundaries of Grenada.

This clash in Grenada was a clash between a butter and knife.