Dammika forwarded a link to this article on Murali, a must read for anyone who as an opinion on Murali’s bowling action. I would love to see the documentary on him that was shown on Channel 5 (or has it been already shown?).

[Updated: Link]

Chaminda Vaas showed the South African’s how to bowl with some exhilarating bowling and took six for 29 today to help us to a 313-run victory and our very first series win over South Africa.

I feel sorry for South Africa’s captain Graeme Smith, hope they will try to put up a better fight at the one days starting on the 20^th.

Sri Lanka is now at fifth place on the Test Championship Table while South Africa moved to their lowest ranking ever to #6.

FYI: Sri Lanka is #3 on the ODI Table.

Dammika mailed me this article from The Island.

The English are often referred to as "The whining Poms," particularly by the Australians, but the term seems to be fitting them too. After Australia lost the second One Day International narrowly to Sri Lankans by one run, the Australian captain Ricky Ponting was seen in an angry mood, a complete contrast to the mood he was in when the Aussies won the first ODI. On Friday, after the game, Ponting was seen sipping a cool Foster’s Beer in the dressing room after Australia had won, but on Sunday, he was seen smashing his pads down.

When the Tasmanian came down to speak to the media he passed a crude remark at the Sri Lankan journalists when he said, "a huge contingent of Sri Lankan journalists today," Ponting was passing an obvious remark as after the first ODI only a few Sri Lankan journalists showed up at the press conference. However, little did Ponting know that at around 10 in the night after the first ODI some of them were working on tight deadlines unlike on Sunday.

And when he spoke, he had a few complaints as well. "I was disappointed to get the same wicket today. There hadn’t been a lot of cricket here and I would have thought that there was plenty of time for the curator to bring up two wickets for these two games," he said. Over the years, when touring the sub-continent, the Australians have complained about food, water, dust, security and so on and on this occasion Ponting was blaming the wicket.

Speaking further Ponting hailed the performance of his players, whom he said would take a lot of confidence to the next games after playing on a "very worn Sri Lankan wicket."

Meanwhile, paceman Glenn McGrath, who wasn’t picked for the series, too has come up with a list of complaints on Sri Lanka in a column he writes for The Australian, a hardcore nationalist newspaper back in Australia. In the column, McGrath says that "conditions in the country can be harsh....." and singles out security as one of the major problems.

Among his complaints are, "Our other mode of transport is the coach and I always get a bit of a laugh when they call it a luxury coach. To me, it’s an old bus with vinyl seats that get hot and appear to be placed right on top of a bar that’s uncomfortable," he writes.

Probably it’s time to replace the idiom, it’s no more "whining Poms," but it’s "the whining Aussies".

World cricket woke up stronger on Monday morning. Not just because it had witnessed a pulsating game of one-day cricket between Sri Lanka and Australia in Dambulla – a rarity for such a formulaic version of the game – but because an ancient spirit of the game was awoken in the fierce heat of battle. Sportsmanship, an endangered concept in all modern day sport, blessed international cricket.

Australia had lost a flurry of wickets, slipping from 148 for 1 to 190 for 4. But with Andrew Symonds and Adam Gilchrist at the crease and Michael Bevan, finisher extraordinaire, still padded and waiting in the wings, Australia were odds on winners, needing a modest 56 at a run-a-ball with six wickets to spare. Kumar Dharmasena was pinging down his flat off-breaks and Symonds edged an attempted pull onto his pads. Both bowler and wicketkeeper appealed instantaneously and Peter Manuel raised his finger. Sri Lanka had struck a crucial blow.

Symonds was shocked but kept his cool and walked. Gilcrhist, the non-striker, was equally appalled, his reaction tight-roping the definition of dissent. Sri Lanka celebrated in a huddle but they knew it was not out. "It was an obvious nick to most of us and it was awkward for a moment," said Marvan Atapattu, Sri Lanka's one-day captain. "I mean …it was not a bump ball or something like that. We did not really know what to do."

But seconds after raising his finger, doubt had spread across Manuel's face. He consulted first with Billy Bowden, his eccentric but cool-headed partner, and then turned to Atapattu. "He told me that he believed that he had made a mistake and that he wanted to call Symonds (now over half way back to the pavilion) back. He asked me whether I would have a problem with that and I said no. It was obvious to us he [Symonds] had hit the ball and this is a game after all – we have to look after its spirit. We were all happy with the decision."

What goes around comes around, they say, and perhaps it was Gilchrist who sowed the sporting seed when he walked during the 2003 World Cup semi-final against Sri Lanka, a remarkable decision that was greeted with stony silence upon his return to the dressing room. Now Atapattu has followed up with a return gesture, which in turn presents us with an intriguing possibility: will the players of both teams now play the rest of the series as graciously and fairly? [CricInfo]