The Mendis Slayer

[Watson87]

Mendis will have a better record aganst Australia, Newz, India(he demolosihed us) South and England but will only have trouble against Pakistan as they are good players of spin bowling

[punjabi_khota]

Mendis will have a better record aganst Australia' date=' Newz, India(he demolosihed us) South and England but will only have trouble against Pakistan as they are good players of spin bowling[/quote'] You smell a lot like a paki brah. What's cookin ?

[Dhondy]

I think of him a bit like I used to think of Michael Chang. Nice game, amazing hands, one slam victory, close to number one for a very brief period at the zenith of his career, but never up with the Samprases and the Agassis, always destined to be the bridesmaid, never the bride. Don't bandy the sobriquet of greatness too easily. He's not one of those knocking at the door you created on ICF a couple of years ago. Maybe could get in through the catflap, but would be kicked right out by the real leaseholders like Sehwag & Pietersen.

[Mr. Wicket]

Actually, one unnoticed thing about the Sri Lanka tour was Tendulkar's handling of Mendis. Tendulkar had a poor series but was completely untroubled by Mendis. He scored 50 odd runs at around run a ball being dismissed only in the last innings when he was injured off Mendis. Tendulkar had just one of those tours where everything goes wrong at the slightest mistake and if things had gone a bit more his way in this game of millimeters and milliseconds, would have put up some big scores because he was reading and scoring off the biggest threat freely. Younis Khan, as Ravi pointed out in another thread also looks like a batsman who can play him with ease. I have never seen him troubled by any spinner and his pickings off Kumble and Harbhajan are close to legendary.

Unnoticed? :P http://www.indiancricketfans.com/showthread.php?t=115016

[punjabi_khota]

^Fineleg shines in that thread too.

[Mr. Wicket]

Of course. Any period after a series defeat, the whining idiots like fineleg and danda show up to make any sensible thread unreadable with their drivel.

[Watson87]

You smell a lot like a paki brah. What's cookin ?

I am just not a biased person like you. I give credit where it's due unlike you brah

[flamy]

Unnoticed? :P http://www.indiancricketfans.com/showthread.php?t=115016

O damn, I am embarassed by my post there

[punjabi_khota]

I am just not a biased person like you. I give credit where it's due unlike you brah

Care to tell who apart from Younis khan is a good player of spin in Pakistan (now that Yusuf is out also).

[Watson87]

Care to tell who apart from Younis khan is a good player of spin in Pakistan (now that Yusuf is out also).

Care to tell you we have such a poor record against Mendis compared to Pakistan?

[punjabi_khota]

Care to tell you we have such a poor record against Mendis compared to Pakistan?

Maybe be because we were the first ones to play him ? The record is poor but we still won both the ODI series and also won one test out of 3. Just because he fired against us in ONE test series doesn't mean we will always struggle. Man for man, we have way better spin players in our test team than Pakistan (UV being the only obvious weakness in top 7).

[Watson87]

Maybe be because we were the first ones to play him ? The record is poor but we still won both the ODI series and also won one test out of 3. Just because he fired against us in ONE test series doesn't mean we will always struggle. Man for man' date=' we have way better spin players in our test team than Pakistan (UV being the only obvious weakness in top 7).[/quote'] I hope what you are saying comes true. I only saw Sehwag and Gambhir tackle well against him whereas legends like Dravid and even VVS struggled against him. Anyway I hope in the next Sri series they prove me wrong and you right.

[fineleg]

Of course. Any period after a series defeat' date=' the whining idiots like fineleg and danda show up to make any sensible thread unreadable with their drivel.[/quote'] Firstly, thanks to the khota of punjab for inciting this. He is good at this kind of trolling. Secondly, only idiots like you will talk like this. Go read that thread again, quite a few were saying it was OTT that while SRT was failing in that series - you were singing praises which was basically BS drivel or should I say drool, disguised as praise.

[Tapioca]

Graphic' date=' it's just a theory I have, having watched him. IMO, he'll be figured out by most batsmen eventually.[/quote'] Eventually, yes, but it is remarkable that even after more than a year his mystery mostly remains. Only the teams that played him many times (India and Pak) plays him even decently well. If Saqlain had made his debut today, his mystery wouldn't have lasted for three weeks. I had expected the same for Mendis when he played Tests against India. To quote Salil, even after the big guys have worked him out, he'll probably continue to be deadly to the lower order batsmen for a few years to come.

[Jai Ho]

all pakis are good against mendis. I guess having 3 chuckers in your team does help. :cantstop:

[Anakin]

Fun thread that is. The usual suspects showed up lol, cricket is never about sheer numbers, they'll never learn that sadly.

[DomainK]

With a few lessons from Sachin, even Yuvraj, a traditionally poor player of quality spin, got a century against him. Sehwag, Sachin, Dhoni, Raina, Gambhir and Yuvraj (on one occassion) showed that he can be played easily. But we can not rob him of his success by calling him a crap bowler. He did make greats like Dravid and Laxman (and many more) look like club cricketers. Not a joke.

[Mr. Wicket]

Go read that thread again' date=' quite a few were saying it was OTT that while SRT was failing in that series - you were singing praises which was basically BS drivel or should I say drool, disguised as praise.[/quote'] Most of those people were ignorant, although you take the cake and make their moronic posts look like something Dhondy might write just by comparison. I'd respond with a reasoned, coherent argument, but it'll be wasted on you as you don't have the mental capacity to process it, given that almost a year later you're still unable to understand the basic point of that thread. Keep your blinkers on and stick to calling anything you don't agree with BS drool and worship.

[Dhondy]

Care to tell you we have such a poor record against Mendis compared to Pakistan?

Are we talking about the series that produced 2000 runs in 3 innings?

[Mr. Wicket]

For goodness sake, will batsmen stop watching his fingers do party tricks and start playing him on merit? How do you treat a 60 mph medium pacer who moves the ball both ways off the pitch? The answer, as Sehwag will tell you, is that you hit him with a very high backlift without any half measures to the furthest reaches of the ground. You need an unclouded mind for that. Crap bowler. Sehwag's shown him up. Can anybody else?

I'll disagree with the last bit on two points. 1. Sehwag is a freak batsman who can be a match for any bowler in the world. Remember Glenn McGrath, a man who could destroy any batting lineup in the world in his element, and a match for Tendulkar and Lara? Sehwag had him staring up at the sky cursing in frustration during a test. He's a freak of a batsman, and just because he shows a bowler up you can't expect others to. 2. His fingers may do party tricks, he may have a bunch of variations that are equivalent to a basic generic seamer - but you can't deny he has excellent control over his line and length. Any bowler can mix mystery balls up. Tendulkar at times used to bowl overs of allsorts; off spin, leg spin, cutters, swingers. Heck of a cricketing brain of course, but never any consistency in length or line as a bowler. Even if you can move the ball miles, good control is key. And if you can't move it miles, good control can still make you a very useful bowler. That's why someone like Devon Malcolm, who in his element could blast through some great batting lineups, couldn't ever be consistent - yet a 'right on the mark' guy like Paul Reiffel could be more than handy. At the end of it, Mendis rarely bowls bad balls. His wickets against India that series weren't the result of excess trickery or a hundred different variations and a lethal mystery ball, it was a smart bowler bowling a very good line and length with subtle changes in pace and trajectory and that's something that usually will get results. [speaking of which, remember Chris Harris? Had a few k's more than Mendis, but no ability with the ball in comparison. Mendis does at least move it a little both ways, and moves it enough. Harris though in his time had the ability to keep it right on the money with good changes of pace and the right lines and lengths for his form of the game, and as a result despite being a 110 kmh dibbly-dobbly bowler who was mocked by most casual fans for looking useless, ended with a fantastic ODI record.]