This bizarre thread is about the evening when I became a Malik fan, so this is more about me than Malik.
You have been warned.
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The Coca Cola Champions Trophy of 1999, in Sharjah, featured West Indies, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.
West Indies scraped through against Sri Lanka in the first match, but were steamrolled by Pakistan in the second.
The third match was between Sri Lanka and Pakistan.
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Sri Lanka had not done well in the World Cup that year.
But that was in England.
Their phalanx of spinners, typically consisting of Muttiah Muralitharan, along with men who bowled wicket-to-wicket on slow, low Asian pitches under lights, were a different matter altogether.
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Pujara and Rahane have their supporters, and rightly so. They have done great things in the past.
Pujara and Rahane epitomise the medieval-school* brand of defensive batting in Test cricket.
*Anything after 1864 is not really "old-school"
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In other words, bat for long hours, grind the opposition bowlers down, let them tire, put the loose balls away.
I have always been a firm believer in quick batting, because that improves the chance of taking 20 wickets.
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But in an era dominated by ball, and with percentage of drawn Test matches on the decline, grinding is perhaps not as defensive than it used to in the flat-wicket 2000s.
I pitted Pujara and Rahane against Pant and Jadeja, two batters known for aggressive, high-risk batting.
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Tillakaratne Dilshan, one of my most favourite cricketers of all time, turns 45 today.
There is no actual reason for Dilshan being my favourite.
I just loved watching him, with bat, with ball, on field, anything.
Dilshan was one of the giants of cricket, especially ODIs.
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He is one of six men with the 10,000 run-1,000 wicket-100 dismissal treble in ODIs.
Of them, he is the only one to have been a specialist Test wicketkeeper at some point.
I do not mean stepping in for an injured wicketkeeper: he *started* three Test matches as wicketkeeper.
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Talking about Test cricket, Dilshan (40.98) averaged more than in the format than Jayasuriya (40.07), Atapattu (39.02), and Karunaratne (38.62 as I write).
Dilshan played until he was 40 (I thought he always looked 25).