Jayasuriya lbw Dharmichand 102 (Given out by...)

That is precisely what happened on Saturday.

The consummate player that he is, he reduced some of the best Singapore bowlers to pie-chuckers (thanks KP for the term!) when he thrashed something like 242 runs in about 100 balls over two innings today in the IA 20/20 Olam Cup tournament.

After thrashing everybody out of sight at IA for his second century of the day, the marauder got a bit tired and missed a wrong 'un from Dharmi leaving me with an easy decision. (giving me yet another topic to boast to my grand-children - that is IF they understand cricket ;-)

That said, Upul Tharanga was a bit of a let down - caught behind off Shoib (again, yours-sincerely had to do the exercise of lifting the index finger ;-) He did come back strongly with two excellent run outs to push the Southern Kings back strongly.

Apart from cricket, there were a few things that could have been avoided...

The toss had to be delayed because the great man did not happen yet at the ground :-() - Don't remind me that anybody can toss for the team... such is our pandering to stardom...

Anand and I goofed up on the elementary counting of men outside the circle - resulting in a delayed no-ball call. Pressure, Pressure!

And a fair bit of the gamesmanship from the great man - when he tried to bowl even before the batsman was ready, not once, twice... but five times!! Happy that one stood upto him; but it was sheer nonsense. May be I should have put my ample waist in front of his two-step-runup? I think Sarika and Ramesh handled him much better today. To be fore-warned is to be fore-armed, definitely.

Reminded of what Sarika said, "When star players pressure you, cover the face!" (their face, mentally, that is!)

But the cricket was absolute fun; thanks Sanath!!

As expected Eastern Riders won the Olam Cup on Sunday - albeit a major hiccough in the middle order after Upul blasted 84 in no time. Probably Chetan missed a trick by making Arun cool his heels when the two Oldies were batting in the end. Otherwise, East literally limped to the victory post - James was having a sub-runner, Harish: ditto and Sunder is no spring hare!
Anyway, it was a great two days.

Thanks to IA for arranging the fab event. Looking forward to the next one!