One-Day cricket at its Best
With the recent emergence of Twenty20 format, One-Day cricket had almost nose-dived towards its ultimate doom; however, thanks to the current http://www.senore.com/Cricket/United-Arab-Emirates-c3033 and the Australia-Sri Lanka
series in Australia, One-Day cricket has yet again found its long lost glory.
Both the bilateral series are pulling large crowds and have had matches that have gone to the last wire. The manner in which Sri Lankan tail-enders, Lasith Malinga and Angelo Mathews snatched victory from the clutches of the Australians
and the way Abdul Razzaq single-handedly held the South Africans away from victory shows just how thrilling the game has once again become.
Over the years, unfortunately One-Day matches had become predictable causing a great loss of interest in the game. Things looked even darker for One-Day internationals with the emergence of a shorter version of the game known as
Twenty20, also known as T20, where the game was reduced from 50 overs to 20 overs for each side. The new format of the game immediately became popular, as it is much more exciting, less predictable and the matches finish in shorter time.
After the third Twenty20 World Cup, there were some rumours of totally eliminating the One-Day format of the game, but such rumours can be put to rest after watching the highly unpredictable games in both the series where the side
that was losing throughout the match ended-up winning in the end, through pure brilliance.
The first match to exhibit a nail-biting affair was the second One-Day international between Pakistan and South Africa. The Afrikaans went in this match one up against the Pakistanis and they clearly seemed in control throughout
the game posting a huge total, 286 runs, which was to be chased by a weaker Pakistani batting side.
The top-order was totally taken aback by the South African bowlers and none of the genuine Pakistani batsmen could score big runs against the Proteas. However, the Afrikaans had no idea that Abdul Razzaq was in a mood for some
hard-hitting batting. It was left up to Abdul Razzaq to steer the almost out and done Pakistani side to a series levelling victory. http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Razzaq-c84421 comprehensively played an innings of his lifetime and made sure that his team would not end up on the losing side.
Then, three days after the match in UAE, it was time for the Australian continent to shine and leave cricket lovers with something to remember for the rest of their lives. The Sri Lankans, who had never won a series in http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746,
denied the home side a victory in the first One-Day played at Melbourne. http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Sri-Lanka-c758 were made to chase a total of 239 runs, but 8 of its players lost their wickets with more than a hundred and thirty runs to chase. Surprisingly, bowler Lasith Malinga and the
all-rounder Angelo Mathews played brilliantly and defeated the Australians.
These two matches have once again shown that One-Day cricket is pretty much alive and kicking. With more matches like these, no one will be able to call One-Day cricket a dead sport anymore.
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