Ajantha Mendis
Printed From: Cricket World
Category: Letter To The Editor
Forum Name: Player Discussion
Forum Discription: Player discussion, comparisons and memories
URL: http://www.cricketworld.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=4632
Printed Date: 24 May 2013 at 3:28am
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 9.71 - http://www.webwizforums.com
Topic: Ajantha Mendis
Posted By: zuhair_abbasi
Subject: Ajantha Mendis
Date Posted: 03 July 2008 at 7:57am
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http://content-sl.cricinfo.com/wivsl/content/player/268739.html - http://stats.cricketworld.com/Players/142/142472/142472.html - http://stats.cricketworld.com/Players/142/142472/142472.html Just take a look at this guy's numbers!!! He has been impressive in the Asia cup so far as well. Dont know how to categorize him. But he is certainly the future of Srilankan cricket. They now need not worry once Murali retires. He bolws off break, medium, flipper, leg break, googly, top spin and what not!!!! 500 test wickets for this guy!!! |
Replies:
Posted By: 143no
Date Posted: 03 July 2008 at 10:01am
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Does he do it legally? ------------- Monkey see, Monkey do. |
Posted By: zuhair_abbasi
Date Posted: 03 July 2008 at 10:36am
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Very much so ------------- http://thecricketinsight.blogspot.com/ |
Posted By: bladescape
Date Posted: 03 July 2008 at 2:32pm
Mendis is brillient! 
I've never seen anyone bowl so well!
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Posted By: spin wizard
Date Posted: 03 July 2008 at 9:00pm
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Mendis looks impressive so far. He bowled well in his two ODI's in the caribbean and he got variations. ------------- In troubled times, being philosophical helps a great deal, it helps you to remain sane and not do any further damage. |
Posted By: zuhair_abbasi
Date Posted: 04 July 2008 at 8:07am
------------- http://thecricketinsight.blogspot.com/ |
Posted By: bladescape
Date Posted: 04 July 2008 at 8:54am
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Two things:
1.I have only watched cricket the last four years. 2.I meant the fact that he could bowl off spin and leg spin with equal ease. |
Posted By: dips_december
Date Posted: 04 July 2008 at 5:58pm
A typical 143 question!
 Mendis has had a good and promising start to his career and if he is groomed properly with Murali then he might turn into a huge success story.
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Posted By: jaysjay
Date Posted: 06 July 2008 at 7:47pm
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wow! what a fantastic prospect for Srilanka ,sensational start all the way,he is being billed as slow medium but he can be called anything from gentle medium to leg break or an offie, anything,and without the the risk of going overboard i can say i have never seen anything like him. ------------- for what a man would like to be true,that he more readily believes. |
Posted By: bladescape
Date Posted: 07 July 2008 at 12:26am
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That's what I meant with the above post about him being brillient.
And actually you are wrong,Tendulkar bowls all three types like Mendis(though not as well). |
Posted By: spin wizard
Date Posted: 07 July 2008 at 12:59am
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Man, I like Mendis bowling. People does say not too variate too much in terms of like googlies, toppies, sliders etc but this man proving them wrong. In my view, you'll be very good with taking wickets this way although a bit more expensive! ------------- In troubled times, being philosophical helps a great deal, it helps you to remain sane and not do any further damage. |
Posted By: zuhair_abbasi
Date Posted: 07 July 2008 at 6:00am
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I tend to disagree SW.I guess he will be more economical than most of the bowlers around ------------- http://thecricketinsight.blogspot.com/ |
Posted By: jaysjay
Date Posted: 07 July 2008 at 7:09am
Tendulkar doesnt ball carrom ball though, and he has to give it a lot of air to extract massive turn while mendis just bowl medium spin looks very flat at times and does come up with a loop at times so much differences between the two.Tendulkar is also not so exacting with his line and length hence he tends to bowl wayward loose deleveries unlike Mendis (its still an early phase of his carrer though but he has shown imennse promise). ------------- for what a man would like to be true,that he more readily believes. |
Posted By: bladescape
Date Posted: 07 July 2008 at 7:16am
| Well Tendlukar is a part timer so I would not expect him to be half as good as Mendis. |
Posted By: spin wizard
Date Posted: 07 July 2008 at 4:20pm
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Zuhair, I was talking about bowlers in general if they do that, not Mendis. Batsman got to use their senses against him, from what I've seen, anytime he gives the ball loop, it's the top spinner/googly so all they have to do is not play for any leg break turn as which they are doing to him. I find the most dangerous ball of his is that leg cutter which is bowled with an off break action but spins it a bit like leg break with his fingers and it gets some back spin on it and skids and straighten. That's a wicked delivery! ------------- In troubled times, being philosophical helps a great deal, it helps you to remain sane and not do any further damage. |
Posted By: lalinda_sang
Date Posted: 08 July 2008 at 12:56am
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it is a wicked delivery.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nL9-D-Hp2GI - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nL9-D-Hp2GI http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ecki1gqUSRI - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ecki1gqUSRI |
Posted By: bondy
Date Posted: 08 July 2008 at 6:35am
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I first saw Mendis against Pakistan in the Asia Cup and I couldn't figure out what kind of bowler he was.
What I don't understand is this: couldn't Warne, Murali and other great spinners have the ability to bowl all these types of deliverys? Surely a spinner could emulate this guy? Or is he really something special?
I'm not sure how this guy will fear in international cricket without a stock ball. He seems slightly erratic at this point and it could cost him against better players, but I think if he can develop a stock ball and some variations within that he'll be very, very successful ------------- Good one Graham! |
Posted By: Sledger
Date Posted: 08 July 2008 at 7:15am
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Dhoni is quoted as saying the Indians couldn't pick him - some
statement from the captain of the team that supposedly plays spin
better than most.
------------- Mental disintegration works for me !! |
Posted By: zuhair_abbasi
Date Posted: 08 July 2008 at 7:18am
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But this indian team is minus all those players who play spin better than most. No Sachin, Dravid or Laxman ------------- http://thecricketinsight.blogspot.com/ |
Posted By: bladescape
Date Posted: 08 July 2008 at 7:44am
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I wouldn't be suprised if Sachin couldn't pick him!
Though he can still improve. |
Posted By: fishcake14
Date Posted: 08 July 2008 at 2:52pm
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Half of his wickets in that 6-13 match did absolutely nothing, his wickets were more down to the bad shot selection. He's a new bowler so he's bound to be a bit different, but surely top batsman should have no trouble deciphering a googly from an offbreak; the hand positions are entirely different. There may be slightly more trouble in picking his doosra from his off-break seeing as though they do look quite similar. There's reallyn not much point in him bowling legbreaks and googlies if he's supposed to be an off-spinner, as batsmen of any standard should really be able to tell the diiference between those two wrist positions... the fact they spin the same way also adds to the eccentricity of his decision to pursue in bolwing them.
That said, if he develops his off-break into his stock ball and continues to work on his offspin variations, we could have a very big prospect ahead. ------------- |
Posted By: jaysjay
Date Posted: 08 July 2008 at 5:40pm
batsmen of any standard pick doosras or they can ,may be , but the fact is is its not easy for batsman of any standard to respond to some wiered bowling like that...probably they could suss him out watching video tapes or anything and he will have to keep evolving his bowling with constant experimentation and no surity of success for anyone in this game, nevertheless there should not be any denying of the fact that he did bowl very well ...you may say that they were too agressive and lost wickets playing extravaggant shots of him but still he was the one begging those top four wickets and that too when the powerplays were on, add also that most of them were bowled , stump or lbw that means he simply beat them all with his line and length on a batsman friendly pitch. ------------- for what a man would like to be true,that he more readily believes. |
Posted By: bladescape
Date Posted: 09 July 2008 at 1:44am
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If you can bowl Leg breaks and off breaks with both actions then it would be difficult to handle.
He just needs to work on the leg break with leg spinner grip! |
Posted By: The Tyke
Date Posted: 09 July 2008 at 2:12am
It's similar to Left Arm Spinners that slip in a chinaman in once in a while. It messes with a batsman's head because they have doubt of how you're going to spin the ball.
Finger spin and Wrist spin have different rates of revolutions and different amounts of turn so being able to bowl both means a batsman can't settle to how much a pitch is turning for you.
You're also forgetting the ability he'll have to bluff opponents. He bowls you some off breaks, then bowls what looks like a leg break and the batsman plays for the leg break to be bowled by what's really a wrong'un. Good bluff.
Or he bowls a leggies top spinner and it goes straight on going through the gap and taking out off stump.
This guy is something special in the making. I think he knows his game well enough to know that if he's getting slogged and has to revert to simplicity rather than loads of variation, then he'll be able to.
Until he actually starts getting slogged though we'll never know.
His Doosra is actually a reverse finger delivery which means there's a time just before he bowls that he has to set his fingers up for it, if done in run up. To do it you carry out the finger spin bowling action while in run up keeping hold of the ball and then move the fingers back the opposite way while releasing the ball on delivery. This creates like a 2 fingered leg break/chinaman and causes the ball to turn that way.
It'll be picked soon because of his altered finger position and the reversing of the fingers (providing he does it in run up as I have done when bowling reverse fingered deliveries).
If he sets up for it before then he'll cause more problems for himself as he gives a batsman more time to see the finger positions and predict what's coming.
Using the link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nL9-D-Hp2GI - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nL9-D-Hp2GI (also provided above) stop it at 30 seconds. It shows his action from behind just before release. You can see the difference in his finger position (mainly that his index finger is higher and the ring and little finger are extended for his Doosra).
Not easy to pick for certain but over time it'll get picked more due to his finger position difference. Still, that's a delivery that's very clever and takes plenty of practice to bowl it well. I think that and a good undercutter/arm ball can make a good Offy or LAS. ------------- Minn hugur er minn sverš (My mind is my sword) |
Posted By: bangback
Date Posted: 09 July 2008 at 6:21am
just turn ya arm over in perfect bating condition against top batsmen and have da return of 6/ 13,
gud luck mate
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Posted By: Sledger
Date Posted: 09 July 2008 at 6:39am
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bangback , read the rules - post in english please.
------------- Mental disintegration works for me !! |
Posted By: bladescape
Date Posted: 09 July 2008 at 6:46am
Well I don't think that's quite right bangback!  Ajantha Mendis did quite a lot with his deliveries and that was the reason the ones which didn't do much got the wickets! They were expecting more from the deliveries and so when he slipped in the deliveries which didn't do anything,it took the batsman by surprise! ------------- You know, I'm trying to decide whether to change my siggy or not... |
Posted By: bangback
Date Posted: 09 July 2008 at 6:52am
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I was referring to the http://www.cricketworld.com/forum/member_profile.asp?PF=1451&FID=20 - fishcake14 's post, read carefully |
Posted By: Sledger
Date Posted: 09 July 2008 at 7:17am
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Use the quote button bangback , then we know who you're responding to.
------------- Mental disintegration works for me !! |
Posted By: bangback
Date Posted: 09 July 2008 at 7:20am
I did exactly dat,
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Posted By: Sledger
Date Posted: 09 July 2008 at 8:22am
It's spelt "that" - get it right. ------------- Mental disintegration works for me !! |
Posted By: bangback
Date Posted: 09 July 2008 at 11:52am
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[QUOTE=bondy]I first saw Mendis against Pakistan in the Asia Cup and I couldn't figure out what kind of bowler he was.
What I don't understand is this: couldn't Warne, Murali and other great spinners have the ability to bowl all these types of deliverys? Surely a spinner could emulate this guy? Or is he really something special?
I'm not sure how this guy will fear in international cricket without a stock ball. He seems slightly erratic at this point and it could cost him against better players, but I think if he can develop a stock ball and some variations within that he'll be very, very successful [/QUOTE]
No they cant, unless you have iron like fingers you cant bowl like him, thats the speciality with mendis. If you have ever touched a cricket ball you would have understood this
 |
Posted By: Sledger
Date Posted: 09 July 2008 at 1:40pm
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If U post another message like your last one it'll be your last.
------------- Mental disintegration works for me !! |
Posted By: kahmad
Date Posted: 09 July 2008 at 3:08pm
| very good reply Sledger |
Posted By: spin wizard
Date Posted: 09 July 2008 at 4:41pm
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I'd say Mendis doesn't have a doosra! As of my knowing, that's a leg cutter. A doosra have over spin on it! ------------- In troubled times, being philosophical helps a great deal, it helps you to remain sane and not do any further damage. |
Posted By: jaysjay
Date Posted: 09 July 2008 at 5:13pm
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thats what is making people to talk about him at length you just never can restrict him to any terms ...this somtimes brings him closer to Anil Kumble but he looks to have more spin then Kumble ...then at times he looks like a gentle medium bowler like Harris..intresting bowler this Mendis lad is....he has played only 19 first class matches and has already grabbed 119 or somthing wickets at a not so impressive average of 14 or 15! ------------- for what a man would like to be true,that he more readily believes. |
Posted By: bladescape
Date Posted: 03 August 2008 at 12:40pm
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Mendis has done very well and taken his first ten wicket haul in tests!
18 wickets in 2 tests! 
An avarage of 9 a match! Thats impressive! ------------- You know, I'm trying to decide whether to change my siggy or not... |
Posted By: -JP-
Date Posted: 03 August 2008 at 1:38pm
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His batting's in the mould of Murali's though. Concentration: 0 Patience: 0 Strokemaking: 100 |
Posted By: bladescape
Date Posted: 03 August 2008 at 1:39pm
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You're right there JP! I think it makes up for him being a really good bowler! ------------- You know, I'm trying to decide whether to change my siggy or not... |
Posted By: zuhair_abbasi
Date Posted: 04 August 2008 at 7:34am
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He certainly makes SRL look a stronger side than they ever have been ------------- http://thecricketinsight.blogspot.com/ |
Posted By: slogger72N/O
Date Posted: 04 August 2008 at 10:52am
He has a doosra, but he's still working on perfecting it so he doesn't realy bowl it in matches, he relies on his leg cutter. |
Posted By: bondy
Date Posted: 04 August 2008 at 12:49pm
No they cant, unless you have iron like fingers you cant bowl like him, thats the speciality with mendis. If you have ever touched a cricket ball you would have understood this [/QUOTE]I've been playing cricket since I was 5 - now ascertain whether I've touched a ball or not. I've had close to 5000 posts on here and not one of them has reached the level of simplicity you're posting at. Four posts you've had, hopefully it stays that way. ------------- Good one Graham! |
Posted By: Sledger
Date Posted: 04 August 2008 at 2:25pm
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He's banned Bondy.
------------- Mental disintegration works for me !! |
Posted By: crapbag
Date Posted: 12 August 2008 at 1:29pm
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Posted By: crapbag
Date Posted: 12 August 2008 at 1:33pm
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Posted By: Sledger
Date Posted: 12 August 2008 at 2:22pm
Cultural clash again ? 143's caustic wit is questioning his arm and not his syringe action. ------------- Mental disintegration works for me !! |
Posted By: crapbag
Date Posted: 12 August 2008 at 3:02pm
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Posted By: bladescape
Date Posted: 13 August 2008 at 2:17am
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Mendis is very legal on both accounts.
And to top that of,He is deadly with the ball. ------------- You know, I'm trying to decide whether to change my siggy or not... |
Posted By: bladescape
Date Posted: 19 August 2008 at 1:55pm
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Well done to Mendis to a good start to the ODI series,I reckon he is the replacement for Murali after he retires.
800+ test wickets,maybe?  ------------- You know, I'm trying to decide whether to change my siggy or not... |
Posted By: spin wizard
Date Posted: 19 August 2008 at 2:45pm
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I wouldn't quite go there yet. Flatter, faster spinners seems to be more effective in the sub continent, ala Kumble and Harbhajan. On pitches were it doesn't bite and skids on, batsmen will lick there lips but I'm still think Mendis will be really successful. His googly has to be the hardest to pick. It definitely isn't out the back of the hand. ------------- In troubled times, being philosophical helps a great deal, it helps you to remain sane and not do any further damage. |
Posted By: crapbag
Date Posted: 20 August 2008 at 4:01pm
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Posted By: spin wizard
Date Posted: 20 August 2008 at 6:58pm
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Nawwwww, the finger will last. If that was the case, Warne's ring finger would have been gone already because he use to put loads upon loads of revs on the ball. ------------- In troubled times, being philosophical helps a great deal, it helps you to remain sane and not do any further damage. |
Posted By: bladescape
Date Posted: 21 August 2008 at 3:25am
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Too right,SW.
If it had of been like that then I would have had a broken finger for reving the ball a lot for the last 5 years! ------------- You know, I'm trying to decide whether to change my siggy or not... |
Posted By: lalinda_sang
Date Posted: 04 November 2008 at 4:00pm
| he good at 20 20 as well...he picked 11 wicket in just 3 matches and avg of 5 in last 4 nation series.. |