M&M – Deadly spin twins?

I was bristling when I was watching India collapse in both innings. I don’t think that I have ever seen such tight bowling by Sri Lanka in a test! Often, you’d see clever batsmen stonewalling Murali and smashing the bowler at the other end, but, finally Murali has got a great spin twin in Mendis. Like the cricinfo commentator said, “If Murali doesn’t get you, Mendis will”!

I’ve always maintained that Warne had a definite advantage with the presence of someone like McGrath because, with McGrath’s pinpoint accuracy and Warney’s magic, the batsmen had to give in sometime or the other. Finally, Murali has got someone to maintain the pressure at the other end. Hope to see some great performances by Sri Lanka in the future.

Comparisons are being made of this duo to the last best West Indian spinners, Sonny Ramadhin and Alf Valentine. Ramadhin was very well known for spinning the ball both ways (like Mendis does), and the fact that he always wore full sleeves made it difficult for the batsmen to read the ball off his hand. Valentine, according to one of his team-mates, ‘could even spin the ball on glass’ (similar stuff have been said of Murali)

Of course, it would be too late to write off the Indians. We could be in for a good series!

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