Choosing Sri Lanka’s best attack in World Cups could be a tedious task and often people agree to disagree. But the attack that was chosen to feature in the 2007 World Cup was top class and although other teams like India and South Africa were fancied to reach the finals, there is little surprise that Sri Lanka went all the way, given the quality of their attack.
>>ICC Cricket World Cup 2019<<
Skipper Mahela Jayawardene had an impressive arsenal of pace and spin and often the Sri Lankans would pick horses for courses when it came to their support bowlers.
There was little doubt about their three leading bowlers – Muttiah Muralitharan, Chaminda Vaas, and Lasith Malinga. Vaas the highest wicket-taker of the previous World Cup was still on top of his game while Murali finished the 2007 edition of the competition with 23 scalps, three behind the tournament’s highest wicket-taker Glenn McGrath, who played one game more than Murali.
Lasith Malinga had a major impact as it was in this competition that he produced four wickets in four balls against South Africa. Vaas finished the tournament with 13 wickets while Malinga had 18 and when your top three bowlers respond like that, your team thrives.
There was impressive back up as well. If the team needed express pace, Dilhara Fernando provided that. Fernando bowled a quality spell in the game against England where he claimed three wickets for 41 runs.
The backup seamers were Farveez Maharoof and Nuwan Kulasekara and Maharoof produced two four-wicket hauls in that tournament. Both players could come up with decent contributions with the bat as well.
Sri Lanka had picked a second specialist spinner in leggie Malinga Bandara. Unlike the case at present, in the team’s batting line-up, almost everyone could bowl and that variety made Sri Lanka a formidable side.
Tillakaratne Dilshan, Russel Arnold, and Sanath Jayasuriya all were used extensively during that competition and all of them did decent jobs, coming on to bowl a couple of overs when the captain needed them to.
The 2007 World Cup was a long one and travelling in the Caribbean between the islands isn’t the easiest thing to do. Given that they had depth in the bowling, Sri Lanka was able to rotate their bowlers, resting key players. Both Murali and Vaas were rested for the Super Eight game against Australia as it had no bearing on the eventual result as Sri Lanka were sure of a semi-final berth and were going to avoid the Aussies in the semi-final.
Malinga was rested for three games allowing him to be fresh for the big clashes and he delivered when the team needed him.
Sri Lanka, who were based in Trinidad, topped their group as neighbours India made a shocking first round exit after losing to Bangladesh and Sri Lanka as only two teams would get to the Super Eight stage.
ඉන්දු – ශ්රී ලංකා ටෙස්ට් මතක මග ඔස්සේ – හොඳම පන්දු යැවීම්
Then they held their own in the Super Eight stage and beat New Zealand in the semi comprehensively to qualify for the finals against Australia.
This was the first ICC final they lost and then would go onto lose three more major finals – 2009 World T-20 at Lord’s, 2011 World Cup at Wankhede and 2012 World T-20 at RPS. The horrendous run ended two years later when they won the World T-20 in Dhaka.
Ashantha De Mel was the Chairman of Selectors during the 2007 edition and he had an excellent rapport with Head Coach Tom Moody.
