Sri Lanka take unorthodox route to success

Cricket lovers everywhere haven't had enough of Tillakaratne Dilshan's audacious scoop over the wicketkeeper yet and they are already being treated to a second unconventional shot from another Sri Lankan batsman. Mahela Jayawardene took innovation in batting to a higher plane by playing a reverse sweep with the back of his bat against Jacob Oram during the Super Eights match versus New Zealand at Trent Bridge. He bent down low, got into position to play the shot, and just when we expected him to switch his bat around, he simply let the ball go off the back, placing it fine enough to beat the man at short third man.

"It's something I have been trying for a while," Jayawardene said. "I have actually been trying to hit the reverse-sweep with the other side of the bat but found it a bit difficult to time it, sometimes it's a bit quick for me and I get top edges. This is something I've worked with Trevor [Bayliss] on. He was saying that [John] Dyson used to do that in Australia. He used to tap it with the other side because he couldn't sweep.

"A lot of teams bring third man up these days and I thought I'll give it a go. It was the last over so I had nothing to lose and everything to gain. Hopefully it will keep working."
Jayawardene's back-bat paddle is the latest of several innovations the Sri Lankans have unleashed on their opponents during the World Twenty20. Dilshan dropped jaws when he got to his fifty in Sri Lanka's first match against Australia by moving across his stumps, bending low to get under the ball, and scooping it right over the wicketkeeper's head. It wasn't a one-off for he replicated that shot with success against every team apart from New Zealand who, according to Daniel Vettori, had made plans to prevent Dilshan from playing that shot. When Dilshan was asked how he conceived of such a shot which, if mis-timed, could send the ball straight on to his face, his answer was simple. "You can't place a fielder behind the wicketkeeper," he said.