The Liebke ratings: Australia versus Sri Lanka World Cup group game

Australia and Sri Lanka squared off in a group game that would determine which of the two teams would finish second in Pool A, the prestigious ‘not quite as good as New Zealand but better than everyone else’ slot.

Here are the ratings from that game.

Glenn Maxwell
Grade: Prince Love Symbol

Look, let’s just get Glenn Maxwell out of the way first. I don’t want to include him in the ratings every time, but sometimes he leaves me with very little choice.

Promoted in the batting order, Maxwell once again blurred the boundary between pornography and erotica as he raced to a 21-ball half-century.

Focus then shifted to the prospect of a Maxwell ton. Now, anybody who’s been fortunate enough to watch Maxwell’s multiple carefree dismissals in the nineties knows that he doesn’t care one jot for our puny Earth records or tedious base-ten milestones.

But other, more traditional-minded folks do care, and Maxwell humoured their constrained world-view, convincingly feigning excitement at reaching their precious triple figure milestone. He wasn’t willing to fully compromise his principles, however, bluntly refusing to claim a share of the record for fastest World Cup century by calmly informing the umpire that the single he’d just taken was probably a leg bye.

Eventually the Sri Lankans were able to rid themselves of Mr Maxwell by tricking him into saying his name backwards, thereby forcing him to return to his home in the fifth dimension.

But the damage had been done, with Maxwell’s ninety-twelve forming the backbone of Australia’s mammoth 9/376.

Shane Watson
Grade: C+

The other major talking point of the Australian innings was the triumphant return of Shane Watson. Like Mark Twain, E.T the Extra-Terrestrial or the art of the Mankad, rumours of his demise had been greatly exaggerated. Watson was back.

Steve Smith, of course, maintained the number three spot, partly due to his quality batting form, but mostly because he’s willing to bat in a cap if given the opportunity, and Steve Smith batting in the semi-rigid yellow makes everything about cricket better.

As previously mentioned, when Michael Clarke was out for 68, Maxwell came in ahead of Watson. Promoting Maxwell is, of course, always a good move, In fact, one day I expect to see him somehow promoted above the openers. But the other reason for Maxwell’s move up the order was no doubt because the last time Watson was out, it triggered an 8/26 collapse. Wise therefore to delay getting him in for as long as possible.

Despite these fears, the shambling undead Watson-creature made 67 off 41 deliveries, clubbing the ball to all parts of the ground in an impressive display that certainly made Australian fans stop and think.

And what they thought was ‘Imagine how many Mitch Marsh would have made?’

Consecutive fours
Grade: D

As the Sri Lankan run chase started to move into gear, Tillakaratne Dilshan took one Mitchell Johnson over for six consecutive fours. This tedious lack of variety got very old very quickly. When, oh when, oh when will the ICC step in and do something to put an end to these boring middle overs?

James Faulkner
Grade: A-

James Faulkner had zero interest in batting in an innings in which Maxwell was no longer a part, and so duly ran himself out from the first ball he faced.

He was much more interested in bowling, however, with his changes of pace and general James Faulkner-ness tightening the run chase just when Sri Lanka threatened to reduce it to something manageable. He took 3/48 off his 9 overs, including the big wickets of Dilshan and the century-maker Kumar Sangakkara.

In a way, Faulkner was lucky to get Sangakkara’s wicket as Maxwell had been earlier denied a raucous LBW appeal against the Sri Lankan champion batsman, presumably for the technicality that Sangakkara had exquisitely cut the ball for four. Unlucky.

Dinesh Chandimal’s hamstring
Grade: F

Despite the loss of Dilshan and Sangakkara, Sri Lanka continued to maintain close to the required run rate, with Dinesh Chandimal blasting 52 off 24 balls to keep his team in range.

However, his hamstring then failed him, forcing him to retire hurt. The rest of the batting was out soon after as Sri Lanka fell 64 runs short, all out for 312.

You would have got excellent odds on a Sri Lankan hamstring being the first one to succumb in this match, but that’s the beauty of sport, right? On its day, even an underdog hamstring can topple the big-name hamstrings.

Magnificent in its way.