Majestic Mahela

Sri Lanka booked their place in the final with a wonderful all round performance, beating the Kiwi's comprehensively.

Mahela Jayawardene was on top form and played one of his best innings to date. He paced it just perfectly, starting slowly but solidly, nudging and quietly accumulating his runs. Then in the final ten overs, he suddenly changed gears and played a majestic array of shots which was a delight to watch. It wasn't brutal powerhouse hitting of a Hayden, Symonds or Smith, but a classical display of wristy cuts and pulls with precision timing and placement. It made me sit up and take notice and you could sense that this was a very special batting display with a master at work.

The bowlers backed up the batsman with all of them firing at the right time and the bewildered Kiwi's helplessly surrendered like lambs to the slaughter. Master Murali again weaved his magic spell with four wickets. The difference in class between the two teams was evident today and the Kiwi captain, Stephen Fleming, admitted as much in the post match analysis.

So the red hot Lankan's are through to the finals, where at the time of writing, it is very likely that they will meet the Aussies, who seem to be overpowering the South African's to a poultry score of 130-9 in the 41st over. It is all being set up for a meeting between the best two teams in the tournament.