Ajantha Mendis and the Carrom Ball

Dhoni is no ordinary player. He exudes a kind of quiet confidence which can be as disconcerting to the opposition as being brash and impertinent (like Dada before him).Unlike Dada, he is willing to quickly concede a weak position and work diligently towards fixing it.The Carrom ball,like a srilankan tsunami, devastated all the big-wigs of our side without exception. This ball that Mendis bowls, is novel in the sense that it is released with an unorthodox grip. I am still not clear on why it is so hard to read off the hand, but I guess it is, because no one seems to be able to do it. It seems like depending on at what point in his arm-revolution he releases it, it may go straight and fast, turn left or right. Now that is really hard to believe. In any case, Dhoni has modifed his game to counter Mendis. In the last 3 games, Mendis has not been able to bother MS, primarily, I think, because Dhoni seems to play him a bit "beside" himself, leaving room for making split second horizontal adjustments to his bat, in case there is a nasty suprise after a pitch. This is still not positive identification of the carrom ball, but it seems to be working well for now. It must also be borne on mind that the track was not spinning as much inthe first innings. So, I think, Dhoni may be on to something here i.e on the brink of the discovery of the millenium: how to play the carrom ball. But let's watch how it goes for a few more games before we award him the patent. By the way, rather interestingly, Sri Lanka is the reigning world champion in Carrom. Sri-Lanka in cricketing terms, is a bit like the island of galapagos. A lot of unique species inhabit the island that seem to be different than anything anywhere else,as if they were formed by an isolated volcano and were never part of gondwanaland.