Bowling at the stumps worked: Maharoof

It seemed a pretty decent batting wicket till Farveez Maharoof stepped in, destroyed the West Indies and shattered them to pieces.

We have seen victory margins as huge as the nine-wicket one that the Sri Lankans eked out at the Brabourne stadium on Saturday evening, but rarely has there been one as emphatic in a match between two very good sides.

Just 22, Maharoof comes into the Sri Lankan side more for his all-round skills, than solely as a bowler. Against the West Indies he was introduced into the bowling first change to replace Chaminda Vaas in the 13th over of the innings. And by the 30th over he single-handedly triggered a batting collapse.

Quite deservedly, he was named man of the match for his match-winning spell of 6 for 14 in 9 overs.

But what caused the turnaround that saw him concede 37 runs in four overs against Zimbabwe on Tuesday?

"I had not done well in the last match. So I assessed my bowling according to the wicket, and I realized that I was giving a bit of width outside the off-stump.

"Here I made sure that I bowled at the stumps and it worked," he said.

Indeed it worked. Four of his six wickets were either leg before or bowled dismissals. Even the batsmen found it difficult to work him for singles on either side of the wicket.

The pitch was not ideal for batting, as accepted by both the captains, but certainly the West Indies could have scored more runs.

"It was not a bad pitch at all, but we bowled well as a group," Maharoof said.

Captain Mahela Jayawardene agreed that the emergence of young players like Maharoof, Lasith Malinga and Upul Tharanga have taken a lot of pressure off from senior players, like Chaminda Vaas and Muttiah Muralitharan.

"I think especially Muralitharan. I remember two years back there was a lot of pressure on him to take wickets every time the ball was given to him. But now things have changed and there are good young bowlers, who are doing well," Jaywardene added.

The emphatic showing in the first three matches would no doubt put Sri Lanka as a major title-favourite heading in the main round of matches.

And looking ahead, they have some easy opposition in South Africa (known to struggle in the subcontinent), Pakistan (in a turmoil after the Oval Test fiasco and Younis Khan's captaincy drama) and New Zealand, who took a long break before the Champions Trophy.

Right now, Sri Lanka seem the most balanced and settled of all the teams in the tournament. Favourites Australia need to find an opening partner for Adam Gilchrist, while India's batting woes are yet to be addressed.

But not everyday will one find opposition surrendering like the West Indies, but Sri Lanka have certainly made their presence felt.

As for the West Indies, who are also the defending champions, things can only get better.

"The next round is a whole new tournament with all teams starting on zero points. So we have an opportunity to improve."

"It's a tough group featuring Australia, India and England. But I think we have the ingredients necessary to win this tournament again. Even last time nobody gave us a chance, but we did it and I think we can do it again," Lara said.