Todays semi-final between Sri Lanka and New Zealand, saw the former win and reach the World Cup Final for the 2nd time, whilst unfortunate New Zealand fail at the penultimate hurdle yet again.
Jayawardene had a blinder - he built the text book one day century and not for the first time in this world cup, made some decisive decisions on the field, to turn around his side's fortunes.
Alas for Stephen Fleming, generally touted as the best captain out there in the international game (English supporters would claim Vaughan is the best - and Australians could justifably say that their team's success hides the captaincy influence of Ponting) - today he could not kill off the Sri Lankan innings after fall of the 3rd wicket, and his team conceded 100 odd off the final 10 overs. When it came to bat, he fell for single figures.
Previously in this competition, Jayawardene led the field (no pun intended) in opting to play around with the timing of the 3rd power play (beyond the previous pattern of waiting for the fall of a wicket) - subsequently I noticed Ricky Ponting and others also did the same (re Tait in Aus vs England).
Thus the team which played better on the day, the team with more matchwinners, with more flair, the team captained better on the day won. New Zealand are a very decent one day outfit and creditably lost to another one.
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