Spinning tales

A discourse on spin was the abiding principle that guided the media interactions of rival skippers Mahela Jayawardene and Mohammad Hafeez ahead of Thursday’s ICC World Twenty20 semifinal.

Excerpts:

Jayawardene’s views

Spinning tales: We have some quality spinners and we play spin quite well. Saeed Ajmal and Ajantha Mendis have been playing for five to six years now and I am not too sure whether there’s any mystery left. It is a big game for everyone not just for those two guys and we need to do the little things right.

The good show in ICC events: Still we are two games away from getting to that title. We are extremely proud to be a part of a group that has been consistent throughout the tournament. You can take lot of positives that we have done well in big tournaments. Yes we haven’t won any of those and it’s a bit of a disappointment.”

Hafeez’s fervent hopes:

Spinning it again: We are blessed with some very good spinners in the world like Ajmal, Shahid Afridi and newcomer Raza Hasan. As far as Mendis is concerned he is always very good in Twenty20. We played each other quite often so we know each other and we will come up with a plan.

In T20, spinners play a major role to get wickets and put the opposition under pressure and we have very good spinners and that's the main reason why we are doing well in this format.