Lasith Malinga's doing stuff that makes us happy

Yay. Fast bowling's not dead yet. Sri Lanka have absolutely walloped New Zealand in a one-dayer in Auckland. Lasith Malinga took 3-14. Chaminda Vaas took 3-10, but Malinga's the future. The future, you hear!

This is also good news for England in a seeing-what-you-want-to kind of a way. Sri Lanka absolutely battered England in the one-dayers over the summer. If Sri Lanka are THIS much better than New Zealand, maybe England aren't all that bad...

Benevolent Uncle Sanath got Sri Lanka off to a flyer like it was 1996 all over again, hitting 70 off 44 balls, which is just ludicrous really. He hit five sixes, which is quite a lot when you think about it. Sri Lanka made 262-6.

Then the fun REALLY started as New Zealand were bowled out for just 73 with only two players reaching double figures. We haven't seen a single ball of it, but we imagine Lasith Malinga looked serious and New Zealand's batsmen looked around pleading for help, but no-one answered their calls.

Bizarrely, Lasith Malinga has opted to have his hair cut like mum's was in 1983. Always ahead of her time, mum.

Murali took 2-7. It was a good match all round.

Benevolent Uncle Sanath signs for Lancashire

Lancashire have signed Benevolent Uncle Sanath for the duration of the Twenty20, which is not a bad move at all. We're especially pleased, not just because Jayasuriya's so good, but because he seems like a really nice bloke.

We like it when Lancashire's overseas players are nice. It makes us feel warm; like we don't live in a world where people will steal the front wheel of your bike if you don't chain it to a policeman.

Apparently Benevolent Uncle Sanath retired from all forms of international cricket after the World Cup. We thought he would, but managed to miss the announcement anyway. We were probably busy staring into space and humming.

Sanath Jayasuriya - opener, pinch-hitter, pirate

This might be a fairly redundant statement, but isn't Benevolent Uncle Sanath great?

He'll be 38 soon and we're guessing he'll retire after the World Cup. It's sad, but at least he seems to be raising his game for this final hurrah. Yesterday he hit 115 off 101 balls against the Windies.

Despite all the predictions, rapid hundreds haven't exactly been ten-a-penny. Sanath Jayasuriya however, was one player you'd expect one from. At least one.

In our head, when he plays that magnificent, aerial swat off the back foot outside off-stump, he shouts 'ha-haaa'. He does this every time he plays the shot - which is often.

Maybe it's how frequently he's been described as 'swashbuckling' that's given us this idea. It's almost pirate-like this exclamation. The campaign for more pirates in cricket starts here.