The limited overs exhibition has been wrapped up. The boys are busy discarding their crayon colored clothing and will be graduating to men in whites. These days, except Australia, almost every other team seems to be wearing the whitest of whites. But enough of the sartorials and on to the gladiatorials!

India has had a mixed bag on this tour of Hobbitland leading to a "neither her nor there" kind of feeling. But now the Tests are certainly here.

Dhoni's forces have already been able to erase his predessor's dark history in New Zealand in the limited overs versions of the sport. Can they do it in the more pristine version? While reports such as this one suggest an answer to that, Vettori would most certainly want to answer that question. And if history is any indicator at all, then his current team has all the more ammunition that his own predecessors to answer it in the most affirmatively negative. While the Indian team only has marginally more special talent in its ranks compared to the 2-0 embarrassment of 2-0-0-2, the New Zealand team is exploding with a lot of fresh and striking talent in almost all departments of cricketing skill.

The oldies-but-goldies of current Indian cricket - some would say "ever" - must be unpacking their coffins in Hamilton to try and resurrect some pride this time around. It is easy to get carried away by the seemingly unlimited success of the Indians in the limited versions since that famous bowl off in South Africa, amost two years ago. But one might also remember that the main difference seems to be in the age and the attitude of the team, something that will largely remain unchanged in the Test side, except that of the captain, who himself is always the first to admit that his qualities matter very little in translating to sweeping vicissitudes for the team. DreamCricket's own columnist, Suresh Menon, notes the seemingly precipitous downfall in the last ODI as a possible shock test before the real Tests. But when most of the personell will be shuffled, that shock might not be conducted to the required destination.

New Zealand has a palpable increase in talent and balance among its ranks which is accompanied by an equal, if not greater, decrese in experience. The specialist Test opener, Tim Mcintosh. The most easy-on-the-eyes batting talent to appear on the international circuit since Rohit Sharma, Martin Guptill who is most likely to get a wink from his selectors' eyes and an opportunity to get his own eye in from the top. Daniel Flynn, who has already tasted a bit of success in Tests. He had said after his maiden Test against the West Indies:

"I thought I was going to kill two birds with one stone there today but obviously not," he said. "Getting runs on the board is what counts so to get through to 95. Obviously I'm disappointed not to kick on and get that hundred, but to make a contribution like that I'm very happy with."

The fearless rookie Ryder. Pugnacious middle orderlies in Taylor, Elliott, and Oram. Then you have the poucher-***-pouncer McCullum. The spinning skipper Vettori. The prodigious Tim Southee. The deck-hitting O'Brien and Martin. The swinging Mills and Franklin. The if-needed Jeetan Patel. The if-selected Brent Arnel.

Tim McIntosh's successful predecessor points to rankings and recent statistics to make his point about the bowling reserves of New Zealand:

The most effective seam bower in Test cricket for New Zealand of late has been Iain O'Brien, and his ranking, 27, leads you to conclude that penetration is not the strong point of the New Zealand Test team right now.

But then if one only goes by history then one should not be surprised if the Test series sees no wins for India yet again. Mahi refuses to ackowledge the burden of history:

"I am not bothered about whether we have won here or not. I am just bothered about the things we need to do over here as a team. We are not thinking about what happened in the past. I am not great when it comes to stats, so that really helps."

The amount of cricket on grass would make it seem as though some good old-fashioned Test control is needed. In just the past three days, Gayle force Windies couldn't move England nor themselves but somehow saw West Indies win the Wisden Trophy in a long time. Bravo! The pitch was over-Cooked and not even a Baker in the West Indian attack could fix that. Broadly speaking, though, the English have Owais had a problem closing the deal on the Islands. All they needed to prepare was some good old fashioned Hindsight to realize that even before coming on this tour. The English batting Flowers as expected, but there is only one Swann in all of this for the English bowling department.

Meanwhile, Australia's Johnson gets hard on the South Africans. Steyn consistent has been a problem for the Proteas who Neil yet again in front of their formidable foes. They retain their status as only the Prince of Test cricket. Surely a lot is Wayne on the minds of their selectors, what with the whack-a-mole captaincy updates from them over the past couple of days. Latest is that it will be the Jacques of all cricketing trades.

In the ODI scene, Sehwags the dog which is actually a Kiwi. New Zealand would like their Broom to not just sweep the boundary but to also get some dirt on the Indian bowling, not unlike their easy Ryder who is not willing to Grant any corner to them. For the New Zealand bowlers, though, it might just be a matter O' Brien over batter, but with Sachin form batsmen who've Gautam by their balls, it remains to be seen who Singhs to whose tunes in days to come.

The barrage of verbal bullets in response to the metallic type continues across the world.

The black-arm-banded cricketers are trying to move on in the Southern Hemisphere. The ever more colorful and flighted peacocks take on the currently black-capped and flightless kiwis in the ODIs. But as cricketers and fans know only too well, it is not flight alone that wins cricket matches ... something the New Zealand captain seems to know as well in this format. How else would one explain his rarely flighted deliveries, especially in the limited overs versions. Meanwhile, near the Cape of Good Hope, Australians are hoping for good things and acting accordingly.

But in all of this, the din from a few otherwise loud happenings from the immediately preceding previous weeks has been drowned.

Two weeks between Feb 21 and March 04,
four teams,
three (or four if you count ARGHHHH!) pitches,
total match scores of: 1553, 1628, and 716 (in just 2 days in the now infamous Test),
total match wickets of: 18, 17, 11 ('that' test again),
number of double centuries: 4,
number of triple centuries: 1,
total declarations: 4

Tom Pilcher, on Reuter's blog-post, digs up a few more statistical gems , notably:

"A list of highest test innings above 600 includes five totals all scored in the last couple of weeks, and two of those make the top 10."

There is an easy (land)scape-goat: "The pitch must have been as flat as a dead man's EKG." But there might be more to this that meets the eye. Could it be, and this might well be an outrageous suggestion, but could it be that this has something to do with the actual players and their skills!! There, it has been said! As our very own Suresh Menon observers in his latest column on DreamCricket.com, batting skills and peripherals seem to have come a long way in the last decade or so:

"Better equipment, greater fitness, and the trained ability to place the ball between orthodox fielding positions has made the modern batsman fully confident of scoring at a galloping pace."

It will not be a big surprise either that bowler's averages have inflated by 10% in just the past 5 years compared to what they were in the previous two decades. But is that an indication of bowler's skills dropping? Or is it more of an indication of the batsmen becoming more adept in their craft? Or is it both? While this quandary conjures up the following image,

John, in commenting about Tom's blog referred to above, thinks that the poultry farmer and the egg-distributor are in bed:

"Under Steve Waugh, Australia stepped up the tempo of test cricket to such an extent that matches began finishing regularly in four days. This, of course, didn’t please the television companies and by coincidence or not pitches have become increasingly more bland. For example there hasn’t been a result at Lord’s since 2005."

He is most certainly not alone in this view-point as Dean Wilson joins him on The Mirror:

The wickets are being produced so that Test matches last five days, and the money that is generated from as many days of Test cricket as possible keeps flooding in. Never mind that the actual product is a bore.

Vic Marks questions the science, or the very existence thereof, in the making of cricket pitches:

In an age when everything can be scientifically annotated and analysed it is amazing how neglected the art of pitch-making remains.

But does it not finally all come down to pure skill? Most in the blogosphere (and elsewhere) would readily agree that cricket is foremost a battle between bat and ball. If that is truly so, what does it matter if that ball is bounced on moon or that bat can launch things into orbit?

Who drives the balance between bat and ball ... their wielders or their "fielders"? Is the pitch really that big of a deal or is it the pitcher?

Most of the debates over the past two weeks have been over the quality of both the pitches on view in the two-Test series. As a few armed men would have it, it was not the pitches alone that ended up being dead in Pakistan. Hafsa, on "The Dawn Blog" seems to be arriving at a conclusion along similar lines, just a couple of hours after the attacks on the cricket convoy from hotel to stadium was reported:

This deadly attack simply means no international team will be willing to come and play any sport in Pakistan.

On wellpitched.com , "Sledgehammer" went one step further or, more appropriately, one foot deeper, and wrote what could be one of the first obituaries for the sport iitself in Pakistan:

I think the title says it all. Today's disgusting and shameful attacks have sealed the deal. There is no reason for any foreign team to tour Pakistan.

Dominic Cork, who was on the commentary team there, had this immediate reaction:

"I won't be coming back here while I'm still living. I don't think international teams should come back to this country, whether it's 10 or 20 years."

The news may sound shocking and seem to vindicate most teams' stance of not even remotely taking a stance on any pitch in Pakistan. But it may well have been the "satisfactory levels of security" repeatedly promised by the PCB and accepted by the Sri Lankan Sports Minister just ten days ago, that seems to have left the Sri Lankan players alive.

But Sanjeev Miglani from Reuter's "FactBox" reminds one and all about the pre-existing security concerns for cricket to be taking place in Pakistan even before this :

• Sri Lanka's cricket team were touring Pakistan after India pulled out in the wake of the Mumbai attacks
  
• Until the Sri Lankan series Pakistan had gone without test cricket for more then a year and was keen to have international cricket at home.
• Australia postponed a test tour in April 2008 and the International Cricket Council also put off the Champions Trophy after South Africa raised security concerns about playing in Pakistan.
• In 2002, a bomb exploded in Karachi while the New Zealand cricket team were touring, killing 13 people including 11 French navy experts.
  
• The ICC last month asked the organisers to plan alternate venues due to security concerns.

There is no problem about the security of cricketers in Pakistan.

The terrorists will never target cricketers knowing that they will then lose the battle of hearts and minds of the people. Cricketers are safe in Pakistan

The second of those assumptions was that Sri Lanka being one of those seemingly rare friendly nations, especially one that chose to prove this friendship by defying what had almost become as commonplace a tenet in cricket as "bowling within oneself" or the more annoying "it ain't over until the last ball is bowled", was immune to the ire of any lurking attackers.

As far as assumptions go, chances are Samaraweera would have assumed that his double double would not be followed by so much trouble. Chances also are that he would gladly give up those four tons of runs for never having to face the predicament of him ending up on the wrong side of four kilograms of explosives. But chance is a funny thing and many know it better than an international cricketer, those many being the rest of the citizens of the subcontinent, because and brace yourself ... "after all, cricket imitates life itself".

2009's "summer of international cricket" recently wound down in Oz-land with their final T20I against their trans-Tasman rivals. The Australians temporarily migrated to milk what remained of summer in their other big rival in the Southern hemisphere.

This was a voyage for vendetta and vindication via victory ... and victory is what Australia had after 5 days of battle in the "Bull ring".

As Test matches between the current top 2 teams in Test Cricket go, this one was more a highway gash into the Prairies landscape as opposed to a tortuous County Route scarring the Rockies, although the destination was still a blur all along the way, as Stuart Peel suggests on the UK-based, eponymous "The Cricket Blog":

Since the excitement of the Australian leg of the series, the commencement of the first test at the Wanderers has been eagerly anticipated and it has not disappointed. It has been a real contest between bat and ball, unlike the debacles in Karachi and Barbados which were anything but.  

Be that as it may, it was the beginning of the road for three Aussies, as John Cook on an Aussie version of "The Cricket-Blog" points out, albeit hesitantly:

Okay, I confess a tendency to desert my team at the first sign of trouble (who will forget my panic attack when we nearly lost a Test to Bangladesh). But Australia is truly at a crossroads. The team is bristling with debutants - Phillip Hughes, Marcus North and Ben Hilfenhaus (has Hilfy played a Test yet?).

While Phil was a huge let down and Hilfenhaus bent his back admirably, it was Marcus who proved to be the North star. He was Australia's JP Duminy of this match as JP himself couldn't match his own freshman stunts in his sophomore series. But the real stars - North, West, or anywhere - were the slightly more familiar duo of Mssrs. Mitchell and Peter, the former with bat and ball. Johnson has seemed extremely comfortable wielding the willow and the simplicity of his approach to offense and defense alike was quite evident on his shuttlecock series against India in 2007-2008. This time, he converted his early promise into a pledge. Jagadish pours his own evidence towards the same on his post on "Cricket 24x7":

He is now at joint 3rd in the most runs off an over category. The other instances of 26 in an over are Craig McMillan smacking Younis Khan's part-time legbreaks around in March 2001 and Brian Lara caning Danish Kaneria in November 2006. The record holder is Brian Lara (28 off Robin Peterson) & at #2 is Shahid Afridi (27 off Harbhajan)

The Proteas are taking their time to bloom in this series and are lead in that aspect as well by their skipper. One might still have a lingering taste of bitter chocolate from how the first version of this duel ended with a black and blue Graeme unable to see off just another 10 deliveries and secure a unblemished series victory for his side. But on this occassion he exposed his team's dependence on him for his original skill with starts.

While on this highway, Jaques-the-Yak (he just looks so HUGE these days) stopped by for a few refreshments some of which he didn't share!

Next Stop: Kingsmead.

Though it makes the teams technically southbound, the series and the Australian team seem to be headed the other way cricket-wise.

A commentator on Channel 9, during the last T20I played, reminisced about the very first T20I played. That one also happens to have been between the same two countries and was replete with fake 70s (supposedly) hairdo, tight t-shirts, padding to make them appear tight even. Australia's trans-Tasman rivals had also sported gear that they might have had they debuted for their country in the World Series back in the 70s. 

The next T20I - ever - will also involve one of those teams, albeit against a trans-continental rival in a week's time. This shall kick off an oft-forgotten match-up between New Zealand and India, hosted in New Zealand. As the, now customary, pre-series banter kicks off, one wonders if this if another oft-forgotten aspect of this series as well.

The last time the Indian cricket team went to the the makeshift "Middle Earth" was in 2002, a good six years back. That one had been anticipated as a precursor to India's bid for the big goblet in South Africa that was four months away. And speaking of pre-series chat, India's then skipper had started feeling the pressure even before leaving his own shores:

 "We have played well this year - we will try our best," said Ganguly

It was also interesting that Saurav was being assisted at the helm of India's setup by a New Zealander and a lefty, nonetheless. That was a precursor, in its own 'wright', to the now-common tussle between national loyalty and professional royalty.

"Firstly there is the team I played for and secondly the team I am proud to coach ... New Zealand and India are gaining in stature as the history of the game goes on and the Indian support for the players I work with is outstanding."

John also provided another rare perspective of Indian cricket when he had spoken of the "brand" of cricket played by them and how it was very important to world cricket:

"India play a particular brand of cricket that is important for world cricket. I hope we can see our batsmen and bowlers express themselves and play the Indian brand of cricket that is so exciting ... The love, affection and hope our players carry wherever they are is always surprising. The Indian cricket team has to be one of the most loved teams in sport, wherever they play, not only from the cricket fans at home but from those who live in New Zealand and other countries."

Wright's tenure with the team also served to be a sign of things to come as it heralded an era of foreign coaches taking over arguably "the toughest" job in cricket.

The tour was in jeopardy for a bit when the top Kiwi cricketers forgot the wicket line for the picket line due to worries about their pocket lines, but Ganguly was updeat

"We knew it would get sorted out at some stage," he said. "These things always do."

 and so they did.

As precursors go, this was also the time when "Cricket Max" was still in sway with the Kiwis. That was, indeed, a precursor to T20 cricket thanks to the ticking brain of Martin Crowe, ticking way too fast and way too furious if you believe these bloggers .

In the pre-series anxiety category, apart from the minor matter of a billion nervous hearts beating in synhronization causing a tsunami of sound waves reaching their team almost 10,000 miles away. there was also an opener named Sanjay Bangar attempting to cement a place in one-day squad. The cement he used must have been of very low grade! Lakshmipathy Balaji might do well before this trip not to take masonry lessons from Bangar while Dhawal Kulkarni might also make a concrete decision to find his own method to stay in the Indian side. His captain, for his part, cherished hopes of equalling Azhar's 14 win records, but quickly pointed out the hurdles along the way, some nature-made:

"Teams find it hard to play in New Zealand because the wicket seams a lot"

and some man-made:

 "... it doesn't matter whether we lose or win the seven-match One-day series in New Zealand, we shall concentrate more on finding the right combination,"

While mismanagement remained as strong a backbone of the Indian cricket setup back then as it is now, there are some superficial upgrades before the upcoming series with the launch of a new look for the 'Nike Team India'.

As for the cricket itself, it remains to be seen whether the recent evidence of more than superflous changes in attitudes, mindsets, leadership, strategies, and execution will end in a repeat of the Indian team's efforts almost exactly forty years ago or will New Zealand mimic their own efforts of six wins, one draw and no losses in the forty years since.

Just as one thought Test Cricket might be sipping on that old pineapple rum, not without disdain for its siblings, its own time in the sun was snatched away from it, rather rudely, definitely prematurely, wonderfully farcically, and ultimately temporarily, by another relatively well-known sibling ... beach cricket. That Test Cricket never felt threatened by this one was to its own peril.

And it was never more apparent than on the beach nation of Antigua on the eve of Valentine's Day. The love affair between Antigua and Test records was mostly on the back (literally) of the Antigua Recreation Ground. After all, that is where the most runs in one single Test innings were scored ... twice. While close friends (and enemies, for that matter) of that ground equally referred to it as the ARG, they must have realized that they wouldn't have to look too far for another nickname for its successor ... how about a nice, flat, "ARGHHHH!""

Travesty, unbelievable, ridiculous, unprecedented, unreliable, dangerous, downright disgrace, utterly incomprehensible, farcical, unknown and many others. The words will roll from tongue and dictionaries straight into headlines. Unfortunately, they are all correct ... It was totally disgraceful, shameful even. This was an insult for cricket worldwide and especially cricket in the Caribbean. 

Believe it or not, that was NOT about the SVR - well we have to use the official name some time - stadium's recent claim to shame. It was, in fact, one of the initial responses to the Sabina Park episode from 1998. But you can't be blamed for guessing it was a response to the recently abandoned "2nd Test" between England and the West Indies. After all even the number of deliveries it took to abandon the match might mislead one to Sabina Park, but for closer inspection - 10 overs versus 10 balls.

The "SVR" in question is none other than one Mr. Vivian Richards himself, the "S" standing for Sir, a title which he possibly feels embarrassed to hold, given what he said on air on BBC's Test Match Special just as a new record was being established in Antigua:

"This is not a little curry goat match as we call it, this is not a little festival match, this is a Test match and you can hear it in my voice that these guys have done us not that proud in my opinion. Those who've been given the responsibility to put on a good show here have failed again. It's a really tough pill to swallow. This is an arrow right through my heart."

There is another love affair that can't be ignored. One between the West Indies Cricket Board and disorganization. After all, that is where a Test Match was abandoned due to dangerous ground/ pitch conditions sans weather/ light on the very first day ... twice. Paul Winslow of the Barmy Army is not enamored by said relationship:

If you want to know just how much of a farce this game was I'll take you back to a little incident that happened as we turned up at the ground early to sell some merchandise. We were stopped at the gate and jumped out to empty the boot.

There were seven guys, all wearing Barmy Army T-Shirts. We had three cricket bags between us and the security guard took one look and said "Oh you're the players, come straight in."Admittedly one of us has blonde hair and is as tall as Stuart Broad (he's even called Stuart), but to assume we were the England cricket team was ridiculous.

Mike Selvy, blogging on the Guardian, suspects a ménage à troi, with conspiracy being the third consenting senior citizen:

This has been on the agenda ever since the decision was taken not to redevelop the Antigua Recreation Ground for the 2007 World Cup and instead, with the aid of oodles of cash from the Chinese government, build a new state-of-the-art ground out of town. Anywhere else, with proper construction, it would be a fine facility. But, as art goes, the outfield is up there with Tracey Emin's unmade bed.

...

Since that farcical ICC tournament there has been only one match played here, the drawn Test between West Indies and Australia last May. No regional cricket is played on the island any more because there is no money, so the Leeward Islands play on St Maarten, in the Dutch Antilles, or St Kitts. On Antigua the game is as dead as a doornail.

Dead as it might be otherwise, Test Cricket will revive the game, however briefly, at the vintage venue. Only this time, it will 'Test' someone other than the 15 men in the middle. It will test Keith Frederick, says Andrew McGlashan on his Tour Diary from there:

"I always believed Test matches were going to come back to the ARG," said a tired, but proud Keith Frederick. However, he would never have believed the scenario which sees international cricket back in St Johns after three years. It's been a surreal few days in Antigua as a Test has been moved to a new venue in less than 48 hours.

When it was announced on Friday that the second Test at the Sir Vivian Richards stadium had been abandoned, Frederick sensed what was about to happen. For the past day-and-a-half he has become the most important man as far as the short-term future of this series is concerned. "I was at the [SVR] stadium watching the game and when I learnt the game was off I quickly jump in my car and left. I suspected this might happen."

Looks like someone started planning, and ahead of time too.

As for the administrators in charge of conducting the-2nd-Test-that-will-now-be-the-3rd, this time around, payback might be a beach!

Amidst mixed voices of bravado and concerns over Harbajan and Sachin, India announced the playing 16 for its NZ tour in all 3 forms. Notable points are, of course, Bhajji back in all 3 teams and Dinesh Karthikk getting to tour the land of kiwis for free as the reserve wicket keeper in all 3 forms. The break out news is the inclusion of 'the next big thing', Dhaval Kulkarni, according to Vengsarkar:

"Dhawal is an investment for the future just as Ishant Sharma was when we selected him for the England tour in 2007 and did not play a single match there. He's got a high arm action and the experience would help him," Vengsarkar told PTI while reacting to the 20-year-old right-arm pacer's selection.

...

Pointing out that Kulkarni, a product of the Elf-Vengsarkar Academy, was a good choice, Vengsarkar rued the absence of two other top performers who piloted Mumbai to their 38th Ranji Trophy title this season - team captain and opener Wasim Jaffer and one-down batsman Ajinkya Rahane.

"I feel Ajinkya and Wasim should have been there by the sheer weight of their domestic performance," Vengsarkar said.

Also, India's own original smiling assassin and perhaps the only cricketer in recent times to have a famous song twisted around for him, Lakshmipathy Balaji, makes his return to the test fold after 3 years in rehab and wilderness. These two inclusions have been the direct result of notable performances in the domestic arena, an encouraging thought process, but is it really? How does that justify Munaf's inclusion coming right off injury and devoid of match practice?

The Hindu feels that India is suffering from embarrassment of riches but the selectors fumbled a chance to send a message to seniors by dropping Dravid and blooding Badrinath.

The national selection committee, chaired by K. Srikkanth, will be faced with a problem of plenty when it sits down on Friday to determine the 16-man squads for the limited-overs and Test legs of India’s tour of New Zealand.

The selectors are likely to retain most of the squad that returned from Sri Lanka with convincing wins in both the ODI series and Twenty20 International, for the two T20 Internationals and five ODIs in New Zealand beginning later this month. In itself, the composition appeared balanced for most conditions.

Interestingly, there is not much coverage on his non-inclusion, although noise has been made on the missing out of Wasim Jaffer (again by Colonel).

Experts do rightly believe that too much load is on Zaheer and Ishant, especially if Munaf is going to be their 3rd seamer. Whilst they believe that it is because of rustiness, it can also be argued that Munaf just does not have the right mindset to be an international cricketer. Extra pressure falls upon the 4th seamer, if picked, in the seam friendly conditions of New Zealand.

The third opener for the test squad is Vijay M. He has done nothing wrong in his last test appearance but basically has not done much right in domestic appearances, something Jaffer may feel he got overlooked for. And has India overplayed its card by going for an opener instead of middle order? Sanjay Manjrekar seems to feel that in D. Karthikk they have a solid middle order/reserve wicket keeper combination. Yuvraj retains his middle order slot, much to the annoyance of many. Perhaps his lack of ability at the test level would be exposed and render India able to start blooding talent into their middle order once the existing occupants start vacating the slots.

ODI and T20 squads pretty much select themselves and included a little change because of the 'little master' backing out of T20s and R. Jadeja walking in. The Pathan brothers would hope to be able to repeat their by now historical fraternal acts in whatever chances they get. But Munaf, in the 2 more athletic forms of the game, renders a touch of incredulity. India could have invested in giving Dhaval or any other younger bowler a chance.

As ODI cricket is still getting over its sibling jealosy phase - what with T20I getting all the attention - it was given a lesson in brotherly love by two different pairs of brothers on the same day. The fact that one pair did it while playing in an ODI and the other in a T20I just made the lesson that much more poignant, while the fact that the younger brother was making a comeback in both the formats must have made that lesson a bit confusing for ODI cricket.

Adelaide saw the more famous left-handed Mike Hussey join his right-handed younger brother, Dave, in a run chase of 245 @ 4.9 runs per over in an ODI, albeit the required rate was up at 5.65 by the time their partnership could begin. Some 5000 miles away and about 5 hours later, the better known south-paw kid brother, Irfan, punched gloves with his righty older brother Yusuf in another inflated run-chase, but this one was in a T20I in Colombo.

The former ended with a bludgeoning six over long on from the blade of Mike off Kyle Mill's release. The latter also ended with a flat pull over deep midwicket for six from Irfan's willow off Lasith Malinga's slingshot.

My good friend, Sriram Veera, who covered this match for Cricinfo, has this to say about some of the specifics of the Pathans' exploits:

That tango reminds me that the Husseys share a similar reputation as well, with the younger one preferring to face pace and the older one taking to skin spin. Their relative strike-rates are also not lost on this avid cricket blogger, "jrod" on cricketwithballs.com:

jrod goes on to add:

The Pathan prodigies further enhanced their team's claim of being the #1 T20I team in the world and the Hussey hunks reiterated that their own team's hitherto #1 ranking in ODIs was not without reason.

For a brief moment, though, they all came together, along with some even better known brothers, in the wonderful mind - and later tongue - of Sunny Gavaskar as he quipped during his commentary gig at the aforementioned T20I:

"The Pathan brothers need to do to the Sri Lankan bowlers what the Husseys just did to the Kiwis ... and the Lehman Brothers did to the world!"

Another 10,000 miles away, Test Cricket is raising a glass of pineapple rum to that quote going  "Yeah!! tell me about it ... my brothers have been doing the same to me for a while now ..."

The Pathans and Husseys will also come together in a slightly different way in India in the 2009 edition of the IPL. This time, though, they will pretty much divide and rule: Irfan (North), David (East), Mike (South), and Yusuf (West).

Oh! brother, where art thou!