Who is this Mendis for God's sake?
'A star is born', 'Sri Lanka finds another Murali', 'Lanka's trimph card' are all these 'glorifing' phrases really necessary and needed for a newcomer? How deserving are they? As 'find' was used for Ishant Sharma when the lamboo was Down Under, what will you call Mendis? A fluke? or a find?
But for Ishant Sharma and Mendis, the situations were quite contrasting. Sharma had to perform against the Aussies in their own backyard. And that too on fast pitches - to which he is not used to. He tamed them throughtout the series. And Ponting, one of the greatest batsmen around in this modern world remained his bunny.
Being an Indian, though, I am not advocating Ishant Sharma. But see what was the plight of Pakistani Sohail Tanvir. He had the best figures in the inugural edition of the IPL, taking 6 wickets. And these figures were the best, till date, in the domestic cricketing world. But in this Asia Cup, he recorded his worst performance conceeding more than a run a ball from his full quota.
Coming back to Mendis, its still early days for him in international circut. He hasn't even played against all the countries. He still has to play both the forms of cricket and that too convincingly, and has to play long enough. He is a kid still, while Murali is a grand old man. If Mendis happens to remain the same unplayable guy in the coming Lankan tour and remains as unplayable only then should his spell the other night could be termed as a 'performance'. To prove that his spell was a real effort will depend in the days to come. Otherwise it was nothing more than just a 'stroke of luck' and 'a sweet surprise' or a 'fluke'.