Straight bat, high left elbow

Table cricket games, I guess, have different names in different parts of the world. In India, it was (is?) called 'Gold Cup'.
The playing surface was a square of green cloth with a pitch, fielding positions, and concentric ellipses marked on it. When you hit the ball beyond the first ellipse, you got one run, the next one two, and so forth, until the last ellipse - the boundary, bounded by a plastic fence.
The bowler rolled a ball bearing down a slide, the slope of which he or she could steepen or make more gradual to vary the speed. You were out either if you were bowled, or if a fielder caught you - that is, when the ball rolled into a V-shaped gap in its base.
The batsman had a choice of bats. The simpler implement was a little bat-shaped bat that gave you a pretty decent range of shots. If you wanted power, however, you chose the mechanical contraption thingy, which ensured a perfectly straight bat and a gloriously smooth transition from backlift to follow-through. On the rare occasion you hit the ball using this device, the ball flew to the boundary, and once, a friend smashed a six over long off.

That's a bat, not a duck-billed platypus

What prompted me to explain all this in so much detail?
Well, this morning, Thilan Samaraweera scored 73, with 11 boundaries. His best shot was a cover drive off Umar Gul - he went down on one knee, and held his pose as the ball sped away. His bat was so straight, and his left elbow so high, that the first thing I thought upon watching the replay was - Whoa! that's a shot straight out of 'Gold Cup', and the sweetest, meatiest spot of the mechanical contraption bat.

Sri Lanka versus Pakistan, third Test, day three

This afternoon, Misbah Ul Haq and Shoaib Malik inched Pakistan's lead towards 200 at the Sinhalese Sports Club.
From one end, Rangana Herath got the ball to loop and dip, and both batsmen played watchfully late. From the other, Chaminda Vaas, bowling in his last Test - left arm over, pitching middle and off, teasing the batsmen to reach out. No clouds, no swing; even so, 10-5-14-0.
Between deliveries, the TV cameras panned the crowd, contemplating the cricket as it consumed ice lollies.
A group of kids, led by Percy Abeysekara, Sri Lankan cricket's most exuberant fan, sang 'Happy birthday to you,' prompting Nuwan Kulasekara, 27 years and 0 days old, fielding on the boundary, to break into the biggest grin ever seen on a cricket field.

Background music

Not too long ago, Andrew Flintoff walked in to bat during England's first innings at Cardiff. As he marked his guard, a bugler in the crowd bugled the Flintstones tune.

... Let's ride with the family down the street,
Through the courtesy of Fred's two feet...

Perfect.

This afternoon, Mohammad Yousuf repeatedly eased threes through the leg side on a slow Sinhalese Sports Club outfield. As usual, there was a brass band in the background, belting out not baila but Bollywood, and

Ye shaam mastani, madhosh kiye jaaye...

Just the right kind of tune for Yousuf's languid style.