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| Sri Lanka takes a tumble |
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Within a matter of eight days the Sri Lankan cricket machine had taken an almighty beating at the hands of the Indians. The performance in the ODI series in Bangladesh was not all that convincing. They lost to Bangladesh in the head to head clash and were on the verge of suffering another humiliating defeat in the finals, until Muralitharan’s heroic deeds with the bat brought about a miraculous victory.
The performance in the opening ODI in Pakistan, which followed was a below par effort. Then came a revival in the second game again. It was very commendable, mainly because the games were back to back. It is never east to turn around from a poor performance overnight. It takes a lot of character to shake off a defeat
overnight and come back fighting the next day and win handsomely. In fact they scored 290 for 8 wickets and then dismissed Pakistan for 161 runs in 34.5 overs. A 129 run win is a huge achievement.
It was a win that rubbed off into the next day. The margin got even bigger. What was impressive was the manner in which the win was achieved. It was thorough, it was professional. It was cold overnight and in the morning in Lahore. There was still some fog and haze when Sri Lanka went into bat. They weathered all of that and battled admirably to total 309 for 5 wickets in their allotted fifty overs. T.M. Dilshan led the way with an unbeaten 137 runs. How Sri Lanka and he would benefit should he bat in that responsible, measured fashion more often.
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| A very unlikely feature of this series was the sloppy Sri Lankan fielding. (Pic Sanka Vidanagama) |
If the batting could have been described as extremely good, then the bowling was excellent. From the opening over they bowled purposefully. With the target of three hundred plus in the backs of their minds the Pakistani’s committed suicide. Kulasekera and Thushara provided the initial breakthroughs. Then all the others tried by the captain enjoyed success. The home team collapsed to 75 all out. The Sri Lankans had produced a performance without blemish.
The Sri Lankans walked onto the turf at Dambulla. On paper and on the most recent performances a very balanced outfit. The team comprised of four very experienced batsmen led by Sanath Jayasuriya and comprising of T.M. Dilshan, Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardena. Jayawardena not in the best of form, but a class player capable of getting amongst the runs anytime. These followed by two young hopefuls, Thilina Kandamby, Chamara Kapugedara and another youngster, now in the side for a while – Farveez Maharoof.
Although relatively new Nuwan Kulasekera and Thilina Thushara, a left hand right hand combination had performed creditably with the new ball and the old ball. Maharoof completed the pace attack. The spin attack was headed by the best in the world – Muttiah Muralitharan. Ajantha Mendis, in less than an year proved he is as good as any other. To add to that Sanath Jayasuriya with over 300 ODI wickets and the more than useful off spinner T.M. Dilshan were available as back up bowlers. Eight days later those batsmen and bowlers combined have been destroyed by the Indians.
It began well. Much has been said of the team batting struggling in day games at Dambulla. For the Sri Lankans who batted first it was not so. After Dilshan was run out first over (nothing to do with the pitch) the second wicket pair of Sanath Jayasuriya (107) and Kumar Sangakkara (44) added 171 runs. From there on Sri Lanka’s dominance in the series came to an end. All the other batsmen who got to the middle and got out got into double figures and no further. The total of 246 was inadequate on that pitch which played so much better than in the past.
Sri Lanka had every opportunity to draw level in the series. They restricted India to 256 for 9 wickets in the third game. In next to no time they were reduced to 36 for 3 wickets. The out of form Jayawardena and Kandamby resurrected the innings. They dragged their feet between overs 10 and 30 where they managed to score only 68 runs. In the end they fell short by 15 runs. The closest game to date.
India totally dominated games three and four. The pitches were good to bat on in the first innings, then got slower and also took spin as the second innings progressed. But they have only themselves to blame. The bowling and fielding was not good enough and the runs conceded on both occasions were too tough to chase. Heap plenty of credit on the Indians. They have grown to be the best team in ODI’s in the world. A contest between India and South Africa, should be a classic right now.
= Ranil Abeynaike is a former Sri
Lanka cricketer and former curator of SSC |
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