Winning the final game was a welcome consolation but it did not erase the bitter disappointment in the dressing room after India walked away with a 3-2 series victory. We have played some excellent cricket in the last two months, but in the past 10 days we have also been well below par. This was a series that we should definitely have won.

We started emphatically and we finished emphatically. However, in-between our batting was limp and unstable. Personally, I am very disappointed as an aggregate of 37 runs in five matches is simply not good enough. You cannot win matches when your top three are misfiring and I accept my share of the blame.

Our top order struggled again on Friday after we finally won a toss. We had been looking forward to batting first, usually the best option in day-night at Khettarama, but losing Sanath in the first over was a blow. However, it was great to see Malinda Warnapura and Mahela Udawatte carve out a 77-run stand.
Both Warnapura and Udawatte have bright futures. They have not had many opportunities, but both are making a habit of contributing when they do get the nod. If they can keep that up, stay patient and work ever-harder, then they can develop into top class performers for Sri Lanka.

Their partnership on Friday left as in our best early position on the series – 78 for 1. Sadly, that didn’t prevent wickets tumbling in a hurry yet again. Within minutes we were 82 for 4 with our chances of putting together a winning score fast receding. Then came that magnificent partnership between Thilan Thushara and Jehan Mubarak.

Thushara has been our player of the series. His fast rise has been a real positive and very exciting because he is just the kind of multi-dimensional player the team needs. To take 10 wickets at 15.90 and also top the batting averages with 168 runs at 56 was brilliant. His unbeaten 54 on Friday night was the third highest score by a Sri Lanka No 8.

Full credit, too, to Jehan Mubarak – another player that has been waiting patiently in the wings waiting for opportunities. He is an intelligent cricketer with a good temperament, which he showed on Friday night, guiding us to a decent total. Anything from 220-250 gives you a good chance.The second big positive of this series has been Nuwan Kulasekera. He has chipped in along the way with the bat, showing that he has the potential to be a genuine bowling allrounder, but it was with the new ball that he has been so impressive. He has been gun-barrel straight all series and found consistent movement off the seam.
It was fitting that he was one of the key architects of Friday’s win. He has been plugging away manfully, picking up some big wickets in a series haul of 11 victims at 14.45. With Ajantha Mendis and Thushara also bagging more wickets than any of the India bowlers (Zaheer took the most with nine), it emphasizes how it was the batting and not our bowling that let us down.

Kulasekera is one of those workmanlike and reliable cricketers that every team needs. The responsibility of bowling with the new during Power Plays is huge and it is not easy to be as consistent as he has been since the West Indies tour. The fact that he is a bundle of positive energy and an athletic fielder only adds to his value.

Throughout the series we have taken early Indian wickets only to watch MS Dhoni come to the rescue and repair the early damage. He modestly attributes India’s win to an “all-round team performance” but the truth is that he was absolutely outstanding in the three matches they won. Without him, the result would have been very different.

Dhoni has a cool head and is a big-game player. His performances in ODI cricket have been exceptional since he took over the captaincy, as shown by his No 1 ranking in the ICC ratings. He did not master Ajantha and Murali, but he successfully worked out a strategy for himself and was particularly good at rotating the strike.

The fact that Dilhara cleaned him up early was a big relief, paving the way for us wrapping up a consolation win. The result cannot change the fact that we lost, but it at least let us finish a busy two months on a positive note.

We will all now look forward to a rest and recuperate. The cancellation of the Champions Trophy is a big disappointment as the Sri Lanka team were looking forward to going to Pakistan, but it does give us some time to recharge the batteries.

As a team, we will also need a bit of time to reflect back on the series and assess where we went wrong and how we can get better. Despite losing this series, I do believe we have become a stronger team in the past 18 months.

The likes of Thushara, Kulasekera and Ajantha have all been exciting new additions. But there remains much more work to do.