MATCH REPORTS
STAT SHEET
DIARY
OTHER SPORTS
SLIDE SHOW
PEOPLE
DEAR REDIFF
ARCHIVES

Prem Panicker

After the non-stop rains of the recent past, they finally got a good cricketing day, at the Sinhalese Sports Club in Colombo.

And India, which appears to have a positive penchant for leaving it till the last possible game to qualify for the final of a tournament, did it again, throwing away a won game in the trashcan with some very thoughtless batting.

It was a clear, sunny day, with humidity levels in the upper 90s, and a pitch that seemed, save for one damp patch at one end, in surprisingly good order. There was always going to be sub-surface moisture, which meant bounce, and turn.

The SSC has superb drainage facilities, and it showed in the condition of the outfield -- though fielders did have a problem digging their spikes in and sprinting after the ball, it was still very good given the amount of rain in recent times.

Mohammad Azharuddin won the toss, and opted to field first. His reasoning, during the post-toss briefing, was that he figured since the number of overs was limited to just 36, he felt it might be better to go in for the chase with a clear sight of the target.

Fair enough, I suppose -- though the presence of four spinners in the Lankan ranks must have, at some stage, reminded Azhar of the World Cup semifinals, when his side was caught by the short and curlies on a similarly underdone track.

New boy Avishka Gunawardene -- a tall, loose-limbed left-hander -- came out to open with Sanath Jayasuriya. And lasted precisely one ball, with Agarkar making one rear at the left hander, cramping the batsman for room on the shot through point. As it turned out, the ball carromed off the maker's label of the bat, to Azhar at second slip -- and Agarkar had done it again, striking hard and early.

Agarkar seems to fancy his chances against Jayasuriya -- this time out, he was obviously trying rather too hard against the Lankan master blaster, where a more experienced bowler would have bowled within himself and let the conditions do the work. A slashed six over extra cover and a flicked four to fine leg in his second over apparently taught him the error of that particular line of thinking -- but I must confess to some surprise that with Sanath so obviously looking to hit out, neither Agarkar nor Prasad opted to go round the wicket to the left-hander, a line that has seen the batsman cramped for room whenever it was tried out on him.

An over after his mauling at the hands of Jayasuriya, Agarkar bounced back, literally, with one that kicked up from just short of a length. Atapattu attempted to swing it round over midwicket, got the ball too high on the bat, and ended up presenting Robin Singh a simple take at square leg.

Venkatesh Prasad then got into the act. Jayasuriya had been consistently attacking the tall medium pacer, either coming down the track or staying back to hit across the line, to leg. One such stroke, in the fourth over of the innings, saw Kanitkar diving, getting his hands to the ball, and just failing to hold on. In Prasad's next over, however, Sanath tried that once too often, using that heavy bottom-hand grip to paddle one from outside off, over teh square leg boundary. Kanitkar, this time, anticipated brilliantly, raced in, dived forward and came up with one of the best outfield catches I've seen in a while.

From the way they batted, I suspect the Lankans came out with a mindset that went, only 36 overs to bat, we can blaze away from the get-go and put up a huge target, win the game off the bat straightaway. Thus, each time they were checked, someone or the other lost it and did something silly. Vide skipper Arjuna Ranatunga, who in the face of some very good bowling by Harbajan Singh, attempted to hit him out of the ground. The extra bounce on this pitch meant that the ball took the bat high up, and Ranatunga ended up getting elevation on his shot, without the distance he needed, and Jadeja comfortably held the swirling skier at long off.

Bajju, as the Indians call him, struck with another perfect delivery when he bowled a floater to Kaluwitharana. The batsman, visibly fretting at not getting the big hits, was tempted by the loop and flight to come down the track. The ball drifted away, left him stranded, and Mongia nailed it down with ease.

At this point, Sri Lanka had lost 5 wickets for 90 runs. And it was just the 18th over -- which meant that at the halfway stage of the first innings, India was well in control.

A display of calculated big-hitting by Upul Chandana, and yet another classy knock by Aravinda D'Silva, took the initiative away from Azhar's men. Chandana alternated between knocking the ball around into gaps for singles, and lofting the ball clean and long over the infield, to come up with a brisk 26 before Agarkar, returning for his second spell, struck yet again with a perfectly pitched ball on middle stump, beating Chandana's attempted pull for pace and crashing into middle stump.

Of all the Lankan batsmen, Aravinda alone did not fall into the trap of trying to do too much too soon. His was a patient, calculating innings, with the batsman taking maximum toll of the bad balls but refusing to lose it even when he got a few dot balls in succession.

This transformation -- from Mad Max to Formula I racer -- never fails to amaze me. I mean, this was the guy they said was wasting his talents with poor shot selection -- and now, look at him! In my book, easily the most dangerous batsman in the Lankan lineup -- and one of the top three in the world today. You don't need stats to tell the story of sheer class -- but if you did, then 50 fifties (today's being the 50th), 10 centuries and an average of 36 plus is as good as it gets.

For all their limited overs experience, though, the Lankans made a bit of a meal of their slog overs -- which, in context of a shortened game, would have been overs 27-36. Dharmasena first felt the pressure of not getting quick runs, swiped at Kumble, and found Sachin at midwicket with the flat, hard hit.

Aravinda, let off an over earlier when Azhar failed to hang on to a hard drive at short cover, went down on his knee to try and lift Prasad over midwicket. That was the slower one from the medium pacer, Aravinda ended up playing too soon and this time Azhar, stationed at short midwicket, made no mistake.

All told, it was a stop-start performance by the Lankans, as exemplified in their rate of run-scoring: 30/2 in 5; 56/3 in 10; 78/4 in 15; 96/5 in 20; 131/5 in 25; 153/6 in 30; 171/8 in 36. A total that seemed, given the conditions, a good 25 short of the ideal.

For the Indians, Agarkar as usual struck hard and often, while Prasad further underlined the impression that his confidence -- and with it, his rhythm -- is back in the groove. The pick, for me, though was Harbajan Singh -- who, on the day, used the turn and bounce to very good effect, hampering all effects of the Lankans to break loose in the middle. And Kumble -- whose ability to get bounce off even docile tracks earned him the nickname 'Jumbo' -- bowled within himself, doing just enough to keep the screws on at the other end.

The way the Indian openers started off -- three blazing fours in the very first over -- gave the viewer the impression that they were in a tearing hurry. One reason could have been that the management was yet to get over the hangover of the June 23 game against New Zealand. Here, the calculations indicated -- as we were informed by the umpires -- that if the match was interrupted after rain at the end of 25 overs, India would need to have scored 134 at that stage.

Thus, while the required run rate at the start of the innings was just 4.77 per over, Tendulkar and Ganguly tore off to a flier, putting on 39 in the first five.

Interestingly, today's partnership of 41 saw the Indians cross the 2,000 mark. They now rank fourth in the all-time list of opening pairs, behind Sohail and Anwar of Pakistan, Boon and Marsh of Australia and Greenidge and Haynes of the West Indies.

With the medium pacers being smashed around the park, Ranatunga opted for Dharmasena's flattish off-spin as early as the 7th over. Tendulkar has this tendency, when faced with that variety of bowling, to try and hit the offie off his line very early on -- his preferred mode being to step a little away to leg, and loft a drive inside out back over the bowler's head.

"Pedantic" readers who like their analysis backed up by scorecards and match references can, incidentally, check out his performance vis a vis Saqlain Mushtaq, as also Gavin Robertson, in recent times.

This time, the ploy failed, in rather fortuitous fashion. Dharmasena's first ball was a full toss. Tendulkar apparently had pre-determined his shot. Thus, stepping away to leg, he suddenly found the ball coming flat and full on middle stump, and was forced to go through with the shot -- the result, a flat, hard hit back to the bowler.

They have this joke about Saurav Ganguly, which goes: Why doesn't Saurav like football? Answer: Because in that game, offside is a foul.

On the cricket field, however, the offside is his personal playground -- and here again, he was in impeccable touch in that region, threading the packed field with consummate ease. But as with Tendulkar, so with Saurav -- the batsman succumbed to this strange urge to play faster than himself. Thus, after a characteristically elegant off drive off Suresh Perera, he attempted to waft the next ball over long on, but only ended up hitting a straight-forward delivery down mid-on's throat.

Nayan Mongia, for some reason, was upped in the order. The keeper-batsman has done well in the pinch-hitting role on some past occasions, but frankly, his being sent out here was rather inexplicable. After all, Tendulkar fell in the 7th over, and at that point, there were only three overs and five balls left before the field restrictions were taken off. Besides, with the score on Tendulkar's dismissal being a healthy 41, with just 132 more needed for a win, there seemed no real need for someone to come in and lash out.

Whatever the compulsions -- just experimentation, perhaps -- behind the move, it failed dismally here. Mongia, without budgetting for the fact that the ball was coming slower off the track, attempted to whack Perera over midwicket, but only ended up slamming it straight at Ranatunga's ample midriff, giving the gleeful Lankan skipper an easy take.

Jadeja came in -- and, one ball later, went back, courtesy a superb piece of fielding. The Indian vice captain played the ball to mid on and ran with the shot. Muralitharan, in electric mode, ran forward, dived, fielded and, still airborne, underarmed the ball onto middle stump to catch Jadeja way out of his ground -- and India, at the end of ten overs, was in disarray at 57/4.

The sole chance, for the batting side, lay in the realisation that the target was very small. 26 overs left to play, just 115 runs required -- and Azharuddin, with unbeaten knocks of 55 and 53 in the competition thus far, at the wicket.

But not for long. Apparently not having learnt the lessons of previous dismissals -- the main one being that the ball was stopping a shade after pitching -- Azhar went for a wristy flick off Dharmasena, only to play far too early and present Ranatunga a chance to show his catching abilities, this time at square leg.

Robin Singh seemed in good nick -- and, more importantly, in determined mood -- from the time he took guard. Hrishikesh Kanitkar, thus, had a perfect platform to cement the number six batting slot in the side with a composed display. Chalk that one down to missed opportunity -- seemingly unable to get the ball into the gaps, the left-hander finally danced down the wicket to Aravinda D'Silva, found that he was not quite at the pitch, checked his drive, and Ranatunga (on the day, the ball seemed drawn to the Lankan skipper) dived forward at short mid off to bring off a good take.

There was a familiar feel to the batting collapse, around this time. If one takes a slightly longer term view, though, some good did come out of it. Ajit Agarkar's striking ability with the ball has, by now, become a trademark -- but till date, he hasn't had much of a chance to justify his erstwhile manager Krish Srikkanth's assertion that he is a clean striker of the ball.

This was his chance, and the young all rounder grabbed it. Initially nervous -- understandably so perhaps, after all, you don't need to play your first major innings in the teeth of a crippling crisis -- Agarkar settled down to sensible cricket, rotating the strike well with the well-set Robin and showing, through two well struck fours and a towering six (over long on, off Muralitharan) that he could play the big ones with some vim. Most important, however, was the temperament he displayed, partnering Robin in a 63 run stand that not only saved the side's blushes, but brought it right back into the game.

Despite the blemish, when Chandana dropped a skier on the midwicket boundary, an innings of this kind, in such a situation, should have done wonders for Agarkar's morale. And from the point of view of the team, that counts as a definite gain.

The Indians went into the last 10 overs needing 59 off 60. But at this stage, the craft of Murali and the experience of first Dharmasena, then Jayasuriya, kicked in. Robin Singh seemed cool enough in the face of a few miserly overs, but the less experienced Agarkar lost it, attempted to swing Jayasuriya over long on and ended up playing all over a yorker-length delivery to lose middle stump.

The Indian rate of progression, till this point, tells its own story: 39/0 in 5; 57/4 in 10; 71/5 in 15; 88/6 in 20; 110/6 in 25; 129/6 in 30; 138/7 in 31.6 when Agarkar was out.

Clever, controlled spin bowling and tight fielding had pegged the Indians back, and the run rate was mounting. In the very next over, however, Robin, with a typical short arm jab that sent Jayasuriya's flat, fast delivery soaring over long on showed that he was in fine touch, and could, given support, take the game home on his own.

It was precisely that support which Kumble failed to provide. Where the ask was for him to nudge the ball away and scamper the single, letting Robin take the bulk of the strike, the Indian leggie (who, being no rabbit with the bat, really should have known better) kept hitting too hard, finding the fielders.

Worse, he kept waltzing down the wicket to every ball -- bad strategy, since it gave the bowlers a very clear idea of what his tactic would be. The canny Jayasuriya thus bowled one fast and wide outside off, Kumble predictably was stranded in mid-pitch, and Kalu completed the formalities of a predictable dismissal.

Robin, meanwhile, was doing his Lone Hand Luke act to brilliant effect. So much so that in the 34th over, he raced two braces at Olympic speed, sneaking extra runs where you would have sworn there weren't any to be had. The second of those attempts was against the throwing arm of Muralitharan. Robin just made it home -- but the lung-bursting effort, coupled with the dehydrating effects of the high humidity, saw him doubled up on the side of the pitch, throwing up.

To his credit, Robin didn't give up even then. Coming into the final over, India needed 10 off six deliveries. This was when Kumble, needing to give Robin the strike, ended up getting himself out -- wasting a ball in the process. Next ball, Prasad scrambled a single, but the ask then was 9 off four. Robin's only option was to go over the top, Jayasuriya's experience again came into play as he bowled flat, full, and fast, and the attempted swing over long on landed tamely in mid on's clutches.

The end of a gallant innings, one for which Robin was given a standing ovation. The end, too, of India's innings, with Harbajan swiping all over a straight ball to give Jayasuriya three wickets off four balls, and Lanka the game with 8 runs to spare.

The points table now begins to look interesting. Counting rain-ruined games as draws (and thus, sharing points), Sri Lanka now has 5. So too does India. And New Zealand has four. Which means that with two games left to play in the league stage, all three teams theoretically have a chance of making the final.

The next game pits India against New Zealand, with one between the hosts and the Kiwis to follow. To be absolutely sure of a place in the final, India has to win on July 3, wind and weather permitting.

Dicey as that situation is, I suspect that more importantly, India lost more than a game of cricket to Sri Lanka today -- it lost a hard won initiative.

After the mauling during the Test and one day series on Lankan soil, the Indians had clawed back in the reciprocal home series, having the Lankans on the mat in two Tests, and doing reasonably well in the ODIs as well. Then came the win in the inaugural game here.

One more win -- and by any yardstick, at the halfway mark India had the clear edge -- here would have reversed the recent trend, while creating a little crisis of confidence in the Lankan ranks.

By allowing the hosts to pull one back, India effectively surrendered that advantage -- and come July seven (assuming that the two teams make the final) -- this factor could make the vital difference between the two teams.

Scoreboard