Lanka thrash India in dress rehearsal for final

Sri Lanka had three standout performances. India had none. That, put simply, made the difference between the two sides -- for India, no one stood up to be counted, and the team buckled as a result.

India, struggling to put 11 fit men in the field, had a new look side, with Prasad joining the other seniors, Dravid and Kumble, on the sidelines. In his place came Hemang Badani -- and I couldn't help thinking of what I had said at the end of yesterday's match report about the plethora of left-handers in our side.

It is strange, really, how there seems to be no thought being put into this. When you had an entirely right-handed side, we kept rueing the fact that we have no southpaws. Now, we have seven. Shouldn't that set the alarm bells ringing somewhere?

India won the toss and started out very well. Zahir and Agarkar shared the new ball and while Zahir with his line and length troubled the openers, Agarkar, back to fronting the attack, bowled with his head this time, and as always when he manages to get his thinking cap on, looked a very good bowler.

His takeout of Jayasuriya was an example of good thinking. The Lankan captain was struggling to get the ball off the square, and Agarkar cramped him up with deliveries angling around off and cutting back in. Then he sent one the other way, Jayasuriya for once saw some width and flailed at it, for the seam to get the thick outer edge of the bat and flare down to third man.

Lanka would have been in even more trouble later in the same over, when Agarkar produced a leg cutter that found Atapattu's edge before he had scored. The ball flashed between keeper and slip, Tendulkar lunged for it, got a hand to it, but down it went.

Agarkar then went on to take Kaluwithara. Again, the result of tight bowling by both new ball bowlers, resulting in a frustrated Kalu trying to hit across the line. Agarkar got some inswing to beat the shot, pitched it on a good length, and Kalu, beaten by the length and the movement, took it on his pads in front of middle.

Mahela Jayawardene should rank among the most enigmatic of young players in the international circuit today -- enormously talented, always at ease, and yet rarely justifying that talent with the big scores he is capable of. Today, he came good -- and when he gets on song, his batting is a treat to watch. In this innings, he took a while to settle down, and then slowly changed gears, concentrating on working the ball around the square initially, then gradually opening out in unfettered strokeplayl.

At the other end, Atapattu earned another reprieve when Joshi got him on the pad on line of middle and leg to a ball full in length and straightening, but the umpire thought otherwise. And once those two alarms were behind him, the Lankan number three settled into a trademark innings, chipping away the singles, unfailingly putting away the bad balls, and playing admirable second fiddle to the free-flowing Jayawardene.

The two put on 218 off just 210 balls for the third wicket and that partnership broke India's back. India's problem was the lack of support for the three lead bowlers. Agarkar and Zahir had good first spells, Joshi was very tight and economical -- but there was no fourth bowler to support the top three. Sriram did reasonably decently, but Robin, brought on to relieve the pace bowlers, was punished; Ganguly tried his hand and didn't have any success either, and Sachin, seemingly conscious of the finger he injured while trying for the Atapattu catch, was not his usual unpredictable self with the ball.

The lack of bowling options hurt India, and the Lankan batsmen capitalised. To their credit, they cashed in brilliantly -- against part-timers, it is so very easy to get overconfident and make the mistake, but the two batsmen put their head down, and focussed on the job of milking the bowling for every run they could garner, and despite a very good Indian performance in the field thanks to the presence of a crop of young players, the runs kept coming at a very steady tempo.

The story of accumulation is best told in these figures: Lanka were 16/0 in 5, 33/2 in 10, 53/2 in 15, 77/2 in 20, 114/2 in 25, 149/2 in 30, 184/2 in 35, 216/2 in 40, and 262/3 in 45. Notice, in those figures, the full story: Consolidation after the two early wickets, gradual accumulation through the halfway mark, increased tempo heading towards the slog, and a flat out assault at the end -- a statistical example of perfect one day batsmanship, saving wickets and pacing the innings brilliantly to power through to a huge score.

In the process, both Jayawardene (100 off 106 balls) and Atapattu got to their centuries. And it seemed that the world record third wicket partnership, featuring Dravid and Tendulkar, would fall when Agarkar took his third wicket for the day, inducing Jayawardene to misjudge a slog and hit straight to long off.

Arnold weighed in with a nice cameo, and Sri Lanka had a massive 294 on the board in its allotted 50 overs.

Agarkar with 3/48 and Joshi with 0/46 where the pick of the bowlers, but a look at the card shows you that there were no other bowlers to back those two up. Zahir had a good first spell but the Lankans, with wickets in hand, went after him at the death and messed his figures up more than somewhat.

India got off to the worst imaginable start when, in the very first over, Vaas preyed on Ganguly's weakness against the short rising ball. Ganguly shaped to pull, failed to get on top of it, and hit it straight to the fielder -- the second time in two innings that Vaas has used that delivery to take out the Indian captain.

Sriram, like Ganguly, showed that he hadn't learnt from an earlier mistake either. Vaas bounced him, and Sriram made a mess of the pull, holing out to midwicket -- again, the second straight dismissal to the mistimed pull for the left-hander.

Robin Singh was sent up the order, presumably to provide the cool head and the support Sachin Tendulkar needed to mount an assault on a huge ask. The result was a 75 run partnership that seemed to set Lanka back on its heels. Robin did well to keep his end going, while Sachin went on a flat out attack at the other end. Aesthetics was not high on Sachin's priorities today -- thus, there were a couple of ugly cross bat heaves to short deliveries, and one example of a shot aimed at extra cover going to fine leg. But against that, there were the fierce cuts and pulls, and a couple of spanking drives, that disrupted the Lankan rhythm. So effective was this partnership that at the 15 over mark, India had 82/2 on the board (SL 53/2), and at the 20 over mark, 101/3 as against Lanka's 77/2.

The wicket to fall in between was Robin. And predictably, it was Muralitharan doing the damage as soon as he was introduced into the attack. Murali tossed one up and turned it away, the turn beat the drive and got the thick outer edge of the bat, and widish cover was in business. That gave Murali his 200th ODI wicket.

That brought Kambli to the wicket, and the left-hander looked distinctly uncomfortable against the turning ball. When Robin and Sachin were together, the asking rate had been kept steadily at the 6 an over mark. Each time the runs to balls ratio got out of hand, one or the other batsman produced a couple of good hits to restore equilibrium. But once Kambli arrived, and failed either to hit through, or work the singles, the ask began to mount.

Sachin appeared to have decided that his only hope was to hit Murali off length. To this end, he flat batted one from line of off, looking to clear long on. The ball, though, was the straighter one, where Sachin was playing for it to turn in to him. The result, he got the hit on the toe of the bat, the power and the free swing carrying it to long on for Vaas to hold. Sachin had got 61 off just 54 balls, but India's only hope was for him to bat right through, and his dismissal pretty much spelt the end of the game.

Yuvraj has been having his problems against Murali, who again beating him with some lovely bowling around the left hander's off stump (those watching, must have prayed for a right hander to come in at this point, to break up Murali's rhythm a bit, since he was troubling Kambli equally). Yuvraj then decided to try and attack, and started playing shots. One such, to a ball pitching outside off and curling away, was a fierce cut that saw Dilshan at point diving headlong forward to hold at full stretch -- a brilliant take, that reduced India to 120/5 in the first ball of the 26th over.

Immediately after that, Murali took out Kambli in the classic off spinner's dismissal of a left hander. After beating the batsman with floated off spinners around off, he then produced the one holding its line, Kambli played for turn that wasn't there, pushed at the ball, and managed only to give Murali the return catch.

Hemang Badani and Vijay Dahiya then teamed up in a partnership that produced 77 runs. Nowhere close to enough, but while it lasted, it was interesting for the way both Dahiya and Badani put their heads down, concentrated on staying there and working the ball around, without succumbing to the usual Indian malaise of collapsing completely when faced with any sort of stiff ask. Badani came across as a nice, compact left hander who plays well within himself, nothing flash, content to play to his abilities. Dahiya, meanwhile, looks to be maturing with each outing, and the Indian management, which has been moaning the lack of a wicket-keeper who can get runs and spend time out in the middle, would do well to develop this lad. In Nairobi, he looked very ordinary. Here, he has been steadily growing in stature. What is noteworthy is that he is not a one trick pony like Mongia, who only had the one shot, hit against the line out on the on. Dahiya by contrast is more correct, technically, and has a good backfoot defence, which saved him when the Lankan seamers tested him out with the short stuff.

However, as far as the result was concerned, it was a foregone conclusion anyway, and Murali capped a fine performance by taking out Badani, Dahiya and Joshi to break Aqib Javed's existing world record, and turn in the stunning figures of 10-1-30-7, the best ever one day bowling figures in history. Do note, here, that 5 of India's left handed batsmen fell to the offspinner, while the other two were out before Murali was introduced into the attack -- it will be interesting to see what plans India has of coping with him in the final on Sunday.

Talking of which, Ganguly said at the end of the match that he expected Kumble and Prasad to be fit for the final. Which is nice enough, but one wonders -- at whose expense? If past thinking is any indication, the management will promptly drop Joshi to bring back Kumble, and that will be a pity, since Joshi has bowled well in each outing, and given India some clout in the late middle order with the bat as well. Badani came in today for Prasad, but again, it will be a pity if he is dropped after the one game -- Sriram would seem to be the more logical contender to sit out the final.

You have to wonder, too, if Kambli's current form and performance (again, today, he was nearly involved in running out first Tendulkar, then Yuvraj, his calling remaining atrocious) justifies his inclusion ahead of Mohammad Kaif. Another reason for Kaif to come in would stem from his performance in the field today, when Tendulkar was off to rest his finger -- the youngster was positively electric, where Kambli generally needs to be hidden out in the country.

All told, an interesting final in the offing. Meanwhile, trawl through the link below which gives you the full scoreboard, plus interesting graphics relating to the performance of individual batsmen and bowlers -- it is well worth the while.

Full scoreboard and graphic analysis

PS: This link takes you to the Lankan card. On the left panel of the frame, you will find a link to the Indian card. This postscript being included, because several of you wrote in complaining that it was shoddy to give just one side's scoreboard.

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