Summary of results:

	Mts	Won	Lost	NR	Won %
Batting first	24	10	11	3	41.67
Batting second	29	10	14	5	34.48

Sri Lanka have a remarkable record at home soil, winning 88 out of a total of 135 matches (won percentage of 65.19). If we confine ourselves to the ODIs played in last five years (since July 2001), then Sri Lanka's performance becomes even more exemplary as is clear from the following table.

Country	Mts	Won	Lost	NR	Won%
Sri Lanka	52	37	12	3	71.15
Australia	8	5	3	0	62.50
Pakistan	15	9	5	1	60.00
India	23	11	10	2	47.83
New Zealand	13	6	7	0	46.15
West Indies	11	4	7	0	36.36
England	3	1	2	0	33.33
South Africa	8	2	6	0	25.00
Zimbabwe	6	1	5	0	16.67
Bangladesh	13	1	12	0	7.69
Kenya	2	0	2	0	0.00
United Arab Emirates	2	0	2	0	0.00
Hong Kong	2	0	2	0	0.00
Netherlands	2	0	2	0	0.00

Home advantage
The following table lists the 'HOME' performances of ten ODI playing major countries in last five years. It will be observed that Sri Lanka have the second best home record. Australia hold the top slot, but Sri Lanka do have every chance to narrow this gap.

Country	Mts	Won	Lost	NR	Tied	Won%
Australia	58	43	13	2	0	74.13
Sri Lanka	52	37	12	3	0	71.15
Pakistan	38	25	13	0	0	65.79
South Africa	58	38	14	3	3	65.52
New Zealand	41	26	15	0	0	63.41
India	49	26	22	1	0	53.06
West Indies	45	22	20	3	0	48.89
England	44	20	20	3	1	45.45
Bangladesh	37	9	27	1	0	24.32
Zimbabwe	55	13	40	2	0	20.41

Only once Sri Lanka have failed to reach the final of a tournament played in Sri Lanka in last five years. Interestingly in all the title victories in this period Sri Lanka batted first and successfully defended their total.

Tournament	Season	Finalists	Winner
Coca Cola Cup	2001	SL-Ind	SL-121 runs
LG Cup	2001-02	SL-WI	SL-34 runs
Champions Trophy	2002-03	SL-Ind	Joint winners#
Bank Alfalah Cup	2002-03	NZ-Pak	NZ-4 wkts
Asia Cup	2004	SL-Ind	SL-25 runs
Indian Oil [Get Quote] Cup	2005	SL-Ind	SL-18 runs

# Final could not be completed because of rain and two teams were declared joint winners.

Interestingly spinners played an important part in Sri Lanka's remarkable success-run at home soil in last five years as is shown in the following table:

	Wkts	Avg	Best	5WI	SR	Econ
Pacers	162	24.41	8-19	2	36.56	4.01
Spinners	212	25.49	5-23	2	38.44	3.98

In matches against India, the things are closer though. Pacers proved more successful but only marginally

	Wkts	Avg	Best	5WI	SR	Econ
Pacers	36	31.53	3-47	0	40.83	4.63
Spinners	33	32.73	4-29	0	47.03	4.18

Indian pacers and spinners have almost identical success in Sri Lanka in last five years as the following table suggests:

	Wkts	Avg	Best	5WI	SR	Econ
Pacers	82	31.95	6-59	1	40.28	4.76
Spinners	81	31.19	3-21	0	42.00	4.46

In matches against Sri Lanka, Indian pacers outperformed spinners both average-wise and strike-rate wise. Spinners, though, enjoyed the better economy.

	Wkts	Avg	Best	5WI	SR	Econ
Pacers	42	33.93	6-59	1	42.10	4.84
Spinners	34	38.15	3-27	0	51.94	4.41

Kumble's supporters may argue that the ace-spinner is in form of his life and should have been included in the 15-member squad, but figures tell a different story altogether. In last five years Kumble has taken only 52 wickets in 54 matches and that too after conceding about 42 runs for each wicket.

Kumble's performance dips even further in the matches on Sri Lankan soil where he gives away more than 46 runs for every wicket.

Who, then is the best Indian bowler in Sri Lanka by same yardstick. Surprise, surprise. It is little master Sachin Tendulkar [Images], who averages just over 19 as against his career average of 36 in last five years - a shift of more than 17 points. Ashish Nehra, Irfan Pathan [Images], Harbhajan, Yuvraj and Sehwag are the other bowlers who have performed better in Sri Lanka.

At the other end of the scale, Zaheer and Kumble have seen their performance dipping. Agarkar has the biggest drop, but this may be attributed to the fact that he has played only two matches in Sri Lanka in this period.

	Performance in SL since Jul 2001			Performance in ODIs since Jul 2001			Change in avg
	Mts	Wkts	Avg	Mts	Wkts	Avg
Tendulkar	11	16	19.06	89	41	36.61	-17.55
Nehra	17	25	26.36	65	86	30.47	-4.11
Pathan	11	20	21.55	63	108	24.55	-3.00
Harbhajan	20	26	28.19	107	130	30.30	-2.11
Yuvraj	22	9	35.56	140	40	35.88	-0.32
Sehwag	23	17	37.94	136	63	38.21	-0.27
Zaheer	20	25	33.36	81	113	29.09	4.27
Kumble	10	10	46.40	54	52	41.98	4.42
Agarkar	2	2	36.50	89	136	25.01	11.49

A similar comparison for the batsmen puts Kaif on the top among the ones who have performed better in Sri Lanka. Pathan's is a surprise inclusion at number two. Dravid and Yuvraj have also performed better in Sri Lanka. There is a small dip in Sehwag and Tendulkar's performances. Dhoni [Images] and Mongia are the biggest losers, but again both of them haven't played enough matches to come to a conclusion about their real worth.

	Performance in SL since Jul 2001			Performance in ODIs since Jul 2001			Change in avg
	Mts	Runs	Avg	Mts	Runs	Avg
Kaif	15	372	41.33	118	2673	33.00	8.33
Pathan	11	122	30.50	63	858	26.00	4.50
Dravid	23	772	48.25	139	4690	44.25	4.00
Yuvraj	22	562	37.47	140	3953	36.94	0.53
Sehwag	23	689	32.81	136	4338	33.63	-0.82
Tendulkar	11	320	45.71	89	3685	46.65	-0.94
Dhoni	5	72	24.00	47	1467	48.90	-24.90
Mongia	3	1	0.50	47	1022	29.20	-28.70