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India win, with plenty in hand, against world champs

One swallow, the cliche runs, does not make a summer.

Neither does one win over the world champions indicate either a decline in Sri Lankan standards in the limited overs game, nor a dramatic improvement in India's own performance level.

What the cliche forgets, though, is that one swallow can -- and often does -- herald the onset of summer. And in similar vein, there are indications in the first game of the Singer Akai Nidahas one day tournament, that got underway at the Premadasa Stadium in Colombo on Friday, that the Lankan juggernaut may just be running out of steam. That unlike during that golden run in 1996, the Lankans will no longer steam-roller over all opposition.

The reasons underlying the assessment can wait, though, while we shift to a review of the first game of the ten-match triangular series.

The pitch prepared for the inaugural encounter was hard and firm -- a good batting track. And Arjuna Ranatunga underlined that assessment when, despite the Lankans' known fondness for chasing, he elected to bat first on winning the toss.

"We hope to make a good score and set India a stiff target," Ranatunga said, in the post-toss briefing.

It is a Lankan strength, that -- piling up huge scores. But that strength has been backed by a tried and tested gameplan -- the openers, Sanath Jayasuriya and Romesh Kaluwitharana, blaze away in the first 15 overs, going along at around 9, 10 an over when the field restrictions are in place. The latter-order batsmen then come in and keep the board ticking along at around 4, 5 an over, so that the overall rate, thanks to the rocketing start, is around the 6+ range at the close of the innings.

In recent times, though, that strategy has failed as often as it has succeeded -- and the most obvious reason is that opposition bowlers, initially shell-shocked by the Jayasuriya blitz, have begun figuring out their own counters.

For one thing, a lot of opening bowlers the world over have realised that by going around the wicket to the left hander, bowling wide of the crease and angling in on off stump, they can deny Jayasuriya room for his trademark slashing shots through off.

More interesting, however, is the mode of his dismissal in recent times. When the Lankan batsman plays on line of off, he has a habit of moving a half step forward, opening the bat face and aiming for the gap between slip and gully. This opens a gap between bat and pad -- and bowlers ranging from Srinath and Prasad to Pollock and Donald have started exploiting that gap.

Today, it was Agarkar's turn to take out the dangerous Lankan opener. The ball was pitched just outside off on a good length, it predictably drew Jayasuriya forward, straightened with the arm and went through the gate to hit off stump. Check out Jayasuriya's last say 15 dismissals -- you'll find that today's dismissal was a replay of earlier ones.

Kaluwitharana, for his part, loves width for strokeplay -- a luxury the experienced Prasad, and the incredibly precocious Agarkar, denied him on the day. The dimunitive Kalu's response in such situations is predictable -- the heaves get wilder, the impatience more palpable, and dismissal inevitable. Here it was Harbajan Singh -- brought on as early as the 11th over -- who struck, tossing one up at the keeper-batsman, inducing the attempted hit over long on. Kalu however misread the flight, didn't get anywhere close to the pitch, and ended up holing out to mid on, Agarkar holding low and well in front of him.

Lanka managed a mere 39/1 in ten overs, 61/2 in 15. And pretty much lost the match right there -- remember that it was a batting track, and having opted to bat first, Lanka needed a power-packed opening stand.

Even at the height of Jayasurya's glory, the man to watch for me has always been Aravinda D'Silva. Pure class, with every shot in the book, and -- especially after 1996 -- an incredibly strong temperament. Again, while Jayasuriya's filibustering style is instantly noticeable, Aravinda is more insiduous. A checked drive here, a glance there, a flick here, an odd firm cut to the ropes... but before you know it, he is coasting along and single-handedly taking the game away from you.

He came close to doing it again here, guiding a hesitant Marvan Atapattu along in a partnership that became increasingly dominant as the overs ticked by. The rate of progression really tells the tale -- 78/2 in 20, 100/2 in 25, 133/2 in 30, 158/2 in 35, 195/2 in 40.

In the process, the pair -- with Atapattu gaining in confidence in the shadow of his partner, and flowering into some fine strokeplay -- underlined a problem Azharuddin could find confronting him later in this series. To wit, lack of a good fifth bowler. Harbajan bowled well each time he was brought on -- and it is a measure of the confidence the team has in him that he was brought on whenever the run-making threatened to get out of bounds. Agarkar and Prasad were their usual calm, competent selves. But with Kumble proving easy to handle, as he always is on a batting wicket, there was no real cover for Azhar, more so with Robin Singh showing increasing signs of some physical ailment (in the latter part of his spell, he was clutching his leg rather often, wincing as he ran in, and on one occasion, going down on the ground in obvious pain).

But just when it looked like Lanka could power to a score of 260+ -- after all, with eight wickets in hand going into the finishing stretch, an addition of 65 runs was not too much to expect -- the Indian bowlers, Agarkar, Harbajan, Prasad and Kumble, turned in a superb display in the slog overs.

Atapattu went first, attempting to cut a Kumble flipper without stepping away to leg to make the necessary room. The ball fizzed through, slid under the flailing bat and knocked back off stump -- but not before the batsman had done enough to indicate that while he does not have the flash and flamboyance of some of his colleagues, he could be moulded into the ideal, anchor-type number three.

Ranatunga and Aravinda are past masters of the one day game, nudging bowlers around to distraction, forcing them to alter their lengths and then pouncing on any fractional error. For once, however, the Indian bowlers held their nerve, the fielders backed them to the limit, and the two senior players found themselves unable to break free.

Again, a statistic is illuminative. The fourth wicket pair managed a mere 41 runs off 51 balls in the slog -- and that sort of thing turns the screws on the batsmen, when a side is looking to set a sizeable target. Aravinda finally succumbed, lashing a pull at a fractionally shorter one from Agarkar and, like others before him, being surprised by the pace the youngster gets off the wicket. The ball climbed on Aravinda faster than expected, forcing the top edge to midwicket -- rather tragically, three short of what would have been a wonderful, side-saving century.

Over number 50 produced madness. Mahanama came in and went without facing a ball, thanks to a mixup in calling for a short single. The very next ball, Ranatunga tried to make amends with a big hit off Kumble, bowling the final over, and holed out to Azhar. And in the end, Lanka managed a mere 48 from its last ten overs, to finish on 243/6 in 50 -- by any reckoning, a good 20 runs short of a really challenging total and, if you consider the weak bowling attack the Lankans have today, you can even make that 30 short.

Since late 1996, the Ganguly-Tendulkar combine have stamped their presence on the condensed version of the game. They have a lot of pluses going for them -- the left-right combo for starters, the fact that both of them are fluent strokeplayers for another. And this last is a huge plus -- for since Ganguly's arrival at the top of the order, the onus of rapid run-scoring no longer devolves around Tendulkar alone.

Increasingly, thus, you find instances where, early on, Tendulkar is tentative -- at which Ganguly goes into overdrive. Or vice versa.

In this innings -- and it must be said here that we need to wait and watch for a few more games before deciding whether this was a flash in the pan, or a sign that some thinking is going into their play -- the two added another valuable dimension: strike rotation. Ganguly has always preferred to ignore the possibility of the short single, preferring to say it with silken boundaries through the off. Today, however, he played a different game altogether. Sure, the silken touch was very evident. But more importantly, when the ball was not in the slot for the drive, Ganguly concentrated on checking his strokes, playing with soft hands and running with the shot.

The result? 99/0 in 15 overs -- the Indians doing what the Lankans would have liked to during the initial phase of the innings -- without either batsman ever needing to go into top gear, or take undue risks.

In fact, with the singles coming so fluently, there was a new-found ease in their association -- to such an extent that they seemed capable of coasting through to the target on their own. It needs mentioning, though, that this must be about the weakest attack the Lankans have fielded in recent times: no Chaminda Vaas, for starters; the opening bowling being in the hands of the inconsistent Pramodaya Wickremasinghe and the inexperienced Suresh Perera.

Tendulkar seems to have hit some kind of zone, these days -- a world wherein he is on his own, doing as he likes, playing what strokes he pleases irrespective of either the opposition, or the line of bowling, or even the placing of the field. Today was yet another of those days -- 50 coming off 36 without ever nearing top gear, and seemingly focussed on winning another game off his own bat.

This made his dismissal inexplicable -- Muralitharan tossed one up, Tendulkar went for the off drive, aiming to hit over the fielder. Good shot selection since the fielder was inside the circle -- but for some inexplicable reason, he then checked his shot, and hit straight to, instead of over, mid off. And walked off, disgust showing on his face and in his gestures.

Ganguly has of late been having a lean patch, at least by his high standards. What he needed was a solid, substantial hit in the middle -- and today, he treated himself to one. Vintage Saurav, with the off drives flowing, threading the tight-packed field and finding gaps where none presumably existed, his new found ability to take singles helping him keep the momentum up when bowlers denied him room for strokes. And, towards the latter part of his innings, an unexpected gift for innovation as, time and again, he either stepped way over to off to convert the line and get runs through the leg side, or stepped away to leg to make room and drive inside out, occasionally on the up, through cover and mid off.

Ganguly finally fell trying to clear long off, Mahela Jayawardene first misreading the flight of the lofted ball, then adjusting to grab a good one.

However, both openers had done enough to all but win the game. It can be a daunting thought, when India is going well -- because following Sachin and Saurav is an Azhar batting at the top of his form, and following him a Jadeja who seems to have reinvented himself as a batsman.

On the day, it seemed the only way Azhar would get out was sheer boredom -- every now and again, he would aim a wild heave, before reverting to his wrist play. With captain and vice captaining both middling the ball, India pulled smoothly away for a comprehensive eight wicket win, Jadeja sealing it by stepping out to lift Dharmasena straight back over his head for a huge six.

Some work at the drawing board seems indicated for Sri Lanka, following the recent disasters of the South African tour and now this. And most of that work, I would think, will need to revolve around their bowling -- as it stands, this attack will struggle to defend 260+ scores on a good batting track.

For India, the real gain here will be confidence. Their balance sheet against Lanka has been nightmarish in the post-World Cup phase. The first sign of a turnaround came in the home series, last year, between the two countries when, for the first time, Srinath made Jayasuriya and company look quite human.

And now this win, which should further boost the confidence of Azhar and his men. Be interesting to watch how the side performs in the two other confrontations with Lanka in this triangular.

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