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Lanka crush Aussies, lift Aiwa Cup

Just two months ago, Sri Lanka was a side defeated, disgraced, humiliated.

Two months later the same side, shorn of four of its biggest stars, does the unthinkable, while handing out a humbling defeat to their successors as world champions.

You've got to wonder how the transformation was made possible? And when you think of that, you remember the noises coming out of Sri Lanka in the aftermath of the World Cup. You remember that skipper Arjuna Ranatunga, who was accused of playing without his mind really on the job, was sacked. A new captain was installed. A professional coach -- Dav Whatmore, to give him a name -- was brought back, and given full charge of the team, plus a voice in team selection. When Whatmore indicated that he felt a young team should be moulded, the selectors oblige, dropping the established but ageing stars. Discipline is emphasised -- and when a superstar of the calibre of Aravinda D'Silva flouts it, he is axed. The Lankans then get into camp -- with Whatmore and fielding coach Trevor Chappell working them hard, in two different sessions each day.

Is it any wonder that the Lankans have suddenly started looking like the side they were in 1996? There really is no substitute for hard work -- and in the Lankans, we have one more team that has learnt that lesson. (In passing, you wonder, don't you, when if ever a similar lesson will figure in India's cricketing curriculum?).

Lanka has a good record at the Premadasa against the Aussies -- played seven and won four at the venue to Australia's three, before the start of this game. Steve Waugh appeared to have got off to a good start when he won the toss and opted to take first strike, on a wicket bound to get slower as the game wore on and keep lower.

Mark Waugh and Adam Gilchrist justified the captain's decision by getting off to a blazing start, Mark easing his way through and Gilchrist, as always, blasting away from ball one. However, as sometimes happens when you get into overdrive, Gilchrist lost his cool for one fatal instant in time, tring to blast the first ball he received from Wickremasinghe over long off, and managing only to find mid off with the skier. Talking of which, it did seem a bit odd that Jayasuriya asked Russell Arnold to open the bowling with Nuwan Zoysa -- the off spinner went for 17 in two overs before sense prevailed and Wickremasinghe, brought into the side in place of Chaminda Vaas, got his hands on the ball.

Mark Waugh sometimes lets his talent be his own worst enemy -- and this was one of those instances. Muralitharan was getting lots of turn right from the start, and when he tossed one up outside off, Mark shaped to drive, then got cutesy and rocked back to cut instead. Mistake -- the ball was too full for the shot, Mark Waugh ended up playing all over the ball and watching as it turned in and took off the off stump.

The wicket of Gilchrist had checked the run-scoring. The dismissal of Mark Waugh almost brought it to a standstill, as the Lankans tightened their line and length with Wickremasinghe and Muralitharan bowling in tandem and the Lankan fielders absolutely electric.

Australia thus went from 36/0 in 5, to 46/1 in 10 and 68/1 in 15. Ponting and Lehmann struggled to force the pace, and the pressure finally got to Ponting. Coming down the track, the batsman looking to blast Wickremasinghe through the off cordon, and managed only to hit it out to the sweeper. There was an easy single there, but Ponting opted for the hard run brace -- Indika de Saram, patrolling the outfield, responded with a flat, hard throw that got to the keeper on the bounce over the stumps, and Ponting was walking back, victim of a brilliant bit of fielding.

Batting by then had become a struggle, the Aussies conscious that they couldn't afford to lose too many more wickets in a hurry, and concentrating on just tapping the ball around and taking singles. The progress was slow, from 84/3 in 20 to 101/3 in 25, 124/3 in 30. However, the runs were coming, if only in a trickle, and Australia looked to be fighting back when a momentary indiscretion did for Lehmann. Time and again, he had been looking to blast Upul Chandana over the on side. The shot was premeditated, telegraphed to the bowler -- who, looking for the stumping, bowled one wide of off. Lehmann was down the wicket again, flailing -- and managed only to get the toe of the bat on the ball for Chandana to hold an easy return catch.

Michael Bevan is a superb batsman when he gets going -- but it seemed a touch foolish for a man of his experience to go waltzing out to the very first ball he received from Chandana. The bowler tossed it right up, Bevan came too far down the track, misreading the flight and ending up playing over it as he shaped to flick to leg, the ball pitching outside off and curling in to take out the off stump.

With two wickets falling off successive balls, any hopes of recovery died stillborn and Waugh settled back into grim repair work, Symonds keeping him company. However, the overs were ticking by, a touch of acceleration was needed and in trying to provide it, Waugh danced down trying to lift Muralitharan inside out over cover, missed the flight of the ball completely, and lost off stump.

That was pretty much it for the Australians, though Warne produced a little cameo before falling to a great catch in the outfield by Chamara Silva as he tried to blast Arnold over wide long on. Symonds, reputed for his big hitting, was given no room at all by a very disciplined Lankan bowling attack, and Australia could only manage to inch their way to 202. In the process, Kalu -- whose partnership with Jayasuriya extends beyond the batting crease, brought off two smart stumpings off that bowler and got to 56 victims in ODIs off that mode of dismissal -- a world record, and more by far than any other contemporary keeper.

The Lankan performance was indicative of the axiom that your bowlers are only as good as your fielders allow them to be. In the field, the Lankans seemed to be everywhere, two fielders dashing after every ball, several more converging to close out the angles on the overthrow, and generally creating such a sense of bustle that they induced panic even in the ice-cool Aussies. The bowlers, seam and spin alike, bowled tight to start with and as they saw an opening, went on the offensive in a fashion that belied their lack, at least on paper, of experience.

For Australia, the only option was to take out early wickets. Sri Lanka sprang a bit of a surprise by sending Kaluwitharana ahead of Sanath Jayasuriya in the batting order. The Lankan captain did hurt his hand while fielding and was off for a while -- but intriguingly, Whatmore had indicated to the media, before the game, that the Lankans might spring a surprise at the top of the order.

And what a surprise it turned out to be. Kaluwitharana is known for neck or nothing strokeplay -- but today, he was the epitome of calm good sense allied to bristling aggression. There were rasping cuts, fierce pulls, crisp drives on the on and off and those cheeky little late cuts, all of which are signature shots of a typical Kalu innings. But too, there was a sense of the judicious in the way he waited for the right ball to hit, playing sensible defense when McGrath and Gillespie kept the length three-quarter and attacked him around off, moving decisively forward or back and going through with proper cricketing shots when the length was either too full or too short.

It was an innings that drove the normally cool Aussies to the brink of frustration -- exemplified by several instances when Fleming and McGrath exchanged words with the batsmen, the latter once audibly mouthing an expletive when an appeal for LBW was turned down. This brings up a tangential point, meanwhile -- how is it that batsmen, especially Asian batsmen, are penalised if they so much look at an umpire after being given out, but bowlers mouthing expletives, and otherwise throwing tantrums, are never booked for dissent? Does such conduct "bring the game into disrepute" only if batsmen indulge, and not the bowlers?

Equally noteworthy, meanwhile, was the fact that Kalu, once he hit his straps, didn't give it away. In fact, there was about him every indication that he wanted to bat the game through -- so much so that at the end, needing 5 more runs for what would have been a brilliant century, he still didn't try anything extravagant when the bowlers bowled the right line to him.

At the other end, Atapattu settled into the anchor role his team has given him, with his usual calm good sense; rotating the strike, playing forcefully off the back foot when the length was right and keeping the board ticking over. The running between wickets was brilliant, to the point of causing the Aussies to misfield time and again even as the steady singles put the bowlers off their stride.

Atapattu, very sure off his back foot, finally fell trying a front foot drive at a ball from Fleming not in the slot for the shot, but that only brought Russell Arnold to the wicket. The left hander started shakily -- and Kalu immediately came down the wicket, almost after every ball, to talk his junior partner through those early nerves. Once settled, Arnold too blossomed into aggression and between the two, they brought Lanka to the threshold of victory before Gillespie, the only Aussie bowler on the day who managed to survive the general mayhem, took him out with a delivery of extreme pace that took the inner edge onto the bat and then onto the stumps.

Jayasuriya then came in, with victory in sight, and after waiting for an over to see if Kalu would get to his 100, sacrificed sentiment and finished the game off with two big hits, the latter a huge six over midwicket that got Lanka the Aiwa Cup -- and, more importantly, a champagne victory over the world champions that, given the baggage between these two nations, will act on the young side as a tonic.

For Australia, barring Gillespie there was no bowler who looked remotely capable of pulling the game back. And in the figures lie an indication that for all their seeming strength, this Australian side has one fatal weakness -- if McGrath and Gillespie don't strike hard and early, the bowling is at the mercy of any batting side worth its international name. More so if the batting side in question is not too worried by the prospect of playing leg spin. Thus, once McGrath was taken out by Kalu's strokeplay, Steve Waugh looked to Warne for the breakthrough. Warne's first two overs went for 20 as Kalu cut and pulled him to distraction -- and Australia had, at that point, effectively lost the match.

The world champions won four league games. The Lankans managed just one win, over India. But came the day, it was the home side that turned it on -- in a display that will do much to dispel the doubts following their performance in England earlier this year.

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