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'Baby Jaya' does it for Lanka

Sri Lanka defeat Pakistan by 12 runs

Strange game, this. One day, India beats Sri Lanka handily. Then Pakistan beats India by a huge margin. Then Sri Lanka does the job on Pakistan, albeit by the skin of their teeth.

And here we are, trying to predict who's going to win the World Cup! Naming a date for Armageddon, and a time for when Archangel Gabriel does his trumpet solo, should be less iffy, I would think.

It is also an indicator of the depths to which this game has sunk, that before the halfway stage of the second innings, I was getting emails from people asking if I thought this game was fixed, whether Pakistan was trying to shut India out of the finals.

The response to that would be, no way. The situation here is dissimilar to what prevailed in the ATC where, even if Pakistan had actually lost the final league match against Sri Lanka, it would still be in the final thanks to its win against India and the lead in bonus points. Here, Pakistan can't afford to lose, for there is no way it can guarantee, at this point in time, that it can drop a game and still be one hundred per cent sure that it will get into the final.

The real pity, though, is that cricket has reached such a stage that even when the world champions win, the first thought in the minds of fans is whether the game has been fixed. And for bringing cricket to this state, the players, and the media, are equally to blame.

Meanwhile, Lanka walked out a winner in more ways than one. The defending champions have been battling various demons, on the pitch and off it. Their record in recent months has been dismal. Three key players are recovering from injury. The captain and vice captain are battling their own erratic form. The fielding in recent times has raised the phrase 'non-stick' to new dimensions.

In sum, Lankan cricket seemed to be on a butter-slide, racing for the bottom.

What the side needed was a win or three. Not just some scrappy win, where the other side plays badly, but good, fighting wins, playing all-round cricket. Which is what Lanka produced on the day -- they batted well, bowled to a plan, and fielded with the kind of brilliance they had shown during their successful World Cup campaign -- a brilliance they had apparently misplaced of late.

Having won a tight game without Jayasuriya, Kaluwitharana, Muralitharan and Vaas against the powerful Pakistan side should give Lanka's morale the heck of a boost. Another win or two in course of this tournament, and the defending champions can get on with the job of tuning up for the title defence in a very positive frame of mind.

Come to think of it, that would be a very good reason for India to play out of its skin on March 30, when they take on Sri Lanka in Pune. The two sides are locked in the same group in the WC, they will be competing for one of those three places in the Super Six. That being the case, India would be better off playing an underconfident Lanka, rather than one fired up by recent success and boosted by the return to action of four key members.

Which is why the Indian think tank will, assuming it believes in long range planning, want to put the best possible team out there on the 30th, and have them go flat out to record a convincing win.

Will they?

We'll see. Meanwhile, the details...

'Baby Jaya' leads Lankan renaissance

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