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Amay, Ajay take charge

There are times you get the feeling that a team has resigned itself to defeat -- there will be some caution, then desperation, and some death or glory feats at the death. But though you convince yourself, on hindsight you are certain you knew the outcome.

Mind you, the Sri Lankans didn't come into the game with that attitude, but by the end of the Indian innings it had settled around them.

Their strategy was clear -- here were two left-handers, S Ramesh and Sourav Ganguly, who loved to play on the off. So what do you do? Bowl around the wicket, maybe even from the corner of the crease into them, and pack the offside field. They'll finally err somewhere.

Despite the lack of lateral movement after the first few overs, the odd bounce proved quite unnerving for the Indians, who expect the ball to come off lower and slower on pitches in the sub-continent.

So at the end of 10 overs, despite a fumble in the seventh by Mahela Jayawardene in the slips, India was making heavy weather of it at 38/0. That was when Ramesh decided to go for Eric Upasantha. After one swish that whacked pad, he picked an overpitched ball outside off over mid-on for four.

He decided to do the same thing to the next ball, but it was closer to him and so he jabbed it to cover. But Upasantha knew what Ramesh wanted. And that's what he gave him. A short ball outside off, the difference -- which the impatient Ramesh didn't notice -- being that this one was a little wider and just a wee bit higher.

Seeing the same ball he had dispatched to the boundary, Ramesh pulled at it. It went up and Aravinda de Silva brought off a nice diving catch. There was some controversy over the number of fielders within the circle then, but that is really a matter for the umpires to have sorted out.

In came Rahul Dravid, who got off the mark with a nice flick for two and a one and then watched Ganguly struggle with the uneven bounce through the next over, a maiden. Ganguly often had to play the ball on his toes though the bowling was nowhere near fast enough to come so high in usual circumstances.

It was in the 15th over that India reached its 50 as Dravid let loose with three fours, two over mid-on, one through mid-wicket.

Ganguly kept going on the back foot to balls that he usually dealt with differently. Dravid, who has recently been trying to make a reputation as a quick scorer, tried to pull a shorter, climbing ball and skied it to Ranatunga. India was 65/2 at the end of 17 overs and 75/2 in 20.

Things started picking up in the 24th over, which yielded nine runs. In the 29th, frustrated by Chandana bowling at his legs. Ganguly hoicked the bowler over mid-off for four, then pushed the ball to midwicket for two. At the end of 32 overs India had a run rate of 4.47 and had lost Ganguly, edged to the keeper.

That's when things really changed. Amay Khurasia came in, hit the first ball he faced over bowler Mahela Jayawardene's head for four, then drove to midwicket for one. Throughout his stay he looked like he knew what he was supposed to do, looking for opportunities for singles and appearing overall a very reassuring bat.

Reassuring it was for Jadeja, who slowly began moving his feet and meeting the ball with far more confidence than he'd shown earlier, and the singles really began flowing.

Particularly fruitful was the 40th over wherein Khurasia characteristically moved across the line and smacked the ball high over long-on for a six. He repeated the performance on the next ball and drove the ball thereafter, a yorker, to mid-off for one.

By the 41st over, the run rate had risen to 5.1 and in the next particularly bad Vaas over, Jadeja clubbed three fours and took a couple.

The situation can be gauged from the balls India took to reach 250. The fifties came in 88, 54, 55, 46 and 29 balls respectively.

When only four runs came in the 47th over, Khurasia decided to take charge. In the next over, he hit a ball pitched up outside off to long-off where Chandana ran to his left to take a nicely judged catch, one he made look far easier than it was.

Jadeja reached a well-deserved century in the 48th over, which also saw Ajit Agarkar go, pulling a short ball uppishly for substitute Russel Arnold to catch.

The last over yielded eight runs and India ended up with a defendable score of 286 for 6.

The chase that wasn't

Scoreboard