Can India beard the Lankan Lions in their own den?

In the last week or so, India have won two consecutive ODIs against Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka. Trailing 0-1 after the first match at Dambulla, this is a huge achievement. Mendis returned his most expensive bowling figures today, at Colombo’s Premadasa stadium, which will also host the remaining two matches of the 5 match Idea Cup. And yet, the final result belied the wildly fluctuating fortunes. India won the toss and elected to bat and pretty soon, had lost its top 4 batsmen with less than 100 runs on the board. Thanks to a middle-order partnership between Raina and Dhoni, we eventually reached 237. In the penultimate over, the Wily Mendis got both Dhoni and Harbhajan out or I suspect we would have reached 250. In any event, 237 was enough for us to win the match in spite of a Captain’s knock by Mahela Jayawardene that fetched him 94 runs and nearly cost India the match. Sri Lanka’s batting collapsed to 59 for 6. In fact, they had lost 7 wickets before they reached 100 and I was at the time reasonably sure we would win by 100 runs. But Jayawardene was not going to give up without a fight. And in young Thushara, found an able partner. The duo added nearly 80 runs for the 8th wicket, before Thushara was bowled by a Zaheer Khan special.

Zaheer has regained his spot as India’s pace spearhead and since the England tour last year, has done so well. But each time I watch Munaf on the field, I cannot but help think that he is a huge talent not realizing his potential because of his laziness and attitude. He has it in him to be a far better bowler and of course, a much better fielder. I hope Kirsten or someone else can knock some sense into his head.

In the event, the series is tantalizingly poised. India’s gamble of going with only 4 specialist bowlers paid off because they got early wickets that reduced the pressure on Yuvraj, Sharma & Raina- the “5th bowler”. But Dhoni may still decide to perssist with this stratagem simply because our batting remains brittle and has not quite delivered in spite of several scrappy starts by the top order.

But hey, a win is a win- even if it is by a margin of a single run. And this match was won by a far more flattering margin of 33 runs. Chak de India and all the best for the next two matches.

---

Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)

• Miracle at Melbourne
• Pulling the hair from a lions beard