da brdice： The winning run of the Indian team continues
Erapalli Prasanna08-Jul-2002The winning run of the Indian team continues. With the four-wicketvictory over Sri Lanka at Edgbaston, India have now played fiveconsecutive one-day internationals without being beaten, anachievement of which they can be justifiably proud. With the Englishsummer finding them at their best, the Indians, after six matches inthe tri-series, are clearly ahead of the other two teams.Sri Lanka, meanwhile, are yet to win a international match on thistour and now they only have a couple of more matches in which torediscover their winning ways.
© CricInfoAfter all the overnight rain in Birmingham, there was a fair chancethat the pitch would suit the seamers. Ashish Nehra made good use ofthe new ball after Sourav Ganguly won the toss and put the Sri Lankansin. I thought that the lad deserved more than the solitary scalp ofSanath Jayasuriya in the first spell.Ajit Agarkar once again picked up a wicket with his first ball in thematch. He was able to get the ball to move around a fair bit off theseam. The fact that his economy rate has also improved in this triseries has been a big bonus for India.Ganguly, for his part, handled his bowling resources very well. Whenhe found out that Marvan Atapattu and Mahela Jayawardene were settlingdown against the medium-pacers, he brought on the experienced AnilKumble. It was the double-blow that Kumble inflicted – sending backboth Jaywardene and Atapattu in quick succession – which really turnedthings in India’s favour.The rest of the Sri Lankan batting cut a sorry figure, barring thepyrotechnics of Chaminda Vaas. A target of 188 was never going totrouble the Indian batting line-up which possessed great depth.Added to this was the fact that the Sri Lankan team management hadshot themselves in the foot by dropping Nuwan Zoysa. The track wasbowler-friendly, yet despite Vaas and Fernando bowling brilliantly,the Sri Lankans found themselves hamstrung by the fact that theresimply was no one else to support them. Wickramasinghe seems a spentforce, and I wondered why Charitha Buddhika was not played – theyoungster has the ability to move the ball both ways off the seam.There were a few decisions that should have gone in the fieldingside’s favour when India was batting. To make matters worse, Chandanaand Fernando dropped quite simple catches at backward point. It is notat all judicious to drop catches off Ganguly and Sachin Tendulkar,when you are defending a modest total. And to add insult to injury,Dravid was caught off a no-ball from Fernando.But that said, the rub of the green goes your way on certain dayswhile on other days it doesn’t. These indeed are dark days for SriLankan cricket. Having said that, I thought that the men from theEmerald Isles fought hard to comeback and win the match, making theafternoon chase an excruciating affair for the Indians.Jayasuriya must be glad to see that Vaas has finally found his rhythm,albeit a bit too late in the summer. A period of soul-searching,however, awaits Sri Lankan cricket at the end of the series.
© CricInfoIt was once again a 91-run partnership between Rahul Dravid and YuvrajSingh that helped India to their third win in the tri-series. Dravidput all his experience to good use and was deservedly named the Man ofthe Match. Yuvraj, meanwhile, is rapidly maturing into a high-classbatsman; Saturday saw him play with a lot of responsibility whilelending solid support to Dravid.It was nice to see the youngster curb his natural flamboyance when thesituation demanded it, and I am sure he has taken the first steptowards shrugging away the one-day specialist tag and turning himselfinto a serious contender for a place in the Test team.Now that India have qualified for the final, they can sit back andplan for it. I reckon it is time for the team management to carry outsome experiments and I wouldn’t be surprised if VVS Laxman comes in toreplace Dinesh Mongia for the next match. It would also be a good ideato rotate a bit, by playing Harbhajan Singh and Tinu Yohannan, beforethe final match at Lord’s on July 13.