Tactical blunders cost Sri Lanka the series

 

Colombo: Last year, England came to Colombo without their star player Andrew Flintoff and when they were beaten heavily in the first ODI, we felt that the writing was on the wall for the tourists. In 2006 Sri Lanka had beaten them 5-0 in England and the critics predicted a similar fate. But England went onto win the series by wining three successive games and Sri Lanka managed salvage some pride by winning the dead rubber.

And after India struggled in the three Test series against new spin sensation Ajantha Mendis, it was felt they were in for a hiding as well and the sentiments were echoed strongly when Virender Sehwag, India's only batsman in form twisted his ankle on the eve of the series and was forced to fly back home.

If Tendulkar, Dravid, Laxman and Ganguly struggled against Sri Lanka's spinners, there was no respite for young chaps like Virat Kohli, Subramaniam Badrinath and Rohit Sharma it was felt. The spinners surely troubled them, but there weren't enough runs on the board to make a game out of it and the Sri Lankans didn't simply deserve to win.

Critics here in Colombo are pointing fingers at Sri Lanka's management team for drifting away from the tried and tested formula for home ODIs. No matter what combinations they play abroad, successful Sri Lankan teams over the years from the time of Arjuna Ranatunga had played seven batsmen and four bowlers.

The fact that among the seven batsmen there were a few guys who can fill in as the fifth bowler had worked well for them and since Ranatunga, his successors Sanath Jayasuriya and Marvan Atapattu have opted for the same formula.

Mahela Jayawardene thought to defer and was in for a shock as Sri Lanka coming in for the series as favourites lost to a young Indian side. Their batting struggled and the need for the additional batsman was strongly felt as the series progressed. The presence of five specialist bowlers meant that the Sri Lankans largely under bowled Jayasuriya, who has taken over 300 wickets in ODIs, but only bowled a mere 14 overs in three games while other part-time bowlers like Tillekeratne Dilshan and Chamara Kapugedara didn't even get a look in.

The Indians sensed the trouble early. Having gone with a similar combination for the first ODI, after suffering an eight wicket loss, they reverted back to seven batsmen four bowlers combination and went onto win three successive games before they lost the dead rubber by playing only six batsmen.

When Sri Lanka realized the mistake and played the additional batsman for the final ODI, it was too late as the Indians had already wrapped up the series.

The other area where they blundered was to back Kumar Sangakkara to go in as the opener. True that the ploy had worked for the Sri Lankans during the Asia Cup. But it's one thing to open the innings in Lahore and Karachi and something else to go up the order at Dambulla, where historically batsmen have struggled.

And unlike the case in Pakistan, Sri Lanka had a batsman in form in Malinda Warnapura, who had a good Test series against the Indians and he should have partnered Jayasuriya. He was well equipped to take the shine off the new ball and allow an easy passage to the batsmen to follow and by opening with a number three batsman, the hosts committed hara-kiri.

Apart from the top order problems, Sri Lanka's middle order too struggled. While Kapugedara averaged 28:25 in five games, Dilshan averaged a mere 14:66 in four games with Chamara Silva returning even worst figures managing a single run in two games.

The find of the series for the Sri Lankans, however, was Thilan Tushara Mirando, a left arm fast bowler who had been in and out of the 'A' team and got his opportunity this time around after Lasith Malinga and Farveez Maharoof were forced out with injuries. He did more than what was asked of him. While he picked up ten wickets in the series at 15:90, which included his career best five for 47 in the fourth ODI, it was with the bat that he struck a severe blow.

He topped averages from both sides and his aggregate of 168 runs was only behind Mahela Jayawardene (185) and M.S. Dhoni (193), who incidentally batted on all five instances compared to Tushara's four. His unbeaten half-century in the final game with the side yet again in trouble swung the game in Sri Lanka's favour and it's more than a foregone conclusion that there'll be more match winning efforts from him in the future.

As expected, Mendis continued to torment the Indian batsmen and finished with 13 wickets at 11:69. Overall, he has taken 33 wickets in 13 games and is threatening to knock off Ajit Agarkar's record for the fastest player to claim 50 ODI wickets. The Indian reached the milestone in 23 games and at the rate he's going, Mendis is expected to go pass the seamer soon.

There was some consolation for the Sri Lankans in the series as they celebrated Chaminda Vaas becoming only the fourth bowler in the history to claim 400 ODI wickets. Vaas, who started the series requiring two wickets to join Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis and Muttiah Muralitharan as members of the 400 wicket club was made to wait and he eventually got there when he dismissed Yuvraj Singh for a duck in the fourth ODI.