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Lanka wrap up series in style

Prem Panicker

If a professional coach wanted to make an advertisement hyping his services, what would he do? He would put a pic of the Sri Lankan team, pre-1995 vintage, and label it "Before". Then he would take a pic of the side, of the post-1995, or shall we say 'Dav Whatmore era', and label it 'After'. And that would be about as eloquent a testimony to the importance of professional coaching as you would ever need.

I mean, pre-1995, these guys were flamboyant cricketers who thrilled everybody and lost everything. Now, they are flamboyant cricketers who thrill everybody - and win everything.

Sitting back, reviewing the second game of the three-ODI series against India, what strikes you about the overall picture is the thinking that went into a most professional win. In the first game, India came within one hit of pulling off a huge win - and in the process, underlined that on a good batting track, Sri Lanka just might have a weakness in the bowling department. So this time round, Ranatunga and the Lankan think tank comprising Bruce Yardley and Duleep Mendis drop a batsman - Hashan Tillekeratne, no less - and add the extra bowler in leg-spinning all rounder Upul Chandana.

It was a professional decision, by a professional team. A spare bowler was more important for this game than a batsman, so despite Tillekeratne having just got fit after Courtney Walsh broke his arm in the Windies a couple of months back - his comeback being an emotive enough reason to keep him in the lineup - he is rested in the interests of the team.

Imagine a similar situation in India. An off form Kumble, perhaps, being rested for the key game, and Nilesh Kulkarni, who with his height and steep angle should more get nip and turn than Kumble, being played here. Imagine, too, a Rahul Dravid being rested - not because he is being punished for his recent failures, but because for a crucial game, maybe it makes more sense to not pressurise him further, but rather to give the obviously hungry Vinod Kambli a look in, to provide a slapdash touch to the middle order and provide company for Jadeja?

Both would be purely professional decisions, taken for a particular game, with the team's interests in mind. But then, India doesn't, apparently, do "professional". And it shows in the results, doesn't it though?

Back to the game. Ranatunga, having beefed his bowling strength, took the obvious recourse, once he won the toss, of putting India in to bat. The obvious gameplan was to use his bowlers to restrict India to a low-ish total and then chase in comfort, playing to their own strengths. In making the decision, Ranatunga probably figured that he was more confident relying on his batting to get the team past whatever total India put up, rather than bank on his bowlers to keep India from making a charge for it.

Tendulkar started off with his customary fluency, driving Vaas for two and then clipping him off his pads for four in the first over. And then came one of those things that are, to perpetuate the cliche, "part and parcel of the game". Vaas angled one across the right hander, Tendulkar flicked off the front foot and missed, and was struck on the front pad, high up. Given the height, given too the left-hander's slant across the stumps, it was no surprise that neither the keeper nor the sole slip appealed. What did surprise one was that the umpire upheld, with alacrity, Vaas's rather tentative shout.

The decision was wrong. But wrong decisions are a part and parcel of this game, so no complaints there. However, one tangential point needs making - some umpires, these days, appear to have a 'trigger happy' streak. This appeal was upheld in a flash - it is surely no coincidence that umpires like Venkat, Shepherd and even K T Francis, who in my book is among the classier acts in the business, think a moment before ruling on an appeal, and they are the very ones who rarely if ever make mistakes?

The point is worth making here because this is the second instance in two days when a quick trigger finger has caused a bad decision - the first being the Rahul Dravid dismissal in the first game. True, the ball off Tendulkar's bat touched bowler Sajeewa D'Silva's trouser cuff en route to the stumps at the non-striker's end. True, Dravid was out of his ground when it happened. But hey, did anyone appeal?

No. The bowler, in fact, was walking over to pick up the ball when he saw the umpire, smiling broadly, put his finger up. And the elementary rule in cricket is that an umpire does not unilaterally declare a batsman out - he merely rules on appeals. Pity such incidents affect the game - though I am not trying, here, to use either of them as excuses for India's defeats, merely making a point in passing.

Back to the game, and Saurav Ganguly, who on this tour has blossomed into perhaps the best ODI opener we have seen in India colours in a long time - and, dare I say this, Sachin Tendulkar not exempted. Last year, when he returned from the England tour and I went to his home for a live chat, I had a chance to chat with his mentor and former Test player, Arun Lal. At that time, Lal told me that the real surprise would come when Ganguly began opening out in ODIs.

Frankly, I sniggered to myself at that one. I mean, Ganguly has something of the weakling about his physical presence. The thought of him as a marauder, somehow, didn't jell - but Lal, when I diplomatically hinted as much, said that he has incredible timing, and the day he felt free enough mentally to really go through with his shots would be the day we would see a different level of batsmanship.

Looks like that day is here. For one thing, the heavier bat Ganguly has begun using on this tour is giving him the 'carry' he needs - thus, noticeably, a lot of his lofted drives and pulls through the leg side, which earlier ended up in the hands of the fielders, are now clearing the field comfortably. Again, earlier he tended to be easily checked by a bowler bowling into his pads, with a short midwicket and a mid on to stop any pushes. Now, Ganguly has added the flick, the on drive, the sweep and the short arm pull to his leg side repertoire - as both Vaas and Sajeewa D'Silva have been finding to their cost in this series thus far.

Today, he added one more dimension to his batting - an eagerness to run between wickets. Thus, the singles were taken. On several occasions, the strokes into the deep were deliberately checked as the batsman pushed the first run hard and converted it into twos. Perhaps, then, it is no coincidence that Ganguly, in this innings, finally converted his good starts into his maiden ODI hundred?

At the other end, Robin Singh - whose promotion to pinch hitter I would still quarrel with, if only because I don't see strategic sense in sending out one left hander to join another at that time of the innings, thus allowing rival bowlers to settle into one line instead of unsettling them with a left-right combination - surivived several hairsbreadth escapes as he tried to dab the ball outside off to third man. This was the way he got out in the first game, and on at least four occasions, he all but feathered a touch to the keeper today as well. This time round, though, luck was with him - and once the nerves settled, he steadied himself and played a couple of sweet pick up strokes over mid on, one of which cleared the field, and a few firm pulls through midwicket, that kept the score rattling along.

India in fact looked good, going at 58 in 10 overs and, in the eleventh over, Ganguly rubbed it in by twice dancing down the track to Vaas, no mean feat in itself, and lifting clean over mid on for firm fours. But then, it is axiomatic that if India gets off to a good start, it promptly mucks it all up with rank carelessness, and Robin began it with a hasty push at a straight one from Dharmasena for a simple caught and bowled. Azhar followed, dancing down to Murali before he had his eye properly set, missing the ball altogether, and helplessly watching it turn to leg, for Lanka D'Silva to collect and effect a lightning stumping. Ajay Jadeja bustled around, working runs, playing a couple of good clean hits through leg, and making Ganguly run harder than he ever has in his cricketing life before - only to find Mahanama pull off yet another blinder at midwicket, Jadeja flicking way to his left and the fielder diving forward and sideways, and retaining his hold though it was obvious he had badly jarred his elbow and got the breath knocked out of him as well.

Ganguly, running rapidly out of partners, and also finding that the loss of quick wickets had brought the run rate right down, figured on going aerial - only to mishit an off drive down the throat of deep mid off. And Lanka D'Silva helped wrap the innings up with a good catch off Mongia, and a clean, quick stumping off Kuruvilla.

In fact, if not for a trigger happy umpire, the eponymous Lankan keeper would have had a hand in a fifth dismissal for the match, when Prasad waltzed out to Jayasuriya, the ball took the edge and richocheted onto the pads. At that point, the bowler appealed for LBW - a decision clearly not on given that the ball had gone off the bat. The umpire, though, promptly pointed skywards. Meanwhile, the keeper scrambled the ball into his gloves, dived forward and broke the stumps with Prasad out of his ground - and very clearly run out. Was quite interesting to see, on the replay, the umpire standing with upraised finger before the actual, rather, legit, dismissal, had been completed.

For the Lankans, the fielding as usual was out of this world. This is a well drilled outfit - they attack every ball, they make batsmen hesitate even when the single is obviously on, by the sheer exuberance of their charge, they back each other up so that if one fielder is chasing a hit, there is another one close on his heels in case the first one stops the ball before the ropes but can't throw back in time. And if you put a ball up anywhere close - and for fielders like Mahanama, Dharmasena - whose catch to dismiss Ganguly was taken a couple of steps inside the line, both hands at full stretch overhead, with the ball travelling at full speed - and Muralitharan, 'close' takes on a meaning not quite as laid out in the lexicon.

In the bowling department, both Vaas and D'Silva, on a placid wicket where the ball slowed down on pitching and begged to be hit, took stick. But then, Ranatunga had that angle covered - he merely bowled his four spinners through, once the two medium pacers were taken off at the end of the 11th and the 13th over respectively. And all four spinners responded beautifully, bowling to their field and by virtue of tight line and length, choking the batsmen and forcing the errors.

With just 238 to defend, India's only hope was of a quick breakthrough. Tendulkar began with Chauhan - but this time round, the Indian off spinner appeared a shade over-eager. In the first game, he had managed to check Jayasuriya by going round the wicket, bowling from wide of the crease and angling the ball sharply in on off stump. Here, he did continue his round the wicket line, but the ball was more on line outside off - and Jayasuriya loves it there, as he proved with a succession of square, cover, extra cover and on drives that forced Tendulkar to take Chauhan off the attack as early as the sixth over and bring back Prasad.

By then, Jayasuriya was in a mood to go for everything. And given the smallness of the target, Atapattu also stepped out of his classical mould and began dancing down to the medium pacers, consistently going over the top with the result that when he finally fell LBW, missing a flick at a straight line from Kuruvilla, he had scored 38 out of a 79 run partnership for the first wicket, almost matching Jayasuriya in stroke production.

With Lanka off to another blazing start - 68 in the first ten overs, and the target already considerably whittled down - the remaining batsmen just stood on the accelerator. Mahanama in his classical mode, driving through the line and producing two of the most exquisite cover drives you ever want to see, off Chauhan, before finally taking off for an impossible run and being caught out of his ground by Jadeja's direct hit from point. And then Aravinda back to his Mad Max mode, pulling from wide of off stump over midwicket, playing Kumble inside out from leg stump through coverpoint, and making it pretty near impossible for bowlers to figure a line to bowl to him, or the fielding side skipper to set a field.

The Lankan innings produced a few points of interest - from an Indian viewpoint, that is. The first relates to the mystery of Saurav Ganguly. Look at sides like Australia, South Africa and the West Indies, and you find a Hansie Cronje, a Steve Waugh, a Carl Hooper - batsmen, very good ones at that, who all play a key role with the ball as well. And then look at India, lamenting the lack of an all rounder, yet continuously, for no reason that I can see, consigning Ganguly to boundary patrol in game after game. I mean, we keep hearing about how this is an ongoing exercise in building a team for the future. If so, then this team needs an all rounder, bad. Which, in turn, makes you wonder, a, why Ganguly doesn't get to bowl regularly and b, why no thought is being paid to the possibility of sending him to the MRF Pace Academy during the slack period to brush up and tighten his bowling, and also his fitness - thus developing an all rounder, instead of merely waiting for one to fall out of the sky into the selectors' collective lap?

The mystery was further underlined today, when Tendulkar saw fit to let even Jadeja turn his arm over for four overs - I mean, when was the last time Jadeja bowled in an ODI? South Africa? The Caribbean? Certainly never after that, if memory serves. While Ganguly kept racing around the boundary line, without ever getting a call up to the bowling crease.

I wonder - is this Indian side so rich in resource that it can afford to waste what it does have?

Point two being, when does this side stop using its fast bowlers like taxi drivers use tyres - running one set bald and threadbare, before replacing them? I mean, if ever I saw a case of a man turning old before his time it is Venkatesh Prasad - and yet he keeps playing game after game, his tiredness even more evident with each fresh outing, and his figures progressively worsening with time.

Which brings me to the final point I was wondering about. This morning, before the game, I chanced to read a media report wherein Sachin Tendulkar claimed, in response to a question, that Kumble had worked out a new tactic to surprise the Lankan batsmen with.

Which being what, precisely? Judging by the evidence I saw today, what Kumble did was bowl a shade shorter length than normal, thus catching the Lankan batsmen in two minds about whether to rock back and pull him, or rock forward and drive him. Aravinda D'Silva neatly solved the puzzle by alternating the two strokes - but neither he, nor Mahanama, nor Jayasuriya, showed any indications of being "surprised", as Tendulkar and Kumble had promised.

I don't know about you, but to my thinking, Tendulkar and his deputy have a better chance of persuading a passer-by to buy Howrah Bridge as scrap metal, than to get opposing batsmen to buy suggestions that Kumble has discovered the art of spinning the ball. A much better ploy would be for the bowler to be rested for a bit - and during that absence from the international arena, to spend time not with B S Chandrashekhar, who he admires and tries to emulate with little success, but with the likes of Bishen Singh Bedi and Duleep Doshi, genuine leg-spinners who could help him reinvent the wheel, add a few weapons to an empty quiver, and come back with the confidence that he is worth his place in the side not by virtue of being vice captain, but because he deserves it for his bowling alone. And if I were Kumble, I would, while I was about it, look to brush up on my batting a bit more, in a bid to become the bowling all rounder who could ideally supplement that batting all-rounder (okay, this one is largely on paper for as yet unfathomed reasons) Saurav Ganguly.

Oh yes, did I forget to mention that Sanath Jayasuriya, for yet again making nonsense out of the phrase "run chase" with a blistering 66 off 56 balls with 8 hits to, and one over, the boundary, picked up another Man of the Match award, pipping Saurav Ganguly to the honour? Greg Chappell asked him during the presentation if his cupboard wasn't getting a shade crowded with all these trophies. To which Sanath Jayasuriya with the straightest of faces answered, "It's okay, I just bought a new cupboard the other day!"

At this rate, he would be better advised to buy display cases by the dozen - probably be cheaper that way, and he sure looks like he'll be needing all that space.

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