Saved by the dozen, is how Mahela Jayawardene must see this game. It is rather ironical how a team that performs with panache till they wrap the series suddenly hit a new low when presented with a match of little statistical significance. No, this is not about the South Africans, this is of the seeming resurgent Indian one day side when Sri Lanka found a rare reprieve.
It is a well known factor at the Premadasa that the team batting second is at a significant disadvantage under the lights. But it seemed even when the match seemed evenly poised when rain interrupted play, matters turned dramatically in Sri Lanka’s favour once rain finally gave way for a shortened game/
The target was revised to 216 in forty-four overs when the rain that halted play during the fourteenth over finally relented. But for India, the end seemed to come sooner than expected. Expected to coast to victory having curbed Sri Lanka during the day, this could then be considered an upset victory for the Sri Lankans.
Going onto the field without their experienced duet composers, Chaminda Vaas and Muttiah Muralitharan, this was considered a relatively facile plausible Indian victory. Instead it has turned into the Kulasekara song and the Sri Lankans decided to join the chorus.
India had lost Suresh Raina moments before rain forced the players off the field. India were three down but far from being ousted out of this contest. Kulasekara was the only destructor before the rain break but he was soon joined by Ajantha Mendis, the man who everyone said India has sorted out. There would be no more sorting on this tour. Mendis was getting a little back, including his favourite pick, Yuvraj Singh.
Three for seventy before rain turned into six for eighty-five in no time once play resumed. India looked like they were trying to fold the innings quickly and rather impatiently, whether in victory or just to run home after the tour, it was hard to tell. Perhaps the possibility of the reserve day being utilized threatened the flight plans back home and they decided to end the drudgery of the tour on the day itself.
That may seem a little far fetched but it has been that kind of tour and while India would have loved to finish it with a bang, perhaps the spiced up contest after rain and with Kulasekara before that, made matters more slippery for India’s wet hands. Only a century to show. An early end to a wet waiting. The match may have slipped, but not the cup!
To know when Sri Lanka had their troubled moments in their batting stint as India came away thinking that this final match at the Premadasa was in this pockets, catch:
Indian Chase: More than Academics
