Lanka have not played so badly - Ranatunga
KANPUR, Wednesday (PTI) Former Sri Lanka captain Arjuna Ranatunga
said that Sri Lanka had not played so badly for a long time after their
152-run drubbing by India in the first one-day international at Kanpur
on Tuesday.
Writing a column for an Indian news agency, Ranatunga said: "There
was hardly any stand-out feature, be it in batting, bowling or fielding.
You don't come to a party after eight years and be cavalier about it.
Reverses such as this can ring in your ears for long. In the next two
weeks, we will come to know the character of Atapattu's men. The old
bogey of being poor travellers would raise its head again. In recent
times, we have truly believed in the intrinsic value of this side which
is not subject to the conditions they are playing.
They have risen to number two in world rankings on merit and better
things looked in store. Now the old doubts will resurface again. I
wonder if playing against West Indies or Bangladesh injected a false
sense of belief in this side. They could also have been fooled by the
new look Indian team whose mentor had been out in the cold for six
months and doubts were freely in the air if his best was not already
behind him.
Rahul Dravid provided a stirring finish to the innings but it must be
said he could not have found a better platform. One of the noticeable
aspects about his batting is the way he shifts gears. He nearly always
is dependent on ones and two at the start of his innings and nearly
always provides a great flourish in the end.
I just hope the momentum has not shifted away from the Sri Lankans at
right angles. They would need to put their indifference aside and think
deep and hard about the matches ahead. I sincerely feel the openers need
to be tinkered with since it has been an ordinary association between
the two of late. I would love to be proved wrong but Sri Lanka can ill
afford to start on the wrong foot and then play catch-up game for the
remainder of the series.
Recovery for them has to be made on all counts and the support
bowling staff to Vaas and Murali need to show their fangs quickly.
Fervez Mahroof and Dilhara Fernando need to pull their weight and push
the Indians on the back-foot.
The return of Sachin Tendulkar reconfirmed what I have always
believed to be the difference between greats and merely good cricketers.
A good cricketer would take time to find his bearing after a long
lay-off while a great one would slip into his cast as if he had never
ventured out of it. On the basis of what I saw in the first cricket one-dayer
in Nagpur, Tendulkar is still the very best in the business.
Tendulkar's riposte to speculation on his future has been nothing
less than stunning. He lashed out on the offside, executed those pick up
strokes which had all but disappeared from his repertoire and made
Muttiah Muralitharan, for once, appear mortal. His all-out aggression,
the sprint between the wickets left even his younger colleagues
breathless.
It would be difficult not to get some similarly lyrical about a
youngster who did not allow the legendary figure at the other end to
completely overshadow him. More than Tendulkar, I would like to think it
was Irfan Pathan who took the game away from the Sri Lanka.
It was frustrating to see an orthodox leg-spinner bowl his stuff to a
left-hander who had specifically been sent to go hell after the leather.
You speak to acknowledged left-handers such as Brian Lara and Sourav
Ganguly and they would admit their preference to see a leggie dish up
his stuff. Pathan took an instant liking to such an offering and the
momentum had irrevocably shifted away from the visitors.
It shows how well Dravid knows his game and how confident he is with
his methods. He climaxed his innings with nearly every shot in the book
- lofted strokes over the infield, ferocious pulls and square drives
backing away towards the leg-stump. One sweep off Chaminda Vaas from the
middle stump defied belief.
His captaincy too conveyed a man who had come well prepared to the
middle. He brought on his spinners at the precise moment and his field
placements were thoughtful. It also appeared to me that the team backed
him to the hilt. He made a great statement of intent and India seem
ready to leap into the arms of the future. |