Spinners give Sri Lanka advantage

Chris Dhambarage reporting from Dambulla

The presence of two quality spinners in their side will be the biggest advantage for Sri Lanka when they begin a five match one international series against India at the Rangiri Dambulla International Stadium today.

Veteran Muttiah Muralitharan and the mystery spinner Ajantha Mendis have formed a perfect combination and were instrumental in guiding the home side to a 2-1 victory in the three test series concluded recently.

This pair shared 47 wickets between them and will be looking to extend their dominance in the shorter version of the game. However India will be fielding a completely different outfit in the one dayers captained by Mahendra Singh Dhoni who led the team to win the inaugural ICC Twenty20 World Cup in South Africa last year.

The team is fresh after a comprehensive 92 run victory in a warm up match against the Sri Lanka Invitation XI played at the P. Saravanamuttu Stadium on Friday.

Skipper Mahela Jayawardena said that they have a different game plan for the one day series and is confident that his team would produce a repeat performance following their success in the recent Asia Cup tournament.

In fact the Lankans will start the series with a psychological advantage having defeated India by 100 runs in the Asia Cup final at the National Stadium in Karachi.

Jayawardena also stressed the fact that for the first time they will be going in with two genuine spinners in a one day series. In the past it has been Muralitharan who has spearheaded the attack with the back up support from the part time spinners.

But now with the appearance of Ajantha Mendis Sri Lanka will have the option of attacking from both ends which is probably a luxury for skipper Jayawardena who won the ICC Captain of the Year award in 2007.

Even then Sri Lanka had a bitter experience during their previous visit to Dambulla where they lost the two opening one day internationals against England last year.

The series is also quite a significant one for both teams considering the fact that this will be their last major tournament ahead of the International Cricket Council (ICC) Champions Trophy Mini World Cup to be staged in Pakistan from September 12. The two teams and the players will also be looking to improve on their ICC rankings with some solid contributions during this series.

In fact Sri Lanka can climb three places to fourth position in the ICC team championship if they could make a five nil clean sweep with India dropping to as low as seventh place.

However If India wins the series 5-0 then they will go ahead of New Zealand on 118 ratings points to third place and seventh placed Sri Lanka will drop to 98 ratings points and to eighth position on the ladder.

If India wins 4-1, it will stay in fourth place but will reduce the gap with New Zealand to one ratings point while Sri Lanka will slip to 101 ratings points.

A 4-1 win by Sri Lanka will see the islanders rise to fourth with 112 ratings points while India will slip to fifth on 108 ratings points. If India wins the series 3-2, both the teams will maintain their positions but India will gain one ratings point.

If Sri Lanka wins 3-2 they will leapfrog England to share fourth place with India and Pakistan on 110 points.

Meanwhile Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni can inch closer to the top spot of the ICCbatting rankings if he continues his good form of the Asia Cup in the five-match series.

Dhoni, who was on top of the batting list for a week in April 2006 is 19 points adrift of table leader Graeme Smith of South Africa in the latest ICC batting list with 773 rating points.

In addition Yuvraj Singhwho hammered a spectacular 172 in their warm up Match on Friday and opener Gautam Gambhir are the other India batsmen in the top 20. Both are well placed to move upwards if they perform well in the forthcoming matches.

Sri Lanka’s 10th-placed Kumar Sangakkara also can cause some reshuffling in the top 10 while his teammate and dashing opener Sanath Jayasuriya (15th) also has a top 10 spot firmly within his sights.

In the bowlers’ list, headed by Australian Nathan Bracken off-spinner Harbhajan Singh is the highest ranked Indian at 24th and is well placed to enter the top 20. Fast bowlers Zaheer Khan(35th), RP Singh (46th) and Praveen Kumar (49th) are the other India bowlers in top 50 who will be eyeing an upward movement.