Disastrous tour for Sri Lanka

Shirajiv Sirimane

Sri Lanka team returned to the island from India yesterday, after what could be called a disastrous tour salted with series of defeats. The team starred in three tests, two T20’s and five one day internationals with the final ODI being abandoned when Sri Lanka were reeling at 85 for 5 due to dangerous pitch conditions.

Sri Lanka drew the first Test at Ahmedabad scoring 426 and 760 for 7 declared in reply to India’s 426. However in the second test in Kanpur played from 24 to 27 November visitors following on in reply to India’s 642 lost the game by an innings and 144 runs after scoring 229 and following on 269.

The same fate awaited the Sri Lankans in the third and final test in Mumbai where India won by an innings and 24 runs. India’s 726 for 9 declared was too much for the tourists as they could only manage 393 and 309.

Sri Lanka fought back in the T20 version of the game drawing the series one all. In the first game at Nagpur Sri Lanka won by 29 runs after scoring 215/5 and restricting Indians for 186/9.

In the second game in Mohali, India won by 6 wickets replying to Sri Lanka’s 206/7 with 211/4 with 5 balls to spare.

The one day tournament while brimming excitement and also controversy saw an Indian domination with the home team winning the series 3 to 1. In the fifth game too India seem to be cruising for victory as they had the tourists gasping for breath stranded at 85 with half of the side back in the pavilion.

One of the key factors that were missing for the Sri Lanka side was consistency. The fielding too was ordinary and the bowling department was a big failure and a major concern for the future.

Skipper Sangakkara too endorsed this and said that they had ‘would be match winning totals’ but the bowlers let them down. “It was the new comers if at all that impressed,” he said. “The bowlers never bowled to a line and length giving opportunity to the Indians to chase even big totals with ease,” he added.

Lasith Malinga was no where near target and he went wicket less for 125 runs in the two games he played bowling just 18.4 overs. Mendis too was expensive giving 134 runs in 19 overs to take Tendulkar’s wicket. Jayasuriya wheeling his arm in two games went wicket less for 108 runs in 14 overs while Dilshan magic too did not yield results.

Right-arm off break bowler Suraj Randiv from Matara made a successful debut by capturing 5 for 141 and being the highest wicket taker in the one day series with a strike rate of 33.3. Kulasekara, Lakmal and Mathews took two wickets each.

A word should also be said about the injuries to some of the Sri Lankan team members and the management saw a 40 member squad playing in this tour due to this reason.