Comedy of errors as Indian performance goes from bad to worse

COLOMBO, AUG 25: In front of a nearly half-empty, bowl-shaped Premadassa Stadium, the Indian batsmen, fielders and bowlers conjured up a ...

COLOMBO, AUG 25: In front of a nearly half-empty, bowl-shaped Premadassa Stadium, the Indian batsmen, fielders and bowlers conjured up a performance worthy of being titled a comedy of errors. After the top order submerged under numerous fits and starts, the bottom-half of the team caved in without bothering the scorers much. Then followed the second part of the script, where the Sri Lankan batsmen stole runs from a hand-shaking distance from the fielders, so sure were they of the terrible Indian throwing. And, the bowling was as bad as in their first outing against Australia, with Anil Kumble appearing to have lost his main weapon: line and length to be was collared mercilessly. India’s second successive defeat now leaves a big question mark on their making the final of the Aiwa Triangular One-day cricket tournament.

After being restricted to a modest total or, allowing themselves to be chained and shackled, the Indian bowlers did even worse.

Sanath Jayasuria, despite his injury, batted well to lay thefoundation of a Sri Lankan victory helped by Marvin Atapattu. The rest was done for them by the Indian fielders who, in sharp contrast to some breath-taking display by the Sri Lankans on the field, missed run out chances even when, at times, the batsmen had not made half the ground and the fielder had the full view of the stumps.

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In the afternoon, things did not begin all that badly for India. It was a fine toss to win or so it seemed as Sachin Tendulkar started stroking the ball well. The score reached 49. Then began the never-ending drama. A combination of truly outstanding fielding by the Sri Lankans, reminiscent of their 1996 World Cup days and a panicky response from the Indians led to the fall of the top two in the batting order: Ganguly a victim of his own misjudgment and Tendulkar at the receiving end of Muralitharan’s quick work in the outfield. Rahul Dravid too had his own problems, jabbing into the hands of the wicket-keeper and India had frittered away the advantage of not only batting first butalso making a reasonably good opening start.

Amay Khurasia, in the two innings he has played here, has been impressive. Yet, the man, like in Galle in the first match, gifted away his wicket when the bowling seemed to be to his liking. In Galle, he was fooled by a full toss and his own indecisive reaction to it. Here, a short ball tempted him to clear the square-leg boundary. He almost achieved that feat but for the fielder placed right at the edge of the ropes. Ajay Jadeja too began well and when having reached a stage of control, threw his wicket away. Then followed the real comedy of errors. MSK Prasad ran himself out without facing a ball and without striving to stretch himself while responding to Jadeja’s call. Anil Kumble went to the other extreme, racing full tilt for a run while his partner had not responded at all. There were some other very entertaining heaves from the batsmen, bent upon making a hash of a situation which at one stage — 155-3 — wasn’t all that bad. The Indian tail is becomingfrom bad to worse, if that is possible. Same can be said of the Indian bowling and the fielding.

SCOREBOARD

INDIA

S Ganguly run out 9
S Tendulkar run out 37
R Dravid c Kalu b Vaas 22
A Jadeja c Jayawardena b Chandana 49
R Singh c Vaas b Murali 4
MSK Prasad run out 0
N Chopra not out 12
A Kumble run out 3
J Srinath not out 12
Extras (lb4, b3, w13, nb8) 28
Total (for 8 wickets) 205
Fall of wickets: 1-49 (Ganguly, 9.1 over), 2-83 (Dravid, 16th over), 3-93 (Tendulkar, 19.3 overs), 4-155 (Khurasia, 36.1 overs), 5-169 (Singh, 39.3 overs), 6-170 (Prasad, 39.5 overs), 7-173 (Jadeja, 40.3 overs), 8-182 (Kumble, 45.5 overs).
Bowling: C Vaas 8-0-46-1, N Zyosa 8-0-25-0, S Perera 5-0-32-0, M Muralitharan 10-1-31-1, S Jayasuriya 9-0-29-0, U Chandana 10-0-35-2.

SRI LANKA

S Jayasuriya st Prasad b Chopra 61
M Atapattu not out 71
A Gunawardena c Prasad b Chopra
M Jayawardena b Singh 27
Indeka de Seram not out 24
Extras (lb7,w5, nb4) 16
Total (for 3 wickets in 46.4 overs) 206
Fall of wickets: 1-83 (Jayasuriya, 19.1 over), 2-100 (Gunawardane, 23.3 overs), 3-148 (Jayawardena, 32.4 overs).
Bowling: J Srinath 10-0-28-0, V Prasad 10-0-35-0, A Kumble 8-0-50-0, N Chopra 9-2-37-2, S Ganguly 6.4-0-31-0, R Singh 3-0-18-1.

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RESULT: Sri Lanka won by seven wickets with 3.2 overs to spare

Man of the match: M Atapattu

Tomorrow’s match: Australia vs Sri Lanka (D N starts at 2 p.m. IST)