COLOMBO, AUG 29: Sachin Tendulkar ignored the common reasoning of not straining his already painful back and went on to play a brave, heroic battling innings. An innings full of audacious strokes which also tested his back to the limit and the man could not hide the fact that he was not fully fit.But the debating point at the end of the match, which India won, but lost out on the final spot as Sri Lanka edged them out on the net run-rate, was: Did Tendulkar do the right thing by playing when not fully fit? Isn't there an authority above the captain to take a decision on whether it was wise to risk Tendulkar at the altar of a desperate win?After all what was at stake, a place in the final of a tournament which is being played by the Indians a dime a dozen these days. All the epic effort which Tendulkar made today, proving once again his commitment to the team, would have been fully justified had at stake been a place in the World Cup final.No one is exactly sure what is the state of his fitness now,though he along with the team flies to Singapore in a couple of days to play in yet another one-day tournament. The final match for the Indians turned out to be their best outing of this triangular tournament. Tendulkar set all doubts to rest on whether he would be playing or not by coming out to toss with Sanath Jayasuriya.He then played within the limitations imposed by his stiff back, to play a very calculated innings. He paced himself wonderfully, did not race down the track to take cheeky singles and in the end struck some telling blows to score the 23rd ODI century of his career. Joining him in this blitzkrieg was Saurav Ganguly, batting low down the order.When the Indian innings needed one final impetus to reach a score in the vicinity of 300, Ganguly found the ropes with rapid frequency and a score of 296 seemed to have given India enough cushion to overcome the drawback of being low on the net run-rate.At the start of the Sri Lankan innings, the equation was: Lanka requiring 270 runs toqualify for the final. A rain interruption for almost an hour spoiled this equation and the revised target was: 263 runs to be made in 42 overs for victory and 232 runs for qualifying.Even after the way Jayasuriya used his bat to strike massive blows all round the wicket, especially against Venkatesh Prasad, with whom he had a needling duel as well, a victory for Sri Lanka was not possible. But their aim was 232 and Jayasuriya had ensured that after his dismissal, the rest of his teammates would not have to score at a break-neck pace. Mahela Jayawardane and Marvan Atapattu countered all the tricks which Tendulkar may have had up his sleeve and the qualifying target appeared a cruise.The medium-pace of Robin Singh played a crucial role in getting India back into the game for a while but surprisingly, Robin, whom the match adjudicator picked up for the man of the match award, was taken off after he had bowled 7 overs for just 27 runs and had taken two wickets in the bargain.As the runs needed for theLankans to make the final became less and less, Tendulkar rotated his bowlers more and more, making desperate attempts to take wickets. That was not to be till Sri Lanka had attained that magical figure of 232.India go out of the tournament, perhaps deservingly so as they played the worst cricket of the three teams here. Tendulkar after the match said he is feeling better and would go to Singapore.SCOREBOARDINDIAS Tendulkar c Muralitharan b Zoysa 120S Ramesh c Kaluwitharana b Perera 32R Dravid c Kaluwitharana b Chandana 13S Ganguly c Arnold b Jayasuira 85A Jadeja not out 19R Singh not out 4Extras (b4, lb4, w9, nb6) 23Total (for 4 wkts in 50 overs) 296Fall of wickets: 1-75 (Ramesh, 12.3 overs), 2-112 (Dravid, 22.3), 3-239 (Tendulkar, 44.3), 4-279 (Ganguly, 48.3).Bowling: Vaas 7-0-59-0; Zoysa 10-1-50-1; Perera 6-1-41-1; Muralitharan 10-0-42-0; Chandana 10-0-49-1; Jayasuria 6-0-33-1; Arnold 1-0-14-0.SRI LANKAS Jayasuria cDravid b SinghM Atapattu c Ganguly b Kumble 55R Kaluwitharana b Singh 7M Jayawaradena c Chopra b Prasad 62C Silva c Prasad b Chopra 5U Chandana c N. Chopra b A. Kumble 0R Arnold c Singh b Prasad 19S Perera run out (Jadeja) 4C Vaas run out (Jadeja) 0M Muralitharan not out 5N Zoysa not out 0Extras (b-1, lb-11, w-5, nb-2) 19Total (for 9 wkts, 42 overs) 247Fall of wickets: 1-105 (Jayasuria, 16.5 overs), 2-119 (Kaluwitharana, 20.2), 3-193 (Atapattu, 32.2), 4-205 (Silva, 36), 5-205 (Chandana, 37.1), 6-238 (Arnold, 40.1), 7-238 (Jayawardena, 40.2), 8-238 (Vaas, 40.4), 9-243 (Perera, 41.4).Bowling: Srinath 8-0-40-0; Prasad 9-0-59-2; Chopra 7-0-40-1; Kumble 9-0-57-2; Singh 7-0-27-2; Ganguly 2-0-12-0.MAN OF THE MATCH: Robin Singh.
