Plenty at stake as Sri Lanka and India resume ODI rivalry
Cricket returns to Dambulla after 11 months with Sri Lanka taking on tourists India with the first match of the five game series beginning today here at the Rangiri Dambulla International Cricket Stadium.
Sri Lanka’s inconsistent run in ODI cricket since ending as runners-up in the World Cup tournament has seen them slip to seventh position in the official rankings, only ahead of West Indies, Zimbabwe and Bangladesh.
The series provides the hosts with an ideal opportunity to climb up to fourth position, but in the unlikely scenario of them losing 5-0 to India, they will slide further down to eight position, behind the West Indies.
Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardene admitted that his side has been inconsistent in one-day games in recent times and attributed this to a struggling batting order, but with players like Sanath Jayasuriya and
Kumar Sangakkara back in form, in their new role as the team’s opening combination, the hosts are looking to maintain their winning run that started with the success at the Asia Cup.
"After the World Cup, we lacked a bit of consistency. Probably lack of form and a few personal changes, but no excuses. We didn’t consistently maintain our standards. During the Asia Cup, we managed to turn things around. We were very consistent with the bat, ball and in the field.
That’s the toughest thing for most of the international teams, to consistently be in that competitive level," Jayawardene said at a media briefing yesterday.
"In Australia, we didn’t bat consistency. If you take the innings that Sanath played in the final of the Asia Cup or the innings that Kumar played before that, that’s something that we didn’t have in Australia. It was eight months ago and we have moved on since. We need to continue the hard work that we have done," he added.
A 4-1 win for the Sri Lanka will place them fourth in the
rankings, but a 3-2 win will only take them to sixth place.
The talk in the Indian camp ahead of the ODIs was on veteran Sanath Jayasuriya and mystery spinner Ajantha Mendis. The Indians have sweated on cracking the Mendis mystery code without much success, whereas the veteran
Jayasuriya has remained a thorn in their flesh for well over ten years now.
It took him 18 ODIs to post his first half-century against the Indians and ever since, he scored that famous 79 off 76 balls in Dehli during the 1996 World Cup, the hard-hitting left-hander hasn’t looked back, having compiled 2429 runs against them in 74 ODIs at 37:36, better than his career average of 32:87. Six of his 27 ODI hundreds have come against the Indians and into the bargain his career best 189 too has been scored against them.
His popularity in India has been such that at the age of 39 he fetched 975,000 US Dollars from Mukesh Ambani, the owner of Mumbai Indians
franchise during the Indian Premier League Twenty-20 competition.
His return to the Sri Lankan side has created such a sensation in the Indian media that it was the 39-year-old who attracted all the attention after all the hype and euphoria about Mendis.
"Jayasuriya can be compared to Sehwag or Gilchrist. It’s important not to let them have a good start. They are the sort of batsmen who will take chances, so trying to restrict them they will commit mistakes. With someone
like Jayasuriya, it’s important to get him out early," India’s captain M.S. Dhoni warned.
Mendis has progressed nicely ever since his ODI debut against the West Indies and ended as the Man of the Series in the Asia Cup where he picked up six wickets for 13 runs in the final. He followed that up with another rich haul of 26 wickets in the three Tests against the tourists that preceded the ODIs.
"Right now, if you see the statistics it has been Mendis. He has been taking wickets for them. Previously they had Muralitharan, now you have two specialist spinners who don’t really give loose balls to cash in on, that’s the difference," Dhoni added.
Sri Lanka were not sure of what combination to go with, but in all probability will send Sangakkara with Jayasuriya as the openers and will play the additional seamer. With Dilhara Fernando nowhere near his usual best, it’s likely that they will play Thilina Tushara Mirando and Nuwan Kulasekara.
India will stick to a six batsmen and five bowlers combination, but which of the seamers will get a game wasn’t decided yesterday, afternoon.
The series will be important for ace paceman Chaminda Vaas as he’s four wickets short of completing 400 wickets in ODI cricket. Only Wasim Akram (502), Muttiah Murlaitharan (475) and Waqar Younis (416) have taken more wickets than him in ODIs.
Sri Lankan middle order batsman Tillekeratne Dilshan is also expected to complete 3000 ODI runs during the series. If Dilshan gets there, he’ll be the 11th Sri Lankan to score over 3000 runs in ODIs.
Sri Lanka: (From): Mahela Jayawardene (Captain), Kumar Sangakkara, Sanath Jayasuriya, Mahela Udawatte, Chamara Silva, Chamara Kapugedara, Tillekeratne Dilshan, Chaminda Vaas, Muttiah Muralitharan, Dilhara Fernando, Ajantha Mendis, Thilina Tushara Mirando, Nuwan Kulasekara, Jehan Mubarak and Malinda Warnapura.
India (From): Mahendra Singh Dhoni (capt), Subramaniam Badrinath, Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh, Rohit Sharma, Suresh Raina, Virat Kohli, Parthiv Patel, Irfan Pathan, Praveen Kumar, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Rudra Pratap Singh, Munaf Patel and Pragyan Ojha.
Umpires: Billy Doctrove (WI) and Asoka de Silva (SL)
Third Umpire: Gamini Silva (SL)
Standby Umpire: Sena Nandaweera (SL)
Match Referee: Chris Broad (Eng)
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