The Sri Lankan team are in the ‘wanna get home’ syndrome. This affects touring teams who are having a hard time where nothing is going right and they are being outplayed in the field. Then a strong feeling of wanting to go home grips the team because they believe that being back in familiar surroundings will help shake off all the troubles and life will be that much easier. On the field it is seen by the unusual hurry the batsmen, in particular, display perhaps believing that the quicker they score the quicker the game will get over and the quicker they will go home. Unfortunately for Sri Lanka there’s one more game to be played and so it was their batsmen’s hurry that let them down in Rajkot.
Perhaps it was all the hype about how good the pitch is and that a score of over 300 could also be chased by the team batting second. So, the Lankans may have fallen for that too though they are a vastly experienced side. Not that the ‘wanna get home’ syndrome is only for teams having a bad time. It also happens to touring teams who may have won the series already and see the remaining matches as dead and of no consequence. Didn’t we see that in the Bombay Test last year, when the Aussies couldn’t chase only 103 and then, unusually for them, whinged about the pitch. With the batting line-up that they had, they should have won with lots of wickets to spare but they wanted to get home and sure enough lots of them caught that night’s flight taking them home.
Nothing’s going right for the Lankans as they lost the toss again and in an inspired move Sehwag invited them to take first strike. With a fast outfield and a pitch that was benign it was a big gamble but Sehwag took a chance knowing that the Lankan batting is short on confidence and how it worked. R. P. Singh probably played because another Singh had to be sent back. That the BCCI is absolutely spot on in its directive that all injured players must prove they are match fit by playing a domestic game was seen the V.R.V.Singh saga. Only in the rarest of rare cases, must a fitness certificate be relied on for in India certificates are dime a dozen. Perhaps it was a blessing in disguise for the budding player to be ruled out for it would have been tough to bowl on a pitch as good as this one. It certainly was a blessing in disguise for R.P.Singh who proved that at the highest level it is movement off the pitch that gets wickets and not raw pace. Pathan and Agarkar have been demonstrating that for quite some time, now Singh’s haul just endorsed that. The spin duo of Harbhajan Singh and Murali Kartik also kept the pressure on and with Kaif back in the team the Indian fielding in the 30-yard circle was tough to break with Yuvraj at Jonty’s corner and Raina, another outstanding fielder, patrolling in the circle.
Only Dilshan, carrying on from his previous man of the match form, got a decent score. The rest of the Lankans did not earn even a fraction of their match fees. The captain, Atapattu, keeps dropping himself down the order when he should be up at the top leading from the front. Virender Sehwag marshaled the bowling with aplomb and his field placings and bowling changes showed great maturity. He may still be short of runs but they aren’t far away and knowing his appetite for big hundreds the Lankans may still suffer when they return for the three-Test series in December.
The target was never challenging and in such a situation some casual shots can be played which can lead to dismissals and that’s how India lost their three wickets. Yuvraj Singh batted scintillatingly and just when people were asking questions about him, while at the other end Kaif coming back to international cricket showed good cricketing sense by taking advantage of the lack of scoring rate pressure and spent useful time at the crease.
India may have missed out at Ahmedabad but it should be no surprise to see them finishing the series 6-1 at Baroda.
