Two huge sixes from Mahendra Singh Dhoni sealed the Videocon Cup for India and gave the team a much needed one-day series victory and now they can seriously look to have a clean sweep for this Sri Lankan side looks totally demoralized and outplayed in all departments of the game.
The one aspect of Sri Lanka’s cricket that has always been top class is its fielding but it was that which let them down as simple catches were flubbed and the fielders on the fence made half-hearted efforts to try and stop the ball from going over the ropes. Teams are often dominated in batting and bowling by the opposition but fielding is an area, where with proper effort, a team can maintain international standards. Sri Lanka should consider themselves lucky that Sehwag wasn’t able to capitalize on the chances he got for the match would have got over quicker otherwise.
Sri Lanka’s captain, Atapattu also seemed to have lost the plot for he had four overs of the experience Chaminda Vaas left unused when Dhoni hit those two huge sixes off part-time spinner Arnold. What Arnold was doing bowling at the death and that too to Dhoni who relishes just this type of bowling is a question only the Lankan captain can answer. India used it’s ‘Super Sub’ very well while the Lankans don’t seem to have got the hang of it. Sure a lot depends on the toss but one gets the impression that the Lankans depend overmuch on some of their players to fire and if they don’t then they don’t have another plan to fall back on.
The other problem area for the Lankans is that apart from Chaminda Vaas none of their other bowlers can bat and apart from Murali, the other bowlers aren’t exactly plus in the field either. Ironically it was Murali who gave Sehwag his first life and it was only because he is such a quick mover that he was able to get to the ball. Sangakkara who had taken a splendid catch to get rid of Tendulkar at Jaipur, dropped a regulation catch off Sehwag and the Delhi batsman still wasn’t able to feast on these chances. His normal scoring rate in Tests is as good as in limited overs cricket, yet he tends to try and double it in one-dayers and perishes. If only he gets himself a target of batting for 40 overs he will, with his natural ability, score more than a century. At the moment he is trying to get that in 10 overs and that even for an opening batsman is virtually impossible.
The Indians began their chase in such a frantic fashion that one wondered if the win would count only if they got it in 40 overs for there really was no need for Tendulkar to go charging the way he did nor for Yuvraj and Sehwag to bat in the manner they did. Luckily Dravid restored some sanity and Dhoni and the impressive Raina finished the job. Venugopal Rao played his part too in the partnership with his skipper Dravid but it was the irrepressible Dhoni who took the game away from the Lankans. The much-maligned Agarkar won the man of the match award for taking five wickets and his confidence looks much better when he is given a bit of protection on the leg-side.
