Series in pocket, India hope off-colour batsmen would hit form

T V Sriram

Colombo, Aug 28 (PTI) With the title already in pocket, a
relaxed India will take on beleaguered Sri Lanka in the last
cricket one dayer Friday, hoping its off-colour batsmen would
find their form in an otherwise inconsequential match.

With Wednesday's 46-run victory fetching India an
unassailable 3-1 lead in the five-match series -- ensuring
their first-ever bilateral ODI series triumph against Sri
Lanka -- the team is upbeat, hoping to sign off in style.

The lone worry stems from the poor form of Gautam
Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh and Rohit Sharma and the team hopes they
too would join the party Friday.

Though an inconsequential match allows the think-tank to
tinker with the team combination, the off-colour players are
expected to figure in the playing XI in an effort to help them
wriggle out of their bad patch.

There, however, is no such worry with the bowlers who did
an excellent job in the series. Zaheer Khan, Munaf Patel and
Harbhajan Singh once again rose to the occasion yesterday and
helped in containing the hosts with their intelligent bowling.

Another redeeming feature of last night's match was the
smart fielding by the Indians after messing it up in the
previous ODI.

Experts here feel the toss was also in important aspect
of the strategy and that the visitors benefitted out of it.

"The Sri Lankans also have a good batting line up. They
could have scored more runs but for playing under the lights,"
an official remarked after last night's match.

In fact Dhoni himself admitted that the toss played a
crucial role in the win as it assisted the Indian spinners in
the later part of the game.

"It was a good toss to win, there was something in the
wicket for the spinners and they got a lot of turn. Even the
pacers did well," Dhoni said.

India could last night make up for an additional batsmen
as Yuvraj played a pivotal role as the second spinner, getting
two important wickets.

Sri Lankan skipper Mahela Jayawardene said the spinners
were getting more turn in the end of the innings. Though only
three Indian batsmen -— Suresh Raina, Virat Kohli and Dhoni -—
came up with worthwhile contributions, the vital partnerships
kept the Indians going.

Even the first Indian wicket partnership yielded 44 runs.

Dhoni was of the view that unfortunately Sri Lankans were
bereft of any long partnerships that could have cost them the
game.

"The toss proved crucial, it put the Indians in an
advantageous position but I should say we made too many
mistake along the way. There was lack of consistent
partnership from the batters and that did not help the team at
all," Jayawardene rued.

The Sri Lankan skipper is also concerned about the
opening combination.

Replacing out-of-form Kumar Sangakkara with Malinda
Warnapura at the top proved futile as the 29-year-old
left-hander could not even open his account after facing 18
deliveries.

Friday's game could still be a cliffhanger as Sri Lankans
were not very short of the Indian total during the last two
match, losing by 33 and 46 runs respectively.

They only need a few of their star batsmen to click
before they turn the corner and bridge the deficit 3-2.

Teams (from):

India: M S Dhoni (c), S Badrinath, Gautam Gambhir, Suresh
Raina, Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Yuvraj Singh, Irfan Pathan,
Harbhajan Singh, Pragyan Ojha, Praveen Kumar, Munaf Patel,
Zaheer Khan, R P Singh and Parthiv Patel.

Sri Lanka: Mahela Jayawardene (c), Sanath Jayasuriya,
Kumar Sangakkara, Chamara Kapugedera, Chamara Silva,
Tillakaratne Dilshan, Chaminda Vaas, Thilan Thushara, Nuwan
Kulasekera, Muttiah Muralitharan, Ajantha Mendis, Mahela
Udawatte, Dilhara Fernando, Jehan Mubarak and Malinda
Warnapura.

Hours of play (IST) : 2.30 pm to 6.00 pm and 6.45 pm to
10.15 pm.