Sri Lanka Wrap Up Series

COLOMBO

It turned out to be a silent and tranquil death, as Sri Lanka completedformalities in front of a reticent "poya" day crowd to crush India byan innings to finally end a sixteen-month spell without a Test series victory atthe Sinhalese Sports Club.

India were unable to reverse a slide that had started last evening with therun out of Rahul Dravid and they lost their remaining four wickets within thefirst session to be bowled out for 299, still 77 runs short of making the hometeam bat again.

The smattering of spectators present appeared heavy-eyed at the start andalthough they did break out into occasional bouts of rhythmical hand clapping,victory was greeted with more relief than elation. The only pitch invasion wasby the police, who gathered round to watch the presentations.

Sri Lankan fans should, however, have been shouting from the rooftops becausethis was an important victory for a team that was struggling in Test cricket andbecoming increasingly frustrated.

The statistics tell part of the story, for this was Sri Lanka's first Testseries victory against India for 16 years and it equals their largest evervictory against any side in Sri Lanka's 20-year Test history. More importantly,though, it ends a disappointing Test run (first home series win for two years)that was placing captain, coach and members of the team under growing pressureand draining them of self-belief.

"We needed to start winning Test series and this victory will give theteam a lot of confidence," said a smiling Sanath Jayasuriya before hegathered the team together for a post-match prayer. "We have not won aseries since we beat Pakistan last year and this was a crucial win."

"We have been let down by the batsmen in the past few series, but theycame back well in this game to score 600 runs," he said. "We had ameeting with all the batsmen after the Kandy Test where I told them to playtheir natural game, but to make sure they get the big scores once they are wellset."

Aravinda de Silva described Ganguly's side as the "weakest Indian teamto play on our soil" in a Sunday newspaper interview and it is true thatthe tourists have been severely handicapped by injuries, but Sri Lanka can onlybeat the opposition in front of them and they did that convincingly in the end,with two thumping victories in Galle and Colombo.

India, meanwhile, are forced to reflect on a dissapointing series. Havingleveled the series in Kandy they had a good chance of recording their firstoverseas series win for eight years. They blundered that chance, however, whenthe middle order capitulated to Muralitharan on the first day here.

Certainly, they should never have lost the game on such a tame pitch, devoidof movement, pace and bounce. Coach John Wright admitted as much afterwards:"It is hugely disappointing to lose on this strip, where we would have atleast expected to draw."

Despite Jayasuriya's claims that "we always knew they would panic"India could well have batted out the two full days for a draw, before they threwaway that opportunity with two senseless run outs on Saturday evening.

In the morning, Jayasuriya opted to open with his trustworthy combination ofChaminda Vaas and Muttiah Muralitharan, who have carried the bowling attack forso long but can look forward to more support in the future. Vaas needed just 15minutes to dismiss India's last remaining top order batsmen, as he slid afull-length delivery through Hemang Badani's defenses to trap the left-handerleg-before wicket for 11.

India's poor running between the wickets had already cost them dear in thisgame, but they gifted one further wicket, the third run out of the innings, whennon-striker Harbhajan Singh refused to accept Sameer Dighe's request for a runand another accurate Atapattu throw left the wicket-keeping batsmen strandedhalfway down the wicket.

Harbhajan Singh and Zaheer Khan then decided to have some fun before the nowinevitable defeat. They added 48 runs in entertaining 27 minutes beforeHarbhajan was caught at long leg for 17.

Khan kept flaying away. He hit Muralitharan for two huge sixes over long onand had raced to 45 off 40 balls, which showed just how good the pitch was,before he holed out on the long on boundary to give Muttiah Muralitharan his11th wicket of the game and Sri Lanka victory.

Muralitharan was unsurprisingly named man of the match and man of the seriesfor his 23 wickets. His captain paid tribute to him afterwards: "Muralichanged everything for us on the first day and was the key to our victory."

Wright also acknowledged Muralitharan: "There were some soft dismissalsin the first innings, though, to be fair, it is big challenge playingMuralitharan. He is without peer at the moment and is a tremendous bowler."

"In general, however, they didn't have better cricketers than us, buttheir bowling was probably more balanced and was able to put more pressure on usthan we were able to put on them," he said. "They also sustained theirintensity for longer periods of time."

"The boys have shown character on this tour, but if we are going to winconsistently we have got to understand that we have to be rock-solid in certainfundamentals, such fitness, running between wickets and fielders," hewarned.

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