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| photo courtesy : Oneindia |
The sorry saga of Sri Lanka’s shambolic performance continued in the third test as well as it crashed to an innings defeat and 171 runs against India exposing major chinks in its batting as well as bowling arsenal. Since the retirement of Tillakaratne Dilshan, Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardene and Lasith Malinga from Test cricket, the Sri Lankan team has been down in the dumps. One expected that it will put up at least a symbolic resistance to India on its home soil. Alas, it was not to be.
LAMB TO THE SLAUGHTER
“The Lions”, ironically, walked like lambs to the slaughter the day Virat Kohli-led Indian team set its foot on the Lankan soil. What was so pathetic about the Lankan performance during the entire three-test match series was that the team did not even resist subjugation by the rampaging India. After losing the first two test matches inside four days, the Lankans allowed themselves to be annihilated by India inside the third day of the final match making the humiliation complete. The 3-0 whitewash on its own soil tells the tale of two contrasting teams.
LANKANS NO MATCH
If the Indian performance was of the highest quality, the Sri Lankans were plain mediocre.
Had Kohli enforced the follow-on in the first test match at Galle, the Lankans would have recorded their worst series defeat by losing all the matches with innings defeat. Sri Lanka totaled 536 runs in its two innings in the first test against India’s first innings total of 600 runs. That match also could have folded in third day itself, had Kohli not opted to bat again in the second innings.
ABJECT SURRENDER
One expected that the Lankans would rise from the ashes after suffering a bloody defeat in the first test match. But not only did they lose the plot, they surrendered with their tails between their legs. This was something unexpected of them.
Given the all-round failure in all departments of the game, the home team gave a sense that it was not at all in the competition. Except for the second innings of the second test match at Colombo, where it showed some character by playing more than 100 overs (116.5 overs to be precise), there was no serious attempt to stay put in the wicket.
While Indians played 133.1 overs in the first match to score 600 runs, the Sri Lankans played a combined 129.5 overs in the two innings of the match to score 536 runs (291 in the first innings and 245 in the second). The home team gave its best performance of the series in the second innings of the second test by playing 116.5 overs and scoring 386 runs. In the first innings of the match, it could not even last 50 overs as it was bundled out for 183 runs in 49.4 overs.
Refusing to learn from its mistakes, the Sri Lankan batting slumped once again in the first innings of the final match as it was dismissed for paltry 135 runs in 37.4 overs in reply to India’s first innings total of 487 runs. In its second essay, the team did try to stretch a bit longer (74.3 overs), but collapsed to 181 runs all out handing India a convincing victory of an inning and 171 runs.
HUMILIATING DEFEAT
This is the second time Lanka has faced a humiliating 3-0 whitewash on its soil. Shane Warne-led Australia was the first team to record a 3-0 clean sweep in 2003-04.
Sri Lankans were also done in by injuries to wicket takers Nuwan Pradeep and Rangana Herath, and the weak bench strength further compounded their problems. On the contrary, India faced a problem of plenty as bowlers Ishant Sharma and Bhuvneshwar Kumar and batter Rohit Sharma could not make it to the playing eleven in any of the match. Interestingly, opener Shikhar Dhawan, not an original choice and a replacement for Murali Vijay, emerged as the top scorer with 358 runs with two scintillating centuries under his belt.
As captain Chandimal rightly said after the loss of the match and the series, “Our batting and bowling was below-par through the series,” one hopes his team will put up some semblance of fight in the five one-day internationals and a Twenty20 beginning Sunday.
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