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India keen to sign off in style

— Photo: AFP

DHONI’S DOERS: While Zaheer Khan has been the driving force amongst the bowlers, batsmen like Suresh Raina, S. Badrinath and Virat Kohli have acquitted themselves well by tackling Sri Lanka’s spinning duo with assurance.

Colombo: This certainly wasn’t the script last fortnight, when Mahela Jaywardene adopted a sphinx-like inscrutability and M.S. Dhoni mixed self-depreciatory humour with honesty, as the five-match one-day series was launched.

The old stereotypes were reprised, another narrative was born. Surely, the series would hinge on how India’s (relatively) young middle-order handled the potent combination of Ajantha Mendis and Muttiah Muralitharan. Would bravado and verve succeed where experience and undue caution failed in Tests?

Cricket has a way of squirming out of frames of reference it’s force-fit it into, and while the success of the Indian batting unit in preventing Mendis and Murali from running amok was vital, the series, in essence, has been a transpose of the expected contest.

India’s bowling unit, populated by seamers, has mastered Sri Lanka’s top-heavy batting — well, except for Jayawardene, whose soft, sure touch and calm head have brought two half-centuries.

The seamers have been led magnificently by Zaheer Khan. So well has he bowled, breaking Sri Lanka in the second ODI, controlling the third and the fourth without commensurate reward, that Friday’s fifth game is the dreaded dead rubber.

Victorious sides find it difficult to lift in matches of little consequence, something India, which has secured its first-ever bilateral series in Sri Lanka, 3-1, will have to contend with, but we’ll come to that later.

India’s success with the ball has to do with a curious confluence. Conditions, both in Dambulla, and to a lesser extent here at the Premadasa, have arranged themselves for seam bowling.

The tracks have offered the new ball sufficient traction to deviate off the surface. While it wasn’t surprising with Dambulla’s fresh strips, the movement under lights at the Premadasa is one of those things (like swing onset by the tide turning) that elude explanation.

Not only is it a Sri Lankan vulnerability — batting against seam bowling — it’s an Indian bowling strength. Zaheer, Munaf, and Praveen Kumar have excellent wrist positions during release: bound by backspin, the ball almost always lands on its machine-stitched seam, giving it the best chance to kink.

These wrist positions aren’t restricted to these three -- Ishant Sharma, R.P. Singh, and Sreesanth have similar strengths. It’s also the same quality that brings swing when conditions are favourable.

But for all the aid offered by the conditions here and in Dambulla, the format demands control. It’s in this regard that Zaheer has been immense.

“There certainly has been help with the new ball for seven-eight overs," said Jayawardene. "It’s a question of playing through it, and we have failed at that. The control of their bowlers has been excellent, and we’ve lost wickets early, before the (weaker) fifth bowler has come in to the attack."

Harbhajan Singh has had his moments in the series. Whenever he has slowed it through the air, he has attained the benefits of loop. Surprisingly, he hasn’t persisted with the mode of attack, but as he showed in the fourth ODI with the important wicket of the marauding Sanath Jayasuriya, when the off-spinner can control the urge for economy, he is world-class.

Virat Kohli, M.S. Dhoni, and S. Badrinath showed the way against Mendis and Murali in the second ODI, and Suresh Raina, in his captain’s reassuring company, put the runs on the board in the third and fourth games.

As Dhoni said after the batting failure in the first ODI, it was up to each batsman to find a way to counter the spin pair. He did it by keeping his front pad out of the way, stooping and pushing the full balls down the ground, and leaning back to crack anything remotely short by viciously accelerating his hands through the ball.

Dhoni’s consistency has helped bind a batting order, weakened by the absence of Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag, and undermined by the barrenness of Gautam Gambhir and Yuvraj Singh.

Raina’s back-to-back half-centuries were encouraging for the skill shown against spin.

"Dhoni is a class reader of the game, and he tells me how to play," said the left-handed Raina of his captain who played Wednesday’s game with fever. "I just concentrated on reading the hand and playing in the ‘V’, and I was happy that I was reading the hand."

Raina also said the IPL had helped him "overcome the hesitation I used to have when going for the big shots."

What of Friday’s game? Dhoni’s men have sealed an engaging one-day series by playing the bigger moments better; the captain’s luck with the toss has helped. The fifth ODI is an opportunity not just to give the reserves time in the middle, but to turn in a ruthless performance — the sort that separates the very good sides from the great.

For, make no mistake, this team, with victories in Australia and Sri Lanka, is beginning to lay claims to greatness; if only it could win Cup matches, but that’s a story for another day.

The sides (from):

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

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

Umpires: Billy Doctrove and Tyrone Wijewardena. Television umpire: Gamini Silva.

Match referee: Chris Broad.

Hours of Play (IST): 2.30 to 6 p.m. and 6.45 p.m. onwards.

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