Reversal of fortunes

Sri Lankans have been a major part of my cricket life, much like the way it is for Indian cricketers these days. Being a Tamil myself, the link with the Lankans is far more regular than what you would expect any other Indian to have. I loved watching the stylish Roshan Mahanama and that elegant left-hander who became Kapil Dev’s 434th victim, Hashan Tilakaratne. Even today, if I meet my school friends and talk cricket, Tilakaratne’s elegance would be one of the foremost topics to converse about. There were other characters we try to imitate, Pramodaya Wickramasinghe being the most prominent among them all, as young cricket fans. The bowling action was a little different with him doing a little jig with his fore arms before releasing the ball. There was also this young Chaminda Vaas, who troubled my hero the most with his swing!

And then the 1996 World Cup. While I thought Tendulkar had done enough to beat the Lankans at Kotla, I was hit hard! It took some time to recover after what I saw with Sanath Jayasuriya’s belligerent batting. Thus started the great Indian relationship with Sanath Jayasuriya. For a long time since then, no one else in this world would have made the spine chill for the Indian fans as much as what Jayasuriya did for those few years. The face of Sanath on television dreaded the worst fears in me too. Just as he would adjust his helmet, box and pads before getting set for another ball from Venkatesh Prasad, Debasis Mohanty and Javagal Srinath, I would close my eyes longing for a miracle.

He was a man of raw power. For those few years in the late 90s and early 2000s there were other batsmen and then there was Sanath! I had to endure through endless one dayers watching him use his powerful forearms to square cut with a gruelling demeanour. In a way, Sanath made me speak to god much more than anyone else, even my school exams.

He used to hammer the ball through the off side. Until then, I had seen no one belt the ball so fiercely that it would puncture the boundary bill boards creating a hole within a couple of seconds. A famous joke that goes around the circles is that, Sanath keeps waiting for Prasad’s delivery to reach him and before the ball reaches he would sip his cup of tea in a relaxed manner and still manage to get the bat on ball right on time to send it outside the ground for a huge six. The Sharjah memories of him smashing Venkatesh Prasad for 73 runs in his 7 overs on his way to record his best ever score of 189 is something, I can’t forget. What’s worse, Sri Lanka inflicted one of the worst defeats you’d ever see being handed to India. 54 all out. Wrecker-in-chief : Chaminda Vaas!

If Sanath left an indelible mark in the minds of Indian cricket fans, Aravinda Desilva managed to cast the same impact with his choice of delectable stroke play. While I jumped in joy seeing Sanath and Kalu back in the hut in that World Cup Semi Final, here came the man, Aravinda Desilva stroking a beautiful 66 off 47 balls on what was supposed to be a rank-turner against Anil Kumble! Within a few overs, the momentum shifted once again and eventually went on even rock the whole nation into a state of delirium.

Over those 5-10 years, Sri Lanka ruled the roost of every Indian team in both tests and ODIs. Between the start of 1996 and 2002, the Lankans had won 18 of the 32 encounters. India’s W/L ratio stood at 0.66 during this period. Put that in perspective with Australia during the same phase, the team had a W/L ratio of 0.6 which is slight worse than the ones against the Lankans. That tells a tale about how tough it was to beat Sri Lanka during that period.

It wouldn’t be a gross mistake if I tell that, the Indians have managed to give it back to the Lankans in the last few years. I famously remember, Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid taking the Lankans (especially Eric Upashantha) to the cleaners at Taunton during the ’99 World Cup. The 2003 World Cup game was another notable victory. But such performances were far and few in between until MS Dhoni arrived!

While Tendulkar continued to dominate the Sri Lankan bowlers regularly, I never found that astounding impact that Sanath had on me, while Tendulkar was in the middle against the Lankan bowlers. May be it had to do with the eventual result which always boils down to the team effort. India, on most occasions was all about Tendulkar and only Tendulkar.

Years later, Dhoni’s fireworks (183) in Jaipur lit the city a day before Diwali. That innings, had the Sanath effect. It was an innings filled with boundaries that was a brutal assault on the leather. The usage of strong fore arms, innovating angles to score runs and most importantly a barrage of sixes to go with makes that a special knock.

Since then, India have been mostly on top of Sri Lanka both home and away. I remember the team under Dhoni to win quite a few tournaments, most recently the Asia Cup in Sri Lanka. The test team have also done well to erase the memories of Mendis Menace (2008)!

While the route to this reversal of fortunes haven’t completely been one-sided, I remember how the Lankans ensured we were out of the 2007 World Cup. Tilakaratne Dilshan still bats with disdain and with that touch of Sanath magic against India at times. Sangakkara trusts India to get him back to form, just as they did in Hobart recently. Mahela loves to score big runs against his neighbours.

However, the reverse has also been true. Sehwag, both home and away, feasts on Lankan bowlers. He has big and truly aggressive hundreds against them. Gautam Gambhir has good numbers to show against Sri Lanka. While everyone else were at sea in 2008, Gambhir’s quick feet movement against Mendis and Muralitharan was one of the rare features of that test tour. Only a couple of years ago, Indians managed to score 414 against the same opponents although Sri Lanka making 411 is another story to talk for another day.

The World Cup Final victory was almost the right revenge taken for the defeat in Eden Gardens, 15 years ago. Dhoni and Gambhir scored some of the most crucial runs of their career, once again against the same opponents!

Virat Kohli has been part of 24 games against Sri Lanka since his ODI debut. Sri Lanka have been the team against whom Kohli has played most of his ODI matches already. May be that also directly shows at his prolific run scoring ability against the islanders. In 23 innings, Kohli averages close to 50 in ODIs with 7 half-centuries and 2 centuries including the one he scored yesterday.

There could be an argument that there is an overkill of India-Sri Lanka cricket these days. But surely the tide has changed. Yesterday’s game proved it once again. While there is odd brilliance from Sri Lanka time and again, India have pulled their socks against their neighbours in the recent past.

India’s W/L ratio now against the Lankans is 1.5 (Winning 21 of the 38 ODIs since the start of 2008). Who knows, the teenagers in Sri Lanka who have just started to follow the game now might feel the same pinch that I felt, fifteen years ago! Who knows, these boys might dread seeing the faces of Kohli, Gambhir and Dhoni! Life goes on….