Colombo Collapse: Muralitharan and Mendis strip India bare

By John Cheeran
India lost the first Test against Sri Lanka in Colombo by an innings and 239 runs on Saturday, on the fourth day of the match.
Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka always have been formidable opponents but Indian batting's inability to offer even token resistance to spinners Muttaih Muralitharan and Ajantha Mendis and take the match into the final day is total disgrace. And that includes celebrated men such as Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid. It is a pity that in the first innings almost all of the front line batsmen got onto a decent start but none succeeded in playing a big innings, without which you cannot survive in Test cricket.
In fact in the Indian first innings, it was the last wicket partnership between VVS Laxman and Ishant Sharma that emerged as the biggest in terms of the number of balls played. So there were some good balls sent down by Muralitharan and Mendis but lack of application played a significant role in Indian batting's failure.
You go to South Africa, you struggle against pace.
You go to Sri Lanka, you struggle against spin, a diet as staple as rice and curry for an Indian.
India is the economic engine of world cricket, there is no doubt on that. But do we have quality batsmen and bowlers who can perform on all sorts of wickets and all sorts of climes?
Yes, winning the toss would have held its own advantages on tracks such as in Colombo but can't we expect some good old hard grind at the wicket from some of India's famed batsmen?
I know that it was not Tendulkar alone who failed with bat, but his failure to rise above the ruins once again will make his eventual tally of runs in Test cricket less brighter.
So the wait goes on for another moment of record as Indian cricket covers its shame with the fig leaf of Twenty20.

Dhoni surrenders in another final. India has no strategy to counter Mendis

By John Cheeran
Mahendra Singh Dhoni won India the Twenty20 World Cup. But that was a long time ago.
Now what worries many is that Dhoni has lost three finals in a row as a captain. He first lost the Indian Premier League final while leading Chennai Super Kings to Shane Warne’s Rajasthan Royals.
Later, Dhoni’s India lost to Pakistan in the final of Kitply Cup in Mirpur, Bangladesh.
And yesterday, despite striving hard as a batsman, Dhoni lost another final as India surrendered to Sri Lanka in Asia Cup.
So with every ambush such as that happened in Karachi last night, we realize that nothing has changed in Indian cricket. Dhoni, coach Gary Kirsten and other seniors of the team failed to build a strategy for the Asia Cup final and there cannot be any excuses on that front.
It was pretty clear before the final that the contest will boil down to a battle of wits between the emerging Sri Lankan slow bowler Ajantha Mendis and Indian batsmen.
Were there any tactics to counter the carom-ball bowler?
None was evident. May be only plan was to get as many runs as possible before Sri Lankan skipper Mahela Jayawardene introduced Mendis. Virender Sehwag, to his credit, did that hammering the Sri Lankan pacers to all corners of the field. But to lose two wickets in the space of first five balls sent down by Mendis shows how vulnerable the famed Indian batting line up against accurate bowling.
Skipper Dhoni said after the match that they had tried to figure out Mendis’ way of bowling watching a few video clips. But there was hardly any hint of sensible approach to read Mendis’s bowing. In fact the Sri Lankan reduced Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Rohit Sharma and Robin Uthappa to the levels of school boy cricketers. May be worse than me!
The point is that Dhoni can trot out novelty as a factor for succumbing to the guile of Mendis. But can a professional side console themselves on such pathetic explanation?
Sri Lankan cricketers, including skipper Jayawardene and wicketkeeper Kumara Sangakkara, say that Mendis can bowl up to five different balls in an over and the way Mendis flicks the ball while delivering it, batsmen finds it impossible to handpick the bowler. The only way to read Mendis, is off-the pitch. But Indians failed in that task. It is not even certain whether they attempted any such thing while on the crease.
And it is quite interesting that suddenly a boring tournament came alive on the final day. Bowlers, Ishant Sharma for India, and Mendis for Sri Lanka, tested and teased batsmen. It seemed there was a new sky, and a new earth in Karachi.
May be we are mistaken.

Ajantha turn Indians into stones at Karachi: Sri Lanka thrash India by 100 runs to lift Asia Cup

By John Cheeran
India's famed batting lineup collapsed without figuring out a 23-year old Sri Lankan spinner in the final of Asia Cup in Karachi yesterday. Ajantha Mendis totally outwitted the Indians, who have a reputation of handling spinners, including the great Shane Warne, with disdain.
Pakistani spectators would have been happy at the defeat of its neighbours, who pushed the hosts out of the final, but for the Melody bomb blasts in Islamabad the same evening.
With Mendis taking six wickets for less than 10 runs in six overs, India, who had began its chase of 273 runs with a blitzkrieg from opener Virender Sehwag, lost its way. Even skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni's doggedness at the crease was not enough to turn the things around.
Till the 10th over of the chase, things were going in India's way (76 for one). But Sri Lankan skipper Mahela Jayawardene introduced the mystery man Mendis in the 10th over and with second ball of his over the spinner had Sehwag stumped. One ball later Mendis bowled Yuvraj Singh. The match by and large had been won and lost in that crucial over. India never recovered from that double blow. Soon Suresh Raina was deceived. In a blink five Indian wickets collapsed. And Muttaiah Muralitharan had not even started his bowling.
As Sri Lanka celebrates the Asia Cup triumph it would not go unnoticed that two outstanding contributions made the victory possible in a contrasting manner. Veteran batsman Sanath Jayasuriya lifted his side single handedly from the abyss that Indian pacer Ishant sharam had pushed them into with a innings that bore the hallmark of a untainted genius, after all these years. And later, a young Mendis made an improbable victory possible in a single over. One should say that not even Muralitharan in his pomp had troubled and hurt an Indian batting lineup the fashion in which Mendis did in Karachi.
Sri Lankan cricket has discovered a gem and I'm sure time will add more lustre and variety to Mendis's craft.