Thursday 14th August, 2008 15 A series that was dominated by Sri Lanka by Rex Clementine ly knew the implications to follow. two of them in six innings. So the mouthwatering contest that Mendis was unleashed very early The only area that the Sri everyone expected when India came in the Indian innings and he immedi- Lankans were vulnerable against for a three Test series to Sri Lanka ately cast doubts in the batsmen’s were at the opening position and with turned out to be a one-sided affair minds and got Dravid with a ball that their pace attack. Michael Van Dort dominated by the hosts. The victory deceived the batsman and cut off a struggled right along and contributed enabled Sri Lanka to climb up to fraction after pitching. The Indians 39 runs in five innings. Malinda fourth position in the ICC Points never recovered, after that. Warnapura, meanwhile, established Table behind Australia, South Africa It was billed as a series where the his place in the side ending with 243 and India and a mere one rating point prowess of world’s best batsman and runs at 60:75 and deserved his recall separates India and Sri Lanka. the best bowler was going to be tested for the ODI side after managing a India had several reasons for their and Muralitharan certainly won the hundred and two fifties in the series. poor show. Dropped catches, misfiring first two sets by claiming the Sri Lanka also lacked fire power finished with a world record 26 in the three Test middle order, injuries and two seam- of Tendulkar. On both instances, he in their attack. While series for a debutant and won the Man of the Series award. ers who were on and off didn’t help came round the wicket and dismissed picked up the occasional wicket and their cause. the batsman with the ‘doosra’ and kept a tidy line, there was no point The series was dominated by Sri Tendulkar was to never recover in the playing a player similar to his style in Lanka’s two spinners and rookie series. Nuwan Kulasekara in the first two Ajantha Mendis in particular con- Having come to Colombo requir- Tests. Sri Lanka realized the mistake fused the Indians and was a crucial ing 172 runs to overtake Brian Lara as once India squared the series in Galle factor in Sri Lanka’s victory. His the world’s most scorer in Tests, and sent for Dammika Prasad and he record 26 wicket haul in a three Tendulkar fell short by 77 runs end- duly responded with a spell of three match series is unlikely to be ing a disappointing series and was wickets on his debut picking up matched for a long time to come. ruled out of the ODIs that were to fol- Sehwag, Dravid and Tendulkar. Mendis and Muralitharan picked low with an elbow injury. The Indian openers did better than up 47 of the 60 Indian wickets to fall Together with him, the rest of the their Sri Lankan counterparts. in the series and they were backed up famous fabulous four struggled. Gautam Gambhir and Sehwag gave by Dammika Prasad, who had an While Ganguly managed only 96 runs them good starts consistently, but impressive debut while Chaminda in six innings, Laxman and Dravid once the Sri Lankans found the break- Vaas picked up the prize scalp of faired slightly better managing three throughs, they had to sit and watch Sachin Tendulkar on both instances fifties between them, hardly the stan- the middle and lower order crumble. in the Galle Test and scored a crucial dard you expect from the world’s best Sehwag’s unbeaten double hun- 47 in the last Test coming in as night batting line up. dred in the Galle Test was outstand- watchman. They were also picked up regular- ing as he single handedly put his side When the first Test got underway ly by Mendis. While Laxman fell for on top and followed that up with a at the SSC after more than two ses- Mendis on five instances, Dravid was fifty in the second innings. He scored sions were lost for rain, on a placid dismissed by him four times. more than 70 percent of runs for the wicket against good players of spin, The wicketkeepers of the two Indians in the game and took the one sensed that the game was heading sides also had contrasting series. game away from the Sri Lankans, who for a dull draw. It certainly remained Prasanna Jayawardene had a good would have swept the series 3-0 if not so for the next two days as Sri Lanka series and some of the stumpings that for the Indian vice-. piled up 600 runs in their first he inflicted made you marvel at his Sri Lanka Cricket had taken a late innings. efficiency behind the stumps. He also decision to move the final Test from There were four centurions in the picked up all edges that came his way the R. Premadasa Stadium to the P. Sri Lankan innings and while Thilan and the only blemish was his diving Saravanamuttu Stadium. It was heart- Samaraweera and Mahela in front of at first ening to see returning to Jayawardene were both dropped, slip during the Galle Test. the famous cricket ground, that had Malinda Warnapura, the other centu- He was also handy with the bat. hosted country’s first ever Test rion was caught off a no ball. While Jayawardene did nothing sig- match. Tillekeratne Dilshan was given out, nificant in Galle, his contribution of The Tamil Union had taken lot of but opted to refer the decision, got the 49 at P. Sara was extremely crucial as pain to refurbish some stands and benefit of the doubt and went onto Sri Lanka gained a valuable 147 run give a new look to the ground and hammer the fourth hundred of the first innings lead and eventually according to officials, the last phase innings. ended up chasing 122 to win the of development along the Air Force But despite the hiccups, one series. flat end will make it even more sensed that the famed Indian batting Dinesh Karthik and Parthiv Patel, colourful. line up would match the Sri Lankans the two wicketkeepers that India However, the theft that took place with an equal effort with the bat. But employed during the series were not due to a breach of security while the that wasn’t to be so. Virender Sehwga up to the standard and failed to pro- second day’s media conference was on tried to be aggressive and got out vide any contribution with the bat as came as an embarrassment. A visit- hooking Nuwan Kulasekara, but hard- well managing 50 runs between the ing Indian cameraperson lost her handbag with her cash, passport, credit cards and other personal belongings and the incident sent a warning signal to many other jour- nalists who were covering the series. Then there was this incident on the third day when Sri Lanka’s team manager Charith Senanayake came down for the post match media con- ference and announced that there would be no player available for inter- views, breaching protocol. Senanayake is new to the job and he was clueless. Explaining the deci- sion, he said that things were beyond his control and it was up to the media to take up the matter further. It was a highly unwanted fiasco, especially at a moment when the Sri Lankan team was doing so well. Later, Kumar Sangakkara, who had scored a fabu- lous hundred, was sent for the media briefing and the next day Senanayake apologized. But had he been more diplomatic had a good series topping the averages with 243 runs. His game than confrontational, he could have also seemed to have gone through significant changes as he adopted an aggressive been saved from the embarrassment. approach and even outscored the aggressive at times. Daniel Lee aims for milestone

Asoka Goonathilake (29.33) and Prasiddha Sha of Nepal China Vs. Japan (Kuvinnuvando) Hyong Pack Suck of North Korea is reporting from Beijing (27.94). the first athlete to have won a gold Fifty meter free style National cham- Daniel Lee is an old boy of Asian What was special medal in weightlifting. pion, double silver medalist (50 and 100 International School Colombo and is Synchronize Swimming Water polo meter free style) at the 10th South Asian currently training at the Swimming The gold medal won by Ruoling Chen Canada conceded the worst defeat Games and Commonwealth and Asian Academy of Monash University, and Shin Wang in synchronized swim- after 1976 in an Olympic Men’s Water Games participant Daniel Lee will take Australia. Lee is coached by Rose Price ming is the 100th gold medal won in the Polo match when they went down 12-0 to to the pool with the intention of achiev- who has produced three Australian gold Olympics. Montenegro. Not a single team had ing another milestone in his swimming medalists. Women’s football ended without scoring. career at the Beijing Olympics today. The world record and the Olympic Oraily Nether’s goal for USA in their Equestrian “My aim is to reach the semifinal record of the 50 meter freestyle event is match against New Zealand is the Germany won both the individual stage,” Lee told ‘The Island’. 21.28 seconds and E. Saleevan of fastest goal scored in an Olympic and team events in Equestrian events at One hundred swimmers will take Australia established that record at the women’s football championship. She the Olympics making it the first time part in the 50 meter free style event and last Athens Games. scored the goal in the 40th second of the that both golds were won by a single they will compete in 13 heats to be Women’s football quarter finals match. team after 1992. selected for the semifinals scheduled for tomorrow Judo Others tomorrow. Daniel Lee has produced a Brazil, Germany, USA, Norway, Ayumi Tanamotto became the third There were eight countries which time of 24.99 seconds to qualify for the Canada, China, Sweden and Japan have competitor to have won three consecu- Incidentally, he won the previous gold had won at least a single medal on each event. qualified for the women’s football quar- tive golds in the same category when some 12 years ago at the Atlanta of the first four days at the Beijing There are four South Asian partici- terfinals which will be played tomorrow. she won gold in the 63kgs category. Olympics. In the Sydney and Athens Olympics. They are China, Italy, Japan, pants in the 50 meter free style event. Norway Vs. Brazil (Tianjin) Rowing Olympics he won silvers in the same Korea, Netherlands, North Korea, They are Shamil Ibrahim of the USA Vs. Canada (Shanghai) Michael Martican won a gold in row- event. Russia and USA. Maldives (29.33), Adil Beg of Pakistan Sweden Vs. Germany (Shenyang) ing for the second time at an Olympics. Weightlifting