Tendulkar sets tone for the final

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I quite agree with Saurav Ganguly when he mentioned that the final should be of a best of three games. And, when teams in a triangular tournament play three games each before the final, it is apt that to establish the winners in the real sense, it is a bit harsh on the losers for not getting another opportunity to show their worth. It’s a make or break match for both the teams.

Having said that, I feel instead of three games each, the teams can have two games each before the best of three event. That would be fair to the finalists, simply because by having three games each like we did in this tournament, the situation can arise (as it did with Sri Lanka) where a team loses all its initial matches and the matches they play later in the tournament become inconsequential.

SCOREBOARD

INDIA
S Ganguly run out 9; V.Sehwag run out 39; D.Mongia b Samaraweera 48; S.Tendulkar c Chandana b Vaas 113; R.Dravid lbw Chandana 13; Yuvraj lbw Samaraweera 8; M.Kaif c Silva b Zoysa 41; Harbhajan Singh run out 0; Zaheer b Fernando 0; A.Nehra b Fernando 3; T. Yohannan not out 5; Extras: (b-6, w-12, nb-7) 25; Total: (All out, 50 overs) 304
Fall of wickets: 1-32, 2-73, 3-172, 4-199, 5-210, 6-284, 7-286, 8-288, 9-296
Bowling: Vaas 10-0-64-1, Zoysa 10-0-66-1, Fernando 10-1-55-2, Chandana 8-0-44-1, Jayasuriya 2-0-14-0, Jayawardene 2-0-16-0, Samaraweera 8-0-39-2

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SRI LANKA
S Jayasuriya lbw Zaheer 5; M.Atapattu run out 53; K.Sangakkara st Dravid b Harbhajan 66; M.Jayawardene c Nehra b Yuvraj 31; N.Zoysa c Mongia b Ganguly 8; R.Arnold run out 8; C Silva st Dravid b Harbhajan 30; T.Samaraweera b Harbhajan 15; U.Chandana c Nehra b Harbhajan 1; C.Vaas not out 4; D Fernando run out 4; Extras: (b-1, lb-4, w-5, nb-6) 16; Total: (All out, 44.1 overs) 241
Fall of wickets: 1-11, 2-96, 3-160, 4-165, 5-171, 6-188, 7-210, 8-221, 9-233
Bowling: Nehra 7-0-28-0, Zaheer 8.1-0-53-1, Yohannan 5-0-39-0, Ganguly 10-0-40-1, Harbhajan 10-0-46-4, Yuvraj 2-0-12-1, Mongia 1-0-8-0, Sehwag 1-0-10-0
Result: India win by 63 runs

Sri Lanka’s strength is their spinners. Over the years, they have done well when they played at home with spinners dominating their attack. Even at Old Trafford, they made life miserable for the Englishmen and that too without the services of the wily Murali.

So, batting first after winning the toss becomes a better option, for the spinners have to operate on a wicket which plays at it’s best at the start. However, the wicket at Bristol played at its best throughout.

The people got their money’s worth with the bat dominating the ball most of the time. For India, it was a crucial game in the sense that winning is always important no matter the importance of the match.

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By coming in at No. 4, Tendulkar more or less confirmed that he is prepared to stay at the wicket. More importantly likes to control the innings at that position. On a number of occasions in the past, India lost the match between the 25th and 50th over.

He played yet another crucial innings. He dominated the limited Lankan attack and from the team’s point of view, batted till the end.

It must be a lesson in improvisation for Yuvraj and Kaif while batting with him at the other end. The greatness of Tendulkar is that he is not only amazingly consistent but improvises and changes gear once he is set.

Unfortunately, the young Lankan batsmen, it seems, do not want to learn from the great Indian.

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They started off well but got out without really putting in some effort to hang around. Lanka showed poor attitude.

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