They don’t burn effigies of fallen heroes in the Emerald Isle. Not yet that is. But they may have come close to it as Sri Lanka collapsed at Nagpur. Mahela Jayawardene’s curious shot during the middle of a horrendous batting implosion stunned a sizeable crowd on Galle Road. They were standing outside a shop that was screening the opening game of the long awaited series and grumbling angrily over the clatter of wickets. As the blue-gold lions subsided, toothless and with barely a defiant roar, they didn’t make a pretty sight. Colourful sights of the Indian Tricolour exhibited by exuberant fans were not what was expected. The Nagpur defeat is going to rest heavily as well on the Sri Lanka brains trust in India. If you take a clinical look at the way India went about the decimation act, it was impressive. Tendulkar, relaxed and smiling, ripping into the Lankan bowling that honestly had no way of defending itself against such an onslaught, was impressive enough. How do you curb such tactics? Certainly not by extending the powerplay option. This is where Atapattu made a calculated error. Dravid was quick to spot how to shut down the Sri Lanka run-rate when he brought on the spinners, Harbhajan and Murali Kartik. That was smart thinking all right. Atapattu persisted with the medium-fast bowlers for far too long. It was asking for trouble as well, and waiting, it seemed, for the batsmen to lose patience. Sachin knows how to set targets, so does Dravid. But instead of shutting down Pathan, runs were fed to him. Sri Lanka’s own experiment of using Maharoof as a new-ball bowler did not work the way it did in Dambulla earlier in the year when he swung the ball around in the damp night air. Nagpur is different. There was also frustration in the attack. Atapattu did what he could to switch the changes. Lanka’s bit’s and pieces folly was seriously exposed by the Indian tactics. In the last five overs of the powerplay, there was an acceleration of the runrate to around 7.3. To suggest, though, that there was no gameplan in the Sri Lankan strategy would be harsh indeed. Atapattu is a thoughtful captain, but when bowlers fail to bowl to set fields, you have serious problems. Line and length was a serious problem area that will need to be worked on. Also, the strategy of whom to select as the super sub option will have to be revisited along with the need to prevent bowlers going for 11 or 12 runs an over. It’s a tough world out there, and Sri Lanka have tasted the Indian payback. Mohali looms as another crash course in trial and error, and somehow there is a niggling thought that the ride could get a lot tougher before lessons are absorbed.
