By Kartik Kannan

India finally won a bilateral series in Sri Lanka, and largely the credit goes to some great efforts against the tide by the young brigade. India has been an enigmatic side and particularly in the familiar territory of Sri Lanka, they’ve been caught napping far too often. India had toured the island nation thrice before but had been outdone by the Lankans in two of the three outings. The 85 series saw India and Sri Lanka claim even honours at 1-1 , the 93 series saw India again go down 1-2, playing against 11 Lankan cricketers and 2 umpires and the 97 series saw India being thumped 0-3. It doesn’t make great reading when one wants to peep into the past. Here’s why

The early 80’s were reportedly India’s days in the sun. They had won the world cup in 83, the WCC in 85, and were in roaring form, but bad umpiring, black magic from Percy Abhayasekara(A die hard Lankan supporter) and rain saved the Lankans from a series defeat. A high scoring series in the emerald isles were quite anachronistic of the times but both the sides revelled in some close finishes, but at the end, honours were even.

Sri Lanka were the babes of cricket in the early 90’s but somehow became tigers whenever matches were played at home. Sri Lanka used to undergo a rapid transformation while playing at home, and many teams found Sri Lanka a jinxed place to win matches, and in the last 18 years, Sri Lanka has lost only 4 bi lateral series, against Australia,India, England and Pakistan. Coming back to the 93 series, India started off rather pensively against the Lankans, with a sedate 212/8 in 50 overs, largely built on the back of Mohammed Azharuddin’s 53. Sri Lanka lost their last eight wickets for 50 runs to bow by a single run defeat to India in the first of three one-day internationals. Sri Lanka, needing five runs to win from the last over were bowled out for 211 with Chauhan and Prabhakar running through the Lankans, just when Hathurasinghe,64 and De Silva,62 were making light work of the Indians.

The next match in the 93 series saw India chasing defeat from the jaws of victory and in cricketing chronicles this match in Indian history would be termed the “Khettarama Debacle”. After a great base built by Manoj Prabhakar, who scored 86 in a losing cause, chasing a modest 204, India folded its last 7 wickets for 21 runs to be bowled out for 196. The last game at Moratuwa had the Lankans chase 227 with consummate ease, even though India felt undone by some bad umpiring errors. The local Lankan umpires in those days were quite infamous for some bad umpiring decisions that went against touring sides, and India seemed to have had their last hopes being crashed after a mini collapse triggered by Roshan Mahanama’s fall after a valiant 92.

One factor that went for Sri Lanka was the fact that they had bowlers who could just take the pace off the wicket and bowl a nagging stump-to-stump line. Wickramasinghe ,Ramanayake and Jayasuriya did just enough to keep the Indian run scoring at bay. The Indian batting, apart from Prabhakar and Azhar did very little to justify their talent during testing conditions.

The 97 series, India came to the island nation largely as the underdogs with the Lankans on a huge winning spree following the 96 World Cup Victory. India did their reputation no harm, as they lost the series in an abysmal fashion 0-3 to the Lankans, but they didn’t go down without a fight. The first one day international saw the Lankans beat India by 2 runs, in a closely fought high scoring encounter with Azhar and Jadeja scoring centuries in a losing cause.

The second one day international saw Saurav Ganguly score his 1st one day hundred, but the final total of 238 was hardly going to be challenging against the rampaging Lankans, and the Lankan top order just showed India why they were the reigning world champions. The third one day international nearly saw India suprising the Lankans with an inspired single handed performance by Robin Singh with the bat and ball. Robin Singh’s blistering hundred at number 3, with help from Dravid (78), saw India muster a commanding 291. The Lankan batting started in savage fashion with Sanath Jayasuriya smashing 68 off 38 balls, but his fall hastened a quick Lankan collapse with Sri Lanka on 132-6 in 19 overs. One more full over and India may have well won the rain marred contest, but the rain gods saved Sri Lanka the blushes.

The 3rd one dayer was replayed and India’s good fortunes on the tour vanished as the sun came out the next day. Sri Lanka largely aided by the twin De Silva blitzes of a century and a half century, amassed 264, which was 9 runs too much for India. India had great individual performances going into the tour with the emergence of players like Saurav Ganguly,Robin Singh,Dravid and Abey Kuruvilla, but it was just that the performances came in different matches, and India never found the ammunition to attack when it mattered.

The 2008 series solved the puzzle that India were trying to desperately solve. Sri Lanka was no more a labyrinthine fort to conquer and the pieces started to gel in place for India with youngsters rising to the fore when it mattered. Dhoni and Raina walked the talk with some inspiring ways to tackle Mendis and Murali, and that was the single most important jolt that the Lankans could never recover from. Over the years in these bilateral series, India have managed to solve the jigsaw puzzle with smaller efforts directed at an Indian win, rather than different individual honours. That has been the most important factor causing a change in the way India has gone about playing cricket in the island nation.