Asia Cup – Final Update

There is something seriously wrong between India and Sri Lanka in the finals. The luck always seems to go the Sri Lankan way on such occassions. I have seen enough of such lopsided India-Sri Lanka finals at the Premadasa. For a change, the venue was the National Stadium in Karachi.

A team, packed with 7 batsmen, should have easily overhauled a measly target of 274 on a batsman-friendly pitch. Considering that India have scored nothing short of 300 in the whole series (with different people coming to the party in different matches), India should have coasted home, and won the trophy.

But the final jinx that has haunted India on 19 of 22 occasions in the last few years came back to haunt them. This time, in the form of the old foe Sanath and the new sensation Mendis.

As it has been the case in the past, Sanath Jayasuriya came to the party in the finals, and against India. When India were just a wicket away from blowing apart the SriLankan batting line-up for a nothing score, Sanath switched to top gear and was ably assisted by Dilshan. India could never recover from this onslaught, and conceded probably a hundred more runs than what they should have restricted the Lankans to.

Sanath was in a poor form coming into the tournament. His last few ODI performances have not been any great. He did not have a great IPL either, barring the odd hundred and a quick forty. People finally started saying that age had got the better of him.

And he announced himself with a timely century in the finals to take their team to their fifth Asia cup title.

But that comes as no excuse to the insipid batting display by the Indian batsmen.

Sehwag went belligerent scoring sixty from six overs. India were 86 for 1 from nine overs. Sehwag had Jayawardena scratching his head and Raina played well with Sehwag in a partnership, that assured that an Indian victory was on the cards.

Then Jayawardena brought in Mendis. And there was no looking back.

Sehwag perished by coming down the wicket even before he read Mendis. The biggest mistake Dhoni committed was sending Yuvraj after Sewag’s fall with Mendis operating. Yuvraj, who has still not ironed out his weakness of starting poorly against Spin bowling even after scoring 6,000 odd runs, tried to read Mendis off the pitch and lost his stumps. Raina played an ugly pull shot and had his stumps pegged back.

Rohit Sharma looked uncomfortable. Uthappa, the 7th batsman in the team, could hardly get the ball away before Muralitharan got the better of him. Dhoni promised to wither the storm, but ran out of partners. Irfan Pathan made a well crafted 70, with the ball. With the bat, all he could manage was a paltry 3 runs.

There isn’t much to read into India’s loss though. They lost Tendulkar’s experience who won them the CB series in Australia. They have a Yuvraj Singh, who, after so many years in the International circuit, still looks as fragile as he was against Spin bowling. They have people like Uthappa and Rohit, who lack the consistency that Gambhir and Raina have managed to display in the tournament.

It was their bowling that cost them the series though. A fifth bowler can cover up if one of the four regular bowlers has an off day. When playing just four regular bowlers, 3 of them cannot afford to have a bad day, that too not in every match. Just when i praised the fast bowling riches India has off late, they have disappointed me in conditions where there was little or no help for them.

If only their third regular bowler picked up Sanath or Dilshan at the right instant, the match would have been a no-contest.

The requirement for a Sachin or a Dravid in the Indian middle order looks more obvious now than ever. It is all fine when your youngsters are firing and India keeps winning matches. Its only when they are put to acid test, they display their true colours. And it is only when they fail, India needs to look for experience.

I still would pray that the tournament loss is only a minor blemish and not a syndrome like we have seen with Indian youngsters in the past.

If it is a syndrome, then India are all set to compete with South Africa for the “chokers” tag.