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| Saturday, 28 August 2004 |
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Sri Lanka on a roll Sri Lanka never had it so good not since the heady days of the World Cup victory eight years ago when under Arjuna Ranatunga they were a side to be reckoned with in world cricket. What Marvan Atapattu, who is related to the former captain is doing with the national team is something similar. But Atapattu's leadership qualities take the cake because he is winning matches for Sri Lanka without the champion bowler Muttiah Muralitharan. Both his predecessors Ranatunga and Sanath Jayasuriya made maximum use of Muralitharan's extraordinary bowling skills to convert them into victories. Jayasuriya in fact has the best record amongst the Sri Lankan captains although he doesn't rank as one with tact and flair as Ranatunga. Under Jayasuriya, Sri Lanka won 18 out of 38 Tests (12 losses, 8 draws) and had 66 wins out of 118 one-day internationals (47 losses, 2 ties, 3 no-results). Ranatunga's record was 12 wins from 56 Tests (19 losses, 25 draws) and 89 wins from 193 one-day internationals as captain (95 losses, 1 tie, 8 no-results). Ranatunga is best remembered because he won the only World Cup for Sri Lanka in 1996. He was a very dominant personality and it reflected in his leadership. The greed to share the rich pickings the team suddenly found itself after winning the World Cup led to his downfall as captain when Sri Lanka were bundled out of the 1999 tournament in England with just two wins (over low rated Zimbabwe and Kenya) out of five matches. Many thought he should have called it quits at the height of his powers in 1996 just as Pakistan's Imran Khan did after winning the World Cup for his country in 1992. Jayasuriya was a more affable personality easily approachable, but lacking the ruthlessness of Ranatunga. With Dav Whatmore back for a second term as coach Jayasuriya had someone to lean on. He was more or less a captain with a lot of luck and he rode it to the maximum. Sri Lanka wasted one whole year by giving the captaincy to Hashan Tillakaratne who neither possessed any of these skills as captain. His captaincy was more on the defensive side as much as his approach to his batting. He hardly gambled on winning matches but took the safest route by making sure his team did not lose. That way Sri Lanka lost many opportunities of winning matches. The Test series against England at home last year was a clear example where Sri Lanka's 1-0 victory could have easily been a clean 3-0 sweep. Tillakaratne's short reign as captain produced a solitary victory against four losses and five draws in 10 Tests. Belated elevation Atapattu's belated elevation to the Test captaincy came soon after Sri Lanka had been whitewashed 0-3 at home by Ricky Ponting's Australians. Although the final series tally indicated total dominance by Australia, the actual truth was it was far from it. There were many instances during the series that Sri Lanka had the Australians worried as to their fate in the three Tests. It was Australia's all-round brilliance and their tough mental strength to overcome difficult situations that saw them triumph. The return clash in Australia four months later saw Sri Lanka giving the world champions much stiffer competition. They dismissed the home country for totals of 207 and 201 at Darwin and not many teams in the world are capable of running through that batting line up twice in one Test. Mind you this was achieved without Muralitharan who had decided to skip the tour. It was poor batting by Sri Lanka in the first innings that saw them lose the Test by 149 runs. Then at Cairns after Australia had piled up 517, Sri Lanka replied with 455 with Atapattu scoring his third hundred in four Tests as captain - he had begun his reign with centuries at Harare and Bulawayo against an understrength Zimbabwe side. Sri Lanka managed to hang onto a draw. These two series coming close to each other and against the best opposition lifted Sri Lanka's game a notch or two. With Atapattu's inspirational captaincy, Sri Lanka came straight from the Cairns Test into a totally different tournament - the Asia Cup where they beat all and sundry to win the tournament for the third time in its history. India after their wonderful performance in Australia began as favourites but as the tournament progressed it became quite evident that Sri Lanka was the team to beat. While the final was in progress the South Africans under Graeme Smith arrived for a Test and one-day series, which hardly gave the Sri Lankans any breathing space. South Africa managed to draw the first Test on a slow Galle pitch, but at the SSC they were brought down by a mixture of spin and seam that saw them concede a Test series to Sri Lanka for the first time. The SSC Test needless to say was won without Muralitharan who was forced out of it with a shoulder injury. With their chief wicket-taker out of the reckoning for five months until January next year, Sri Lanka had to rethink their battle plans to beat South Africa and how magnificently they have sized up the opposition and won. Let alone winning their maiden Test series over the Proteas they have also added their first-ever one-day series victory to that list by taking an unbeatable 3-0 lead in the five-match series. There's no doubt that Atapattu has the team well behind him and his match-winning captain's knock of 97 not out on a difficult Dambulla pitch on Wednesday will knit them together even closer. Sri Lanka currently stands ranked second only to Australia in the ICC one-day international championship table. What that means in betting parlance is that Australia and Sri Lanka will start the ICC Champions trophy in England next month as the favourites to play in the final. In Tests Sri Lanka are placed fifth. |
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