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| Saturday, 08 January 2005 |
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A successful year sans the tragedy Sri Lanka cricket can reflect back on the year 2004 as one of success if they can put behind the tragic events of Boxing Day which forced their tour of New Zealand to be aborted after just one one-day international. Under the leadership of Marvan Atapattu and guidance of coach John Dyson they have grown in stature to become no. 2 in the ICC one-day rankings (winning 20 out of 28 matches) and no. 5 in Tests (winning 4 out of 11 with 5 losses). Atapattu's aim is to make his team no. 1 by the 2007 World Cup in the Caribbean. The ways the players have responded under his captaincy achieving that goal is not impossible. The year somewhat started disastrously for Sri Lanka when they were beaten 3-0 by Ricky Ponting's Australians to suffer their first whitewash at home. Amazingly, Sri Lanka led Australia on the first innings in all three Tests, but Ponting's men showed why they are no. 1 in the world when with great resolve and spirit they were able to turn the Tests around in their favour. The series was followed with keen interest here and around the world as it brought together two of the world's greatest spinners in the history of the game - Sri Lanka's Muttiah Muralitharan and Australian Shane Warne. Their personal duels to get to the 500-wicket mark enlivened the series. Warne beat his Asian counterpart to the goal achieving it at Galle. Muralitharan however followed him at his home town in Kandy. The series also brought to an end the brief reign of Hashan Tillakaratne as Sri Lanka's Test captain. Tillakaratne found for himself that it was not an easy crown to wear with Atapattu (then one-day captain) breathing down his neck. Although he was a determined player, Tillakaratne lacked the flair and enterprise to succeed as captain. He turned out to be an insecure and uninspiring leader. Atapattu's wait for the Test captaincy was long overdue and he was appointed for the tour to Zimbabwe. With Mahela Jayawardene as his deputy the team jelled well enough to outplay a weak Zimbabwe side (minus their stars over a row with their Cricket Board). It provided a perfect platform for Atapattu to assert himself as captain. Sri Lanka made a clean sweep of the two Tests and the five one-day internationals making heavy weather of Zimbabwe's inexperience. The joy of Muralitharan breaking West Indian Courtney Walsh's world record of 519 Test wickets at Harare was somewhat overclouded by match referee Chris Broad reporting his 'doosra' to the ICC on the final day of the Australian series. Nevertheless a record is a record and Muralitharan and his team mates celebrated it with great joy. However the ICC banned the 'doosra' until such time it had carried out its own investigations. Upset by this controversy and angered by the comments made by Australian Prime Minister John Howard who labelled him a chucker, Muralitharan opted out of the two-Test tour of Australia. On a seamer friendly pitch at Darwin, Australia got the better of Sri Lanka, but at Cairns, Sri Lanka helped by some fiery bowling from rookie pace bowler Lasith Malinga whose square arm action caused a sensation and the little-used leg-spin of Upul Chandana (who seized the opportunity to bag ten wickets), they managed to draw the Test. The match turned out to be a turning point for the team during the year. Back home Sri Lanka went straight into the Asia Cup and with Muralitharan back in the firing line supported by Vaas, Zoysa and Chandana, they were able to lift the Asia Cup for the third time in as many occasions it has been hosted here. Jayasuriya under pressure to perform bounced back in style with back to back centuries. India was the pre-tournament favourites but they struggled to come to terms with the slow pitches following a layoff and Pakistan promised a lot for so little. Sri Lanka continued their successful run against Graeme Smith's South Africans. Following a drawn Test at Galle, they finally nailed South Africa at the SSC without Muralitharan who was forced to pull out of the Test due to a shoulder injury that was later to keep him out of international cricket for the rest of the year. It was seldom that Sri Lanka had won a Test without Muralitharan, but on this occasion they rose magnificently as a team to secure their first series win over the Proteas. They retained the momentum by humiliating South Africa further with a clean sweep of the five-match one day series. There was a great deal of anticipation in the ICC Champions trophy tournament in England, but after overcoming Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka ran into the broad blade of Andrew Flintoff who made maximum use of a dropped chance by the team's best slip fielder Mahela Jayawardene to score a century and make an early exit for Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka bounced back two months later by beating hosts Pakistan to win the PakTel Cup and then followed it up with a drawn Test series (1-all) against Pakistan. Jayasuriya dominated the series with centuries in each of the Tests and after a long lapse topped 1000 Test runs in a calendar year (1130 runs at 56.5). He was joined by Kumar Sangakkara (1114 runs at 55.7). Both Atapattu (966 runs at 48.3) and Jayawardene (861 runs at 45.3) narrowly missed out on their 1000 runs. Sangakkara in particular had a wonderful year topping 1000 runs (1010 runs at 53.1) in the abbreviated version of the game as well. |
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