Atapattu laments on missed opportunities as Lanka lose Test and series

by Sa'adi Thawfeeq from India

AHMEDABAD, Thursday - The fifth and final day's play eventually became a formality as Sri Lanka's last four wickets hardly put up any resistance folding up tamely within a matter of 30 minutes to hand out India a convincing 259-run victory in the third and final Test and with it a 2-0 win of the three-Test series at the Sardar Patel Gujarat Stadium in Motera here today.

The rain-affected first Test at Chennai ended in a draw and India won at Delhi by 188 runs.

The spectators had hardly settled down in their seats when Sri Lanka resuming at 236-6 was dismissed for 249 in their second innings, chasing a massive target of 509.

The damage was done by the Indian spinning duo of Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh who continued their path of destruction of the Sri Lankan batting by claiming 17 wickets in the match.

Kumble, the destroyer of Sri Lanka at Delhi picked up his 31st five-wicket haul finishing with figures of five for 89 to take the man-of-the-series award with a bagful of 20 wickets. Harbhajan who ran through the batting in the first innings with seven wickets took a further three for a match haul of ten wickets for 141 and the man-of-the-match award.

The failure of Sri Lanka's batsmen to negotiate these two master trundlers of the ball and the success of the Indian batsmen against the Lankan spinners made the difference between the two sides.

Sri Lanka captain Marvan Atapattu put down the reasons for the defeat to his team failing to capitalize on the chances given to them by India. "We had them in a spot of bother both here and at Delhi. But we really didn't capitalize on it," said Atapattu.

"But I don't want to take anything away from India's lower order batsmen and for the manner in which they played Murali, especially." Atapattu said that lack of concentration on the part of his batsmen led to them losing vital wickets towards the end of each session of play.

"The Indian spinners got a bit more bounce than our two spinners. That's the major difference I saw. They also exploited the wickets. India was lucky to win the two tosses and get the best conditions for their spinners," said Atapattu.

Sri Lanka missed Sanath says Sehwag

India's acting captain Virender Sehwag said his team came up with a plan to tackle the spin of Muralitharan successfully. "Our plan was to play positive against him because if you play positive he opens the field. That's why he didn't get many wickets," said Sehwag.

In comparison to the two Indian spinners Anil Kumble and Harbajan Singh who together took 34 wickets between them, Muralitharan's share was 16 wickets with leg-spinner Malinga Bandara chipping in with nine. Sehwag also stated his spinners benefited greatly from bowling with the SG ball than the Kookaburra which is often used in other Test playing countries.

"The SG ball starts to reverse swing after ten overs. It is good for our spinners because it has a good seam. Harbhajan and Kumble got more bounce with the SG ball than the Kookaburra, which does not have the seam standing out and swings till about the 25th over," said Sehwag.

Asked to what extent Sanath Jayasuriya's absence helped India, Sehwag said: "Sri Lanka missed Jayasuriya very much. He is a great batsman. Especially against India he has got runs in Test and one-day matches. It was good for us he wasn't there.

"Captaining India for the first time in a Test, Sehwag described it as a 'great experience'. "It was a great honour for me to lead the side. I didn't play in the Delhi game and it was very tough for me to take over the captaincy. My job was made easy because all the senior players supported me. I relaxed after the first day," he said.

Sehwag described India's upswing of fortunes in international cricket due to the work ethics they are going through. "We had a bad year last year. We are now recovering very well. The boys are enjoying the game very much and they are working hard on their cricket. All of them want to win. The winning habit is important for us," he said.

INDIA 1ST INNINGS 398
SRI LANKA 1ST INNINGS 206  
INDIA 2ND INNINGS 316-9 decl.  
SRI LANKA 2ND INNINGS
(overnight 235-6)  

W.U. Tharanga c Ghambir b Kumble	47
M.S. Atapattu c Kaif b Harbhajan		16
K.C. Sangakkara lbw b Kumble		17
D.P. M. Jayawardene c and b Agarkar	57
T.T. Samaraweera c Kaif b Kumble	 5
T.M. Dilshan c  Dhoni b Pathan		65
J.   Mubarak c Laxman b Harbhajan	18
M.F. Maharoof lbw b Kumble		2
C.M. Bandara c Sehwag b Kumble		11
M.   Muralitharan b Harbhajan		3
S.L. Malinga not out			0
Extras (b-1, nb-7)			8

TOTAL (all out, 92.3 overs, 360 mins)	249

FALL OF WICKETS: 1-39 (Atapattu), 2-84 (Sangakkara), 3-89 (Tharanga), 4-96 (Samaraweera), 
	5-201 (Jayawardene), 6-229 (Dilshan), 7-235 (Maharoof), 8-235 (Mubarak), 
	9-245 (Muralitharan), 10-249 (Bandara).

Bowling: Pathan 9-1-31-1, Harbhajan 31-7-79-3, Agarkar 11-3-18-1, Kumble 34.3-9-89-5 (3nb), 
	Sehwag 3-0-18-0 (4nb), Tendulkar 4-0-13-0.   

Result: India won by 259 runs and win series 2-0.

Man of the Match: Harbhajan  Singh

Man of the Series: Anil Kumble.