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India err on the toss and lose again
Sa'adi Thawfeeq

India were left to rue over their decision to bat first in the Pepsi Asia Cup final which they lost convincingly by eight wickets to world champions Sri Lanka at the R. Premadasa Stadium on Saturday.

Indian captain Sachin Tendulkar's reason for taking such a costly decision did not go well with the Indian press contingent who felt that he has still to learn from past mistakes.

``We decided to bat first because the wicket looked dry. We thought it would break in the afternoon, and Sri Lanka had four spin- ners,'' said Tendulkar at a post-final press confer- ence.

If Tendulkar's argument holds good, the question asked is why did India not go into the final with an additional spinner. In- dia played an additional batsmen instead, and went into the fi- nal with only three front-line bowlers (Prasad, Kumble and Kulka- rni), which was to a point suicidal, considering the batting strength of Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka's powerful batting line-up made a mockery out of the Indian bowling, knocking the target of 240 runs with 13 overs and eight wickets to spare.

The decision to bat first was not entirely Tendulkar's but a collective one by the team management, but as usual it is the cap- tain who gets the flak.

India's decision to bat first is similar to the one their for- mer captain Mohammad Azharuddin took during the 1996 World Cup semi-final against Sri Lanka at Calcutta.

On that occasion, Azharuddin went against advice given by the curator and gave Sri Lanka first preference of the pitch be- cause he believed they were good chasers batting second, and paid the penalty, when the wicket started to break up when India batted, and they lost the tie.

Azharuddin was criticised wholesale for the move, and now his successor finds himself in a somewhat similar situation.

``I think we felt comfortable when India went into the match with an extra batsman and only three front-line bowlers,'' said Sri Lanka's victorious captain Arjuna Ranatunga.

``We were happy when India won the toss and decided to bat first because we were thinking of fielding first,'' said Ranatunga.

``It is not that we are not capable of setting up big totals, but in a final I would prefer to chase,'' he said.

Ranatunga praised his team for helping him break the strangle- hold India had on the Asia Cup since 1988.

``We played pretty well right throughout the tournament. Our fielding was brilliant today (Saturday) I thought. We stopped about 30 to 40 runs with our fielding,'' said Ranatunga.

``We batted well and our bowlers did a fairly good job to keep a team down to a total of under 240, especially on a good track. But it was mainly the fielding plus good planned bowling that helped,'' he said.

``It makes my job as captain easy when you have a side like this where each and every player contributes from the top to the bottom, from the management to the reserves,'' said Ranatunga, who has now cap- tained Sri Lanka to four one-day titles out of seven since winning the World Cup in March last year.

Sri Lanka's impressive record started with success in the Singer World Series at home last year. It was followed by three wins this year Singer Akai Cup in Sharjah, Independence Cup in India and the Pepsi Asia Cup at home. The only three occasions they lost out were at Singapore in the Singer Cup when Pak- istan won the final, and in Sharjah and Kenya, where they failed to qualify for the final by a mere one run in both instances.

Ranatunga was picked the US$ 5,000 'Man of the Series' by International Cricket Council (ICC) match referee John Reid, who re- ferred to him as 'Captain Cool'.

The 33-year-old left-hander who is the most experienced international cricketer playing today having begun his career at the age of 18 in 1982, hit an undefeated 62 in the final to carry his aggregate in the tournament to 272 runs and an average of 136, with one century and two fifties in four matches.

``I am not a person who thinks of individual gains. Winning tournaments and trophies for the country is most important,'' said Ranatunga when asked to comment about the award.

It was total annihilation from the first ball
By Elmo Rodrigopulle

Total annihilation: That is how best India's defeat by Sri Lanka in the Pepsi Asia Cup final could be described.

On Saturday in front of a wildly cheering, band playing, singing, dancing but well-behaved crowd of over 40 thousand and mil- lions of TV viewers here and abroad, the Sri Lankan crick- eters gave a fabulous exhibition of how one-day cricket should be played as they rubbed the Indians, four-times winners of the cup in to the ground, in registering an eight-wicket victo- ry with over ten overs re- maining to be bowled.

Last year the Lankan cricketers conquered cricket's Mount Everest by grabbing the World Cup. On Sunday they pocketed Asia's crick- eting showpiece and now they are the proud rulers of Asia and World Cricket.

Recently the Lankans had been on a roll. They extended this with a dazzling display in all departments of the game that not only had the Indians in a daze but at times looking shell- shocked.

Led by Generalissimo Arjuna Ranatunga it was JAYASIKURUI (vic- tory is certain) from the first ball to the last.

As we said in our 'COMMENT' on Saturday, the skipper winning the toss would want to field. Tendulkar won the toss and it was a sur- prise when he elected to bat on a wicket that was moist and an outfield that was slow after the rains.

But then one can't blame Tendulkar. It would have been the team's consensus to bat first. When Tendulkar said he was bat- ting, Ranatunga would have thought he was hearing him wrong. Wasn't Ranatunga delighted to field!

When the Indians batted other than for the deeds of Tendulkar and Azharuddin, the least said about the others the better. But although these two experienced men scored half centuries, they were huffing and puffing to find the boundary. All they could do was to push the singles and that Ranatunga did not mind.

In this whole game what is worth talking about is the magnifi- cent display of the Lankans. On the field they gave an exhibi- tion of catching, that probably would not have been seen or will be seen at this level of cricket for a long time.

We said that the Lankans must bowl wicket to wicket and grab the half chances. But the catches that Mahanama, Muralitheran, Aravinda de Silva and Kalpage got were not half chances. They were only one hundredth of a chance. But these fielders ran and dived to make them into catches. What a catching display that was. We have shown to the world and proved the adage that 'catches win matches'.

The 239 scored by the Indians was quite a formidable score. But the way the openers Sanath Jayasuriya and Marvan Atapattu set about the task, as Tendulkar said even 1000 runs would not have been enough.

If the fielders were excellent, then the openers and Ranatunga were brilliant.

The pace Jayasuriya and Atapattu set was too hot for the Indi- ans. What batting and what clean hitting it was. Runs were coming at such a fast pace that people were wondering whether the game will end in about 20 overs.

The openers showed how and what to do with the first 15 overs. It was during these overs that the Indians were in no man's land. Bowlers Prasad, Singh, Ganguly, Kumble and Kulkarni would have been wondering whether Jayasuriya and Atapattu were larger than life.

Once Jayasuriya, the Matara dasher and Aravinda de Silva went, in walked the man for all seasons skipper Arjuna Ranatunga. Well supported by Atapattu, Ranatunga sailed into the Indian attack with glee and the fours and sixes he hit were kicks up the back- sides of his critics who were trying to chop him saying he was too fat, too slow and that it was time he called it a day.

We said that we would like to see Ranatunga hugging the cup at the end and he obliged us. Thank you for making us all proud Ranatun- ga!

The Sri Lankan cricketers with this win have got the world talking. Who said that they did not deserve the highest nation- al hon- ours bestowed on them by President Chandrika Ban- daranaike Ku- maratunga on the recommendation of Sports Minister S. B. Dissanayake?

The cricketers deserve much more!

When Ranatunga held aloft the trophy, the bands around the ground and all the spectators broke into that moving refrain 'He's a jol- ly good fellow' and what rejoicing it was!

That Sri Lankan cricketing exhibition is what memories are made of.

It was we who tagged Arjuna Ranatunga CAPTAIN COOL. It was in- deed pleasing to hear Match Referee John Reid call Ranatunga thus before handing over the Man-of-the-Series trophy to him.

The first congratulatory message to flash on TV immediately after Sri Lanka won the Asia Cup was from Singer, sponsors of the Sri Lanka cricket team.