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Classy Sri Lanka decimate India to lift Asia Cup

Colombo, July 26: One-day masters Sri Lanka snatched the Asia Cup from India's grasp with an awesome eight-wicket demoli- tion of Sachin Tendulkar's men in the final here on Saturday. In one of the most scintillating displays of limited-overs cricket in recent times, the Sri Lankans outplayed the dazed In- dians be- fore a full house of 32,000 home fans at the Premadasa stadium. The World Cup champions picked up six breathtaking catches to restrict the Indians to 239 for seven after Tendulkar had won the toss and elected to take first strike on a slow wicket.

The Sri Lankans, fired by a first wicket stand of 137 off 18 overs between openers Sanath Jayasuriya and Mar- van Atapattu, overhauled the score in just the 37th over. The pair hammered 49 runs in the first four overs and 98 by the 10th with a flurry of boundaries off the Indian attack com- prising just three frontline bowlers. Jayasuriya cracked seven bound- aries and two sixes in a blazing 63 off 52 balls before falling to debutant left-arm spinner Nilesh Kulkarni. Man of the match Atapattu made 84 not out, following his knocks of 80 versus Pakistan, 31 against India and 60 against Bangladesh in the preliminary league.

Aravinda De Silva once again went cheap- ly for six, but skipper Arjuna Ranatunga contributed an unbeaten 62 off 67 balls in an unbroken third wicket stand of 96 with Atapattu. It was Sri Lanka's second Asia Cup title since 1986, giving them the winner's purse of 30,000 dollars and a 6-1 record over India in their last seven meetings. Ranatunga's men have now won five of the six one-day tourna- ments played in the Indian sub-continent over the last two seasons. The lone title to elude them was the Singer Cup at Singapore in April, 1996 which Pakistan won. ``We were outplayed,'' Tendulkar admit- ted. ``We fell at least 40 runs short but the Sri Lankan catching was out of this world. ``The way Jayasuriya and Atapattu batted even that would not have been enough. Maybe you need to score 1,000 runs against them.'' Ranatunga said his team's strict training regimen had paid off. ``It looked good because we have worked very hard for it. This was a great game for us.'' The In- dians, who had won the title in all their four previous appear- ances in the tournament, were dazzled by the brilliant Sri Lankan catching. The best was Muttiah Murlitharan's effort on the long-on fence when he grabbed Mohammad Azharuddin's shot that appeared to be sailing for a six by flinging himself near the boundary ropes.

Murlitharan had earlier dived to remove Navjot Sidhu at mid- off, Aravinda De Silva took two low catches and the acrobatic Roshan Mahanama held a one-handed beauty at short mid-wicket. India's score revolved around a 109-run fourth wicket stand between Ten- dulkar and Azharuddin after three top order batsmen were gone by the 18th over with the score at 59. Azharuddin gave a stinging reply to the selectors who had axed him for the Independence Cup at home in May with a strokeful 81, the same score he made in the league match against Sri Lanka last week. Tendulkar contributed 53 after coming in at number four in- stead of opening the innings. But his decision to drop down the order proved futile as Sidhu and Saurav Ganguly failed to provide a sound start. Sidhu, batting for the first time in the tournament, looked woefully out of touch as he scratched around for 30 balls to score 10. Rahul Dravid fell for seven and Ganguly made 34 before Azharuddin and Ten- dulkar dug in to prevent a total collapse. The Indians stay on in Colombo for a short tour which includes two Tests and three one-day internationals.