Atapattu's glory as Sri Lanka win at last

Colombo (Sri Lanka) - Sri Lanka's self-imposed lengthy period of mourning ended happily at the R Premadasa Stadium last night as they emerged from the gloom of their World Cup nightmare with an impressive seven wickets victory over India.

Marvan Atapattu, not normally recognised as the rock on which limited-overs success is based, helped erase the humiliation of Taunton almost three months ago when he scored a match-winning innings of 71 to help steer Sri Lanka home with 20 balls remaining of this third game in the Aiwa Cup series. In all ways it was quite a remarkable performance. After Sanath Jayasuriya led the charge with a touch of his old flair and flamboyance and his first LOI half-century in seven months, Atapattu took over to help engineer the sort of platform needed to build a bridge leading to a particularly singular triumph on a warm, humid evening laced with a heady aroma of cinnamon and roses.

Atapattu's man of the match award was a deserving prize as Sri Lanka reached the required 206 to help lift the team's morale and force India to rethink their strategy for the remaining games. At least Sri Lanka's success has switched the emphasis back to the host nation as the likely opponents to meet Australia in the final next week.

Pushing Atapattu up the order to open is not an entirely new ploy but if Sri Lanka aim to make some sort of challenge to reach the series final there was a need to start the innings with batsmen who are at least experienced enough to give the Indian bowlers a little more to think about. And changing the game plan often works for the batting side, forcing the opposition to think twice about their bowling strategies.

Facing India's moderate score of 205 for eight Sri Lanka's switch in batting tactics paid off as Jayasuriya and Atapattu set about the Indian bowling with disciplined strokeplay and well-organised running between the wickets. And it was good to watch the master blaster take the attack to the Indian bowlers. An innings of 61 off 62 balls is a typical response from the new Lankan captain who revelled in the conditions. Eight fours were the sort of lift off he has needed to set part of the record straight. Once he departed at 83 for one it was left to Atapattu to take over the anchor role with his 50 off only 50 balls far from dropping anchor: it was not a slap dash effort either as he nursed the innings to its conclusion with Avishka Gunawardena and Mahela Jayawardena as his first two partners. When Indika de Saram, who ended with a solid 34 not out, joined Atapattu at 148 for three all it needed was for calm and organised strokeplay to bring the side the victory they wanted.

Then again, India were also far from being in control of their destiny and with four run outs in their innings, the smart Lankan ground fielding showed up another problem area in the visitors camp: someone switched off the communication channel. Not at all the smart thing to do which even Tendulkar would have to agree.

Saurav Ganguly, who had tried to run out his captain when the skipper beat a direct throw from Upal Chandana, became a victim of Chaminda Vaas' accuracy from mid-off and Tendulkar was uncertain whether to press the green or red button when partnered by the normally well-organised Rahul Dravid.

As it is Tendulkar had survived a dropped chance in the slips by Jayasuriya when on 24, and with one run out blemish already in the scorebook it was a culpable act to have his innings end with Muthia Muralitharan's well-judged return to Romesh Kaluwitharana. Jadeja, wearing a hat which looked to have come from the same batch as that worn by former dour England captain, J W H T (labelled by the Aussies as Johnny Won't Hit Today) Douglas, when in Australia in the early years of the century, at least did his bit by working the ball around the inner ring. It was also the sort of motheaten relic which suggests a quick whip around those in the expensive seats to buy him a new hat.

Sartorial inelegance or not, at least he had the scoreboard ticking over with clever rotation of the strike until he gave it all away which a top-edge from a sweep undid his plans to post India's first half century of the series.

There is no doubt Tendulkar is far from impressed with the total India managed after they had reached 159 for three in the 33rd over. Only once the partnership of 62 between Jadeja and Amay Khurasiya was terminated, the innings went into such rapid decline there was a thought, just a thought tough, the game might be over early. Five wickets fell for 27 runs and as two were run outs, the communication problem arose a second time.

But the run outs and the lack of urgency in the field added to India's woes and it needs to be sorted out if they to make some sort of come back in this series.