You'll Never Walk Alone, that most moving of all sporting anthems, has the lines, "At the end of the storm is a golden sky, and the sweet silver song of the lark." For Indian cricket followers, who heard sweet melodies in Kandy after coming through the squalls of Harare and Galle, those words are both encouraging and cautionary. Kandy has restored some pride but if Dav Whatmore's black-as-thunder visage was anything to go by, there will be no easy rhapsodies in Colombo. Make no mistake: this is a series the Sri Lankans thought they would win. With Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman keeping the orthopaedics busy, the Indian batting line-up was expected to be marshmallow soft. That was certainly the case at Galle and again in the first innings at Kandy. But, chasing 264 for an improbable victory in the second innings, those toasted marshmallows bit back. What's more, they bit hard. As they trooped off the field beaten and bowed, the Sri Lankans had the air of picnickers whose leisurely afternoon had been ruined by a colony of red ants.

The Sinhalese Sports Club Ground hosts the decider. On the surface, this largely raw Indian side still looks as outmatched as Custer's men at Little Bighorn. But unlike the Sioux who scalped their victims with minimal fuss, the Sri Lankans have problems to address. They haven't convinced with the bat for over a year now. The Galle cakewalk gave a distorted picture of their strength, because Sanath Jayasuriya's sparkling hundred was the only real difference between the two sides.

At Kandy, it was worse. But for some slipshod Indian bowling in the first innings, capitalised on by Mahela Jayawardene, they would have struggled to pass 200. The second innings was just as bad: only Muttiah Muralitharan's engaging little dart halted the Indian bowling charge.

The opposition has taken note. "Sri Lanka have chinks in their batting and we must exploit that," said Sourav Ganguly on the eve of the decider. "They tend to collapse under a bit of pressure."

The bowling, apart from Chaminda Vaas and Murali in patches, has been disappointing as well, and the Indians - there for the taking just a week ago - will go into the third Test high on adrenaline and confidence. If they need a further boost, they need only look back to the two one-day matches they played against Sri Lanka at the SSC a month ago. Both resulted in thumping Indian wins, and the true nature of the pitch played the batsmen into form.

Don't expect Sri Lanka to roll over and play dead though. A third-successive series loss at home would push Jayasuriya ever closer to the executioner's sword. Defeat at the hands of an Indian side missing both the world's best batsman (Tendulkar) and their most experienced spinner (Anil Kumble) would be regarded as a catastrophe.

There are certain to be changes made, with Michael Vandort - the opening bat - likely to come in for Suresh Perera. Hashan Tillekeratne's comeback from Test-match oblivion could prove short-lived as well, though calls for Aravinda de Silva's return are a perfect example of the panic button being pressed prematurely.

Ganguly, head off the chopping-block after his heroics at Kandy, will be allowing himself a glimmer of a smile. If a week is a long time in politics, it can be even longer in cricket. With little to lose and enhanced reputations to gain, his young side could pull off another coup at the SSC. There are unlikely to be changes made at India's favourite stomping-ground in Sri Lanka, though legspinner Sairaj Bahutule could come in for opening bowler Harvinder Singh if the surface looks like being Murali-friendly.

Should India lose, some of the I-told-you-so brigade might crawl out of the woodwork. But most will focus instead on the encouraging display at Kandy, a Test in which 11 men finally emerged from the shadow of a living legend. Even without Tendulkar, this team can win. That could well be the priceless legacy of this Sri Lankan experience.

Teams:
Sri Lanka (from): Sanath Jayasuriya (captain), Marvan Atapattu, Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardene, Russel Arnold, Hashan Tillekeratne, Chaminda Vaas, Suresh Perera, Ruchira Perera, Muttiah Muralitharan, Dilhara Fernando, Thilan Samaraweera and Michael Vandort.

India (from): Sourav Ganguly (captain), Shiv Sunder Das, Sadagoppan Ramesh, Rahul Dravid, Hemang Badani, Mohammad Kaif, Sameer Dighe, Harbhajan Singh, Venkatesh Prasad, Zaheer Khan, Harvinder Singh, Sairaj Bahutule and Rahul Sanghvi.

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