Match abandoned India 38 for 1 in 8.4 overs; Sri Lanka 222 for 7 in 50 overs
Scorecard

India and Sri Lanka were declared joint winners of the Champions Trophy after rain killed the show for the second day running. For 16 days the north-east monsoon stayed away, but felt it imperative to make its presence felt at the crunch. If there is a redeeming feature it is that India and Sri Lanka were equally deserving of the title, a fact that was borne out by the two evenly-contested aborted finals.

Today's game was going to be tight. Sri Lanka put on 222, neither a winning, nor a losing, score; but just the type to ensure a good scrap on a stopping, turning pitch. India had responded, mainly through the boisterous Virender Sehwag, with 38 for 1 in 8.4 overs at which point the rain started falling too hard to continue. But the spinners were yet to come on.

India had bowled 36 overs of spin at a combined run-rate of less than four, as opposed to the seamers who conceded close to six an over. In Muttiah Muralitharan, Kumar Dharmasena, Upul Chandana, Sanath Jayasuriya and Aravinda de Silva, Sri Lanka had an even more potent slow-bowling attack than India. It was anybody's game.

Sri Lanka could have easily ended short of 200, after winning the toss and batting, just as they had done yesterday. They were 71 for 4 at one stage when a gritty, sweaty 118-run partnership between Mahela Jayawardene and Russel Arnold rescued them.

Ironically, on a spinners pitch, the India's seamers provided them with a dream start to the match. Zaheer Khan snaffled Jayasuriya with the very first ball of the game. Jayasuriya, topscorer in yesterday's abandoned game, characteristically offered an angled bat to a length delivery outside off stump and chopped it on (0 for 1). Further success came India's way when Marvan Atapattu nicked Ajit Agarkar to first slip in the eighth over (24 for 2).

The pressure was on the batters but a single over dramatically disrupted the pattern. De Silva, playing his last match on home soil, stroked Agarkar for five fours in an over with clean and authentic shots. Not content with the humiliation, Agarkar conceded three wides down the legside to make it 23 for the over.

It forced an early introduction of spin and Anil Kumble provided a breakthrough in just his second over. De Silva attempted a slog-sweep which ballooned up into Mohammad Kaif's hands at short midwicket (63 for 3). The situation became desperate when Jayawardene called and sent back Kumar Sangakkara to run him out for a solid 26 (71 for 4).

It was going to be a hard graft now, and Jayawardene and Arnold recognised that. Surely, steadily, they milked singles and crept back towards respectability. After almost two hours of grinding against the spin of Kumble, Harbhajan Singh, Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar, the platform had been laid for a final fling, which proved to be fairly successful. Seventy-two runs came from the last 10 overs, and Jayawardene in particular upped the strike-rate significantly.

The chaos at the death seemed to take a toll on the players' tempers too. Sourav Ganguly and Arnold became engaged in an ugly spat about the batsmen running on the pitch. Expletives were hurled liberally and it took the collective effort of two umpires and several players to separate them. In the end though, rain played the ultimate leveller.

Rahul Bhattacharya is assistant editor of Wisden.com in India.

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