Mahela Jayawardene had a major grumble when he took over the captaincy ahead of Sri Lanka’s tour of England in 2006. He was complaining that his senior players, after being dropped by the selectors, went behind politicians pleading with them to put them back in the national team. When a senior player was flown to England at the eleventh hour of the Lord’s Test, he was complaining that politicians weren’t allowing him to groom a team for the future.

Having taken a firm stance then against his senior players who were going after politicians, Jayawardene now has gone against the very doctrine that he had preached only a few years ago. It is now his turn to run behind politicians complaining about the IPL, match fees and what not! Pepped up by the triumph at the Asia Cup, and, after arriving in Colombo with the trophy, he went to meet President Mahinda Rajapaksa when the cricket board refused the huge pay hike he requested for the national cricketers.

On the eve of the Eastern Provincial Council elections, with a proud national cricket captain, who had just masterminded a terrific victory against India in the Asia Cup final, pleading, President Rajapaksa understandably fulfilled Jayawardene’s requirement. The whole nation, by that time, was celebrating the heroics of both Sanath Jayasuriya and, the new kid on the block, Ajantha Mendis.

Jayawardene got what he asked for -– a major pay rise for the players, the biggest ever in history here. Hence, the match fee of a Sri Lankan cricketer was increased from USD 1800 to USD 3000 for ODIs, while the ‘bonanza’ for Test matches too skyrocketed. From USD 3500, a cricketer’s pay was raised to USD 5000.

Having got what he wanted, Jayawardene, who had become the first Sri Lankan captain to lose a home ODI series against England last year, has now ended up being the first local captain to lose an India home ODI series. What’ll be the next?

Some major tactical errors

Politics aside, talking of the series, Sri Lanka’s batting let them down once again, as it has been the case for sometime.

To be fair by Mahela, he wasn’t lucky with the toss for four successive games and when he eventually won the toss, with the series already decided, he scored a big win as Sri Lanka beat India by a massive 112 runs. And India’s 103 all out in that match was their lowest total on Sri Lankan soil in ODIs.

But overall, the Sri Lankans got a few things wrong. In their side, they had too many openers. Four of them actually, if you count Kumar Sangakkara, who opened the innings on three successive occasions in the series.

When an all-rounder was lacking in the side, though Thilan Tushara filled that void admirably, it is hard to understand why they opted for a six-batsman and five-bowler policy. That looked a critical blunder.

Almost all successful Sri Lankan teams played with a seven-four combination at home. When Arjuna Ranatunga was captain, he had Sanath, Kalu, Gurusinghe, Aravinda, Mahanama and Tillekeratne and when Gurusinghe left, Marvan Atapattu filled the void.

It was the case with successive Sri Lankan captains and the fact that they have several slow bowlers among their batsmen, who can fill the fifth bowlers’ slot easily, had worked for the Sri Lankans for years. So why change a strategy that had been successful for a long time?

And another mistake was to have Sri Lanka’s best three batsmen, Jayasuriya, Sangakkara and Jayawardene at the respective number one, two and three positions. It was a big risk taken against the new ball bowlers, and by doing so, what the Sri Lankans did was to expose a relatively inexperienced set of batsmen in pressure situations.

The Indians were quick to realize that they needed the additional cover in the form of a batsman and that made a huge difference in the series for them. They played six batsmen in the first and fifth ODIs and they lost those matches and played seven in the second, third and fourth ODIs where they ended up as winners.

With no young batsman taking on the responsibility to finish off the game, it provided more clues that the country’s batting revolved round Jayawardene, Sangakkara and Jayasuriya and the youngsters were yet to show that they could win a game for the team on their own; something that Suresh Raina did for India.

Chamara Silva has lacked consistency while Tillekeratne Dilshan, despite having many opportunities, has done no justice to the faith the selectors and his captain had, and he was duly dropped for the last game.

It is obvious that Chamara Kapugedara has loads of talent. He made batting look easy while in the middle and it is only a matter of time before he becomes an important member of the Sri Lanka lineup.

Sangakkara, meanwhile, coming into the series with three hundreds made during the Asia Cup, had a disastrous competition, failing to make a 50 in five innings with a highest score of only 19.

Jayasuriya, meanwhile, had one spark and that was it. The Sri Lankans were counting on him during the decisive fourth ODI when he looked to be in his usual form. But his 60 in that game was his only notable contribution as he finished the series with 96 runs in five games, at an average of 19.40.

Jayawardene was the best Sri Lankan batsman. He scored consistently and ended up with 185 runs and averaged 46.25 with two fifties and deserved a hundred in the third game, when he was carrying Sri Lanka’s hopes single-handedly.

But the surprise package for the Sri Lankans was Thilan Tushara Mirando. He topped the averages from both teams and had the third highest aggregate after the two captains, but batted in only four innings compared to Dhoni’s and Jayawardene’s five. He scored 168 runs at 56.25 and at a strike rate of 95.45 and his maiden fifty in the final ODI certainly will not be his only fifty to come in international cricket. He also picked up 10 wickets in the series, including a first-ever five-wicket haul in the fourth ODI.

Dhoni, meanwhile, achieved in Sri Lanka something that none of the Indian greats like Kapil Dev, Mohammad Azharuddin and Sachin Tendulkar could. He helped India to their first series win in Sri Lanka and the fact that he made it without the Tendulkars, Sehwags and Ishants indeed speaks volumes, about his glorious feat here in Sri Lanka.

Courtesy - The Island