The Lankan Leap

I have never been to beautiful Sri Lanka. But I can picture supporters of Sri Lankan cricket team getting greatly excited by the commendable performances of their boys during the very recent past. It all started with a good show in the VB series Down Under and the team has not looked back since.

I take the pleasure of reflecting on some feats that Sri Lankans registered recently during a heady month-and-half long patch. The brave little men seem to be finding their feet on foreign shores, finally.

1) Sri Lanka followed on in the first Test versus England and then topped 500 runs in their second essay to turn certain defeat into a comfortable draw. Upon hindsight, that 2nd essay acted as a flight ticket for Sri Lankan self-belief, a tool that they often leave back in their shores. It changed the dressing room attitude as well as the outcome of the Test and ODI series beyond imagination.

Principal features: The show of spine started right at the top with their talented captain Mahela Jayawardene. He took over as skipper due to non-availability of the injured Marvan Atapattu (who is also a vital batsman for them on overseas fixtures) at the start of the series. Here he crafted a masterly rearguard century to set the ball rolling.

That tremendous fightback, aided by generous assistance from a few things English like butter fingers and weather, should rank amongst the best achievements in Sri Lankan Test cricket. It is a feat that even the staunchest supporter of the entertaining islanders would not have given them a chance of achieving in view of the team's history as poor travellers.

Sri Lankans will hope that Chaminda Vaas the batsman, with a worthily bloated series average of 92, has changed some of history in this series.

Memories revisited: Much of that 1st Test charted a pattern close to the famous 2001 Kolkata Test between India and Australia. On an individual note, skipper Jayawardene's inspirational knock set the tone for the series and was, in spirit, the Sri Lankan equivalent of Sourav Ganguly's 144 at Brisbane in 2003. [The Indian connection of those examples is purely coincidental and should not be held against me;)]

2) The Lankans lost the second Test and, at 139/8 during their first innings of the 3rd and final match, were down to familiar hopelessness at one stage. But they rallied thereafter thru vital Vaas' batting and finally won the thriller through mystic Murali's bowling. A series levelled by rearguards and pullbacks is always a sweet prize. Even the dejected English will eke out a smile against the grind if you ask them about their recent tour of India.

Memories revisited: Sri Lanka's very own tremendous come-from-behind Test series victory in Pakistan (1995), a first ever for a 3 Test series. And that was Sri Lanka BEFORE the 1996 World Cup!

3) The one day wonder: For viewers watching the game thousands of miles away it is indeed difficult to gauge the process that goes into transforming a team. An attempt to unravel the mystery becomes that much more complicated if you chose to pick a team that lost a one day series in the subcontinent 6-1 to their erstwhile whipping boys India eight months back. Because they just turned the tide by completing a 5-0 whitewash of the English home boys.

Principal feature: [Astonishing feature really, other than a depleted, clueless opposition team completely 'in sync' with their mission] 3 different batsmen - Tharanga, Jayawardene and another creaking gentleman (a discussion on him is, as always, a separate issue) - scored 2 hundreds apiece over the five match series! Those add up to 6 centuries in 5 matches - one in each of the first four matches with the last ODI yielding two record annihilating tons from the openers. Consistency and teamwork seldom had better examples.

One way to put the unexpected outcome of this one-day series in perspective is to follow this Lankan side for a few months. For all we know, it may be more of a Sri Lankan zenith than an English nadir. [English Citizenship, here I come.]

4) The rebirth of Sri Lanka's most loved one-day batsman: Bigger totals than England's 321 in the 5th ODI have been chased down in one-dayers. At least one of those I watched was even achieved with very little hiccups, but none of those chases could make a mockery of a very big target as Sanath Jayasuriya chose to. Rather fitting for Sanath, that, for an ugly farewell with a damaged wrist is hardly the end that he deserved. The shorter version of the game cannot do without its truest servant just yet.

His 2nd successive 150 plus knock (and the small matter of ensuring a world record total for his team) yesterday against the lesser Netherlands has little claim to great significance. It is but a bold signature of confirmation that he is indeed back for one last hurrah.

Memories revisited: Singapur 1996

Tailpiece: Sri Lanka are suddenly the joint favourites for this year's ICC trophy in my book along with Australia, assuming Murali's availability. It is important that they continue their brilliant resurgence in that 'mannequin' tourney and prove to themselves and their detractors that they have not peaked too early for the 'main event' next year.

I remember the fate of a rather early Indian crest at this time of 1998, another preceding year to a Cricket World Cup. But if you ask me, the Sri Lankans may well be peaking at the right time for the big party. Why? Because they did it so perfectly a decade ago. Memories of their steady build-up to the 1996 world Cup are not too dusty yet, a dream run triggered by that watershed series victory in Pakistani territory.