Moody's men face test of character

Oh dear. Sri Lanka knew that touring India would be tough but not this tough. Marvan Atapattu's team arrived in Mumbai as the No. 2 team in the world. They had won seven of their previous eight completed encounters against India. They were self-assured, professional and united, apparently confident of extending their successful home form against an Indian team that has been plagued recently by internal strife. Two walloping defeats later they are in turmoil and left visibly shell-shocked after two inept performances. The tour may not yet lie in tatters, but Tom Moody's honeymoon start as coach is definitely over.

India, so obviously inspired by a rejuvenated Sachin Tendulkar, who has played with the electrifying freedom of his younger years, have surprised them with the ferocious intensity of their cricket. They seized control from the second over in Napgur when Farveez Maharoof was clobbered for 17 runs and they have not let go since. Their hands are now so tightly around the jugular that it will take serious guts and superlative performances to prevent a major shellacking.

So what's gone wrong? The bowlers and fielders have to share a healthy portion of the blame because their off-beat start in Nagpur allowed India to build up unstoppable momentum. Sri Lanka last toured India in 1997-98 and only a handful of the current players have experienced firsthand the cauldron atmosphere that makes India so tough at home. In Sri Lanka international cricket is largely played out in gentle surroundings in front of half-full stadiums. Playing in India, where the spectators match their nationalistic fervour with their vocal chords, is an entirely different proposition. Some of Sri Lanka's younger brigade looked overawed during the opening game.

But that is also understandable. Bowling against Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag on song can be an impossible task. If luck doesn't run your way - and it didn't during the first game as balls dropped agonisingly short of fielders and Tendulkar was given a fortuitous run out reprieve - then such destructive batsmen can simply become unstoppable. India gambled with a high-risk strategy and they cashed in big. Unfortunately, Sri Lanka were the first victims of Tendulkar's second coming. After many frustrating months on the sidelines with his tennis elbow, India's talisman has escaped from the creeping negativity that was curbing his game during the last two years. Instead he has returned to the natural aggressive flair of old that made him the most feared batsman on the planet. Tendulkar has galvanised India and left Sri Lanka in dire straits.

Tendulkar's brilliance has to be acknowledged and accepted. Yes, Moody will be bitterly disappointed by the lack of discipline shown by his bowlers. He will probably be appalled by the shoddiness of some of the fielding too. But he knows from firsthand experience just how hard it can be to face Tendulkar at full throttle. Far more worrisome from a Sri Lankan perspective has been their rudderless batting displays. In three innings (including the warm-up game in Mumbai last weekend) the top order has failed miserably. Today, in Mohali, they produced one of their most pathetic and meek displays in years, throwing away wickets with embarrassing and unacceptable sloppiness.

The top order's frailty is actually not a new concern. The truth is that despite their recent successes, Sri Lanka's batting has been an area of acute concern. Indeed, the top order has collapsed against weak teams like West Indies and Bangladesh with alarming frequency during recent Test series' - in four of their last six Test innings four wickets tumbled before 50 runs were added to the board. Both West Indies and Bangladesh, however, were never able to ram home their advantage and Sri Lanka escaped major embarrassment. Even during recent ODI wins against India during the Indian Oil Cup, Sri Lanka only triumphed after match-winning innings from Mahela Jayawardene following early collapses. This time India have not let their neighbours off the hook.

The class of Sri Lanka's top six is undisputed. But success in India demands that they can deliver consistently. Crucially, Sri Lanka's own talisman, Sanath Jayasuriya, has failed thus far. His impact upon the Sri Lankan team is as great as Tendulkar's on India and his first-over dismissal was a hammer blow in Mohali. Nevertheless, Sri Lanka would still have backed themselves to post big totals on good batting pitches. But soft dismissals have sent them into freefall and there can be no excuses for their current predicament.

The bowlers can pull their games together and the fielding will surely tighten-up. But the big question is whether the batsmen can dig deep enough to pull themselves back from the brink. Does Sri Lanka's top order have the heart for the fight and the necessary self-belief? Subconscious mental hang-ups about the team's appalling record overseas, if they exist, need to be dust-binned fast. During the next week Moody will probably learn more about his players than during the previous three months in charge. Character is now the key.