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| Sunday, 30 October 2005 |
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Sri Lanka beat star-studded India in World Cup match 1979 by A. C. de Silva Sri Lanka lost the first two of seven one-day matches against India in the present series. Sri Lanka's top-order caved in again, after they were all out for 198 to lose the opening game by 152 runs on Tuesday. Then Indian captain Rahul Dravid praised his bowlers after a second convincing victory over Sri Lanka gave his team a 2-0 lead in home one-day series on Friday. Sri Lanka coach Tom Moody has said that is no question about the quality of the side, but unfortunately Sri Lanka failed to click again. However the Sri Lankan team will bounce back and the Indians are in for a contest. The third game will be played in Jaipur on Monday. But the Sri Lankans can carry on from here and pick up courage from the fact that they are a capable side that has done well against big brother India. Sri Lanka's proudest moment came when they beat yet a member of the big fold. Playing in the ICC Trophy series in 1979 in England the Lankans were considered to be in with a real chance of victory against an Indian side dispirited by two defeats in two previous matches of the World Cup that year. Mind you, India were among the Test playing nations then. However, Sri Lanka managed to win the game by 47 runs. Sri Lanka were certainly with their tails up and certaintly lacked no incentive to record the first victory by an Associated Member of the ICC against a senior country for, apart from local pride if such a concept can be said to exist at an international level, Sri Lanka had ample material to put forward their claims for full membership of the ICC. For this important encounter Sri Lanka were without their experienced captain Anura Tennekoon with hamstring trouble. But the Sri Lankans batted with purpose, control and considerable skill. The match got off to a delayed start and it was mid-afternoon that the game got under way as the previous day's rain made the wicket wet. The opening attack of India - Kapil Dev and Amarnath was seen off, but then with 31 on the board, the acting captain Warnapura fell to Amarnath. Sunil Wettimuny who opened the batting remained and with Roy Dias and with Duleep Mendis steered the innings on a course which all sides in the competition would have chosen to follow. When numbers 2, 3 and 4 in the order can provide 181 runs at a reasonable rate an acceptable total is assured. Contrasting styles complemented one another to provide a splendid whole. Wettimuny was soundly effective, and put on 96 runs for the second wicket at just over four runs an over with Dias who was nimble enough to score a rapid fifty despite only finding the boundary twice. At the fall of the second wicket in the 40th over, Wettimuny's innings ended and Mendis arrived with a more robust temperament and technique. He stayed for more than 18 overs yet while he was at the crease 100 runs were added to the score and he made 64 of them. He went to meet every bowler, hit each of the three seamers for a six, and his flourish allowed Sri Lanka to score at eight runs an over for the last ten. The effective batting of Mendis helped Sri Lanka to pace the innings to perfection and reached a score which had until then been exceeded by the West Indies in that year's tourney, and the total asked India to reach heights they had been unable to attain previously if they were to win when play resumed on the Monday morning. India had Sunil Gavaskar and Anushman Gaekwad to open, then D. B. Vengsarkar, G. R. Viswanath, B. P. Patel, Kapil Dev, Mohinder Amarnath, K. D. Ghavri, S. C. Khanna, S. Venkataraghavan and Bishen Singh Bedi. India started off well as their openers Sunil Gavaskar and Gaekwad had little trouble in making runs against the Sri Lanka attack spearheaded by Tony Opatha and Bandula Warnapura - the skipper. However, both openers had been dismissed before lunch on the second day. Even then, with eight wickets in hand and 122 runs needed at a little under five an over, most gambling money must surely have been carried by India. That was before Viswanath ran himself out, Then Somachandra de Silva picked up the dangerous Indian trio of Vengsarkar, Patel and Amarnath to reduce India to 147 for 5 wickets. Then D. L. S. de Silva then had the threatening Kapil Dev caught by skipper Warnapura for 16 and it was 160 for 6 wickets and finally India were all out for 191 in the 55th over when Opatha came back to eliminate any chance of effective resistance from the tail with an impressive spell during which he took 3 wickets while conceding only 11 runs to complete a technical, if only comparative, feat of giant-killing. SRI LANKA
B. Warnapura c Gaekwad b Amarnath 18
S. R. Wettimuny c Vengsarkar b Kapil Dev 67
R. L. Dias c and b Amarnath 50
R. D. Mendis run out 64
R. S. Madugalla c Khanna b Amarnath 4
S. P. Pasqual not out 23
D. S. de Silva not out 1
Extras (LB-8, W-2, NB-1) 11
TOTAL (5 wickets - 60 overs) 238
DID NOT BAT: S. A. Jayasinghe, A. R. M. Opatha,
D. L. S. de Silva, F. R. M. Goonetilleke.
FALL OF WICKETS: 1-31, 2-127, 3-147, 4-175, 5-227.
BOWLING: Kapil Dev 12-2-53-1, Ghavri 12-0-53-0,
Amarnath 12-3-40-3, Bedi 12-2-37-0,
Venkataraghavan 12-0-44-0.
INDIA
S. M. Gavaskar c Dias b Warnapura 26
A. D. Gaekwad c sub b D. L. S. de Silva 33
D. B. Vengasarkar c D. L. S. de Silva
b D. S. de Silva 36
G. R. Viswanath run out 22
B. P. Patel b D. S. de Silva 10
Kapil Dev c Warnapura b D. L. S. de Silva 16
M. Amarnath b D. S. De Silva 7
K. D. Ghavri c Warnapura b Opatha 3
S. C. Khanna c Dias b Opatha 10
S. Venkataraghavan not out 9
B. S. Bedi c Jayasinghe b Opatha 5
Extras (LB-10, W-3, NB-1) 14
TOTAL (in 54.1 overs) 191
FALL OF WICKETS: 1-60, 2-76, 3-119, 4-132, 5-147,
6-160, 7-162, 8-170, 9-185.
BOWLING: Opatha 10.1-0-31-3, Goonetilleke 9-1-34-0,
Warnapura 12-0-47-1, D. L. S. de Silva 12-0-36-2,
D. S. de Silva 11-1-29-3.
MAN-OF-THE-MATCH: Duleep Mendis.
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