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An art India still need to master

India missed a trick once again. Batting first is always a tricky business in conditions that are loaded in favour of the chasers, right down to the dew at night. But the tri-series final was a match that India lost because they went astray at the start of the innings, very deficient in the knowledge of what a good target to set would be in the conditions and the virtually non-existent dew factor was hardly an excuse.

To set the radar of a good total early is the job of the top order. When that fell apart, the final was hardly a contest even though there were moments, with Harbhajan Singh bowling like a champion, when the islanders must have felt somewhat threatened. One bowler cannot, however, undo a simple chase and Jayawardene is too seasoned a hand to let his team fall away at the finish.
 
Hundred per cent results are never possible in the limited-overs game, which is one reason why Team India can take heart in a season in which not much has gone wrong. What happened in Guwahati when Dhoni chose to bat first in difficult conditions against the Australians came back to haunt in the more plumb conditions of Mirpur, Dhaka.
 
Sehwag’s calm too was swallowed up by the swagger as he attempted a dink shot. Earlier, in just nine overs, the Indians had gifted it all away, which is about the worst thing to happen in a final, playing which is a fine art that the Indians have not really mastered. The failing used to be so pronounced once that India virtually won nothing in the early years of the new millennium in which final appearances were many.
 
Sachin gave them the impetus the last time they were in a final, his wisdom at the start missed sorely in the tri-series. To say that is a bit ironic now because critics used to censure Sachin for not possessing a good enough crunch match record. The little master would have known how to compose an innings at the start of a day in plumb conditions, when to play yourself in gives the best chance.
 
The young guns have come good at various times for Team India during a long season but the Dhaka final seemed to them to be an occasion to play heroic roles, an approach that may have let the likes of Kohli down. He will doubtless learn in time how to adapt when an early breach has occurred. The team seemed too sold on trying to make the frenetic start for a planned 300-plus total.
 
It is to the credit of the Sri Lankans that they always hang in there. Their lack of ambition in the big strokes may seem to drag them back somewhat when it comes to chasing. But, in the application of overall cricket intelligence the islanders were superior on the given day, even if the coin had to fall in their favour to ensure that they would win the trophy in keeping with the trend of chasers winning.
 
What frequent meetings between the two teams have shown is that there is really very little between them. If India’s strength has more to do with batting, Sri Lanka can claim to have made rapid strides towards attacking ODI batting too while having a useful bowling attack to boast. There isn’t much to differentiate their fielding standards too as both are equally good or bad on a given day.
 
Australia has taken a clear lead now in the rankings, which means the others have some catching up to do. India, South Africa and Sri Lanka, and perhaps Pakistan, are the challengers now. In a way this is but a restoration of an old order which would make the mix for the World Cup even more interesting because it is in an Asian setting that the world champion will have to defend the crown.

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