New season, old mistakes

On a day when a couple of new faces did their best to hog the headlines, it was one of yesterday's heroes that had the last word. When Sri Lanka slumped to 140 for 6 and then to 172 for 7, it could have gone either way, but Sanath Jayasuriya ignored the pain of a dislocated shoulder to lead them home. He may be closer to 40 than 30, and the reflexes may have dimmed a touch, but Jayasuriya still belts the ball and finds the gaps like few others in the game.

India, in keeping with the dire displays of last season, once again came up short against a side that paid far greater attention to cricket's basics. Sri Lanka bowled better lines, had the outstanding bowlers of the game in Farveez Maharoof and Muttiah Muralitharan, and could then rely on Jayasuriya - not to mention superb cameos with the bat from Dilhara Lokuhettige and Maharoof.

After a depressingly predictable batting slump, Greg Chappell would have been far more satisfied with the bowling side of things. With a meagre total to defend, Rahul Dravid captained as aggressively as he could, keeping a slip or even two, and rotating his frontline bowlers deftly as he sought to bowl Sri Lanka out.

The bowling, though, was a mixed bag, even though they were aided by not having to face a rampaging Jayasuriya in the early overs. Irfan Pathan bowled with his old vigour in his opening spell, even as Zaheer Khan struggled to pitch the ball on a good line and length. Harbhajan Singh bowled beguilingly well at times, and Ashish Nehra kept things quiet, but there were too many hit-me balls - India conceded 27 fours to Sri Lanka's 21 - for a team defending such a small score.

Those who wondered how India would cope without Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly didn't have to wait very long for an answer. But for Dravid doing his now customary boy-on-burning-deck routine, they would have struggled to pass 100. Venugopal Rao slotted in seamlessly and the tail wagged for a change but, that apart, it was little different from the final 18 months of the John Wright era, when India played shockingly poor one-day cricket.

Since Ganguly and Tendulkar, once the game's premier partnership, were separated - mainly to accommodate Sehwag's explosiveness - India have struggled to find the same impetus. Theoretically, Mahendra Dhoni and Sehwag would be the perfect duo at the top of the order with fielding restrictions in place. But unlike Tendulkar and Ganguly, who could pace an innings and accelerate effortlessly, the suspicion remains that both Sehwag and Dhoni are too rooted in the full-throttle approach to succeed consistently against the new ball.

There will be days like today when the ball does a bit off the seam at lively pace, and you just cannot thump every ball to the rope. A feature of the NatWest Series was how well Australia adjusted a couple of times to difficult surfaces, with Mike Hussey in particular playing some splendid knocks under pressure. With the exception of the flint-hard Dravid, perhaps the only man outside Australia to thrive in adverse situations, none of the Indians appeared to have any sort of alternative to stand-and-deliver.

Yuvraj Singh and Mohammad Kaif both fell to atrocious shots, and continue to frustrate. Their lack of progress in recent seasons is especially galling when contrasted with the giant strides made by the two Andews, Flintoff and Symonds. In 38 matches since the last World Cup, Flintoff has averaged a stunning 49.76 from 38 matches, while Symonds has bludgeoned 1745 runs from 61 outings at 40.58.

While Kaif has managed a far-from-stellar return of 961 runs (average of 34.32) from 39 matches, Yuvraj's 1167 runs from 47 matches at 29.17 places him even below Paul Collingwood (802 runs at 32.08 from 42 games). For the moment, comparisons to Flintoff and Symonds are merely laughable, especially given that the Lancashire team-mates invariably score at a run-a-ball or better.

Suresh Raina also failed, but more seasoned hands than he have been undone by Murali's doosra. He was a lively presence in the field, and may well have been worth a punt with the ball instead of the ineffectual Sehwag. The other debutant, Rao, brought a cool head and plenty of initiative to the crease. There were a couple of streaky edges early on, but thereafter he was an equal partner as Dravid attempted to stave off embarrassment.

India's late flourish was aided by some charitable captaincy from Marvan Atapattu, who didn't bowl out the outstanding Maharoof, persisting instead with the wayward and one-paced Dilhara Fernando. Doff your cap too to Lokuhettige who made the best use of helpful conditions with the new ball. Ultimately though, having reduced India to 64 for 5, Sri Lanka had to rely on a crock to put Indian noses out of joint. Then again, a one-handed Jayasuriya is more of an asset than some of the passengers in this Indian side.