Sri Lanka witnesses a reawakening

Harbhajan Singh has just been added to Mahela Jayawardene's Christmas card list. Kumar Sangakkara may even refrain from making nasty comments about the length of his shirt sleeves. Bhaji's run-out miss from point-blank range when Jayawardene was on 9, after another horrible running mix-up involving Marvan Atapattu, paved the way for a truly great innings and one of the most remarkable fightbacks in Sri Lanka's history.

When Dilhara Lokuhettige trudged his way back to the dressing-room, caught behind for a duck, Sri Lanka were in dire straits, 95 for 6 with the team's coach driver revving up his engine for an early trip home. The crowd were quiet and melancholy, their minds resigned to a Sri Lankan defeat and another week of work ahead. In the press box, journalists were tapping away feverishly on the laptops, churning out headlines trumpeting Sourav Ganguly's dream comeback.

Jayawardene was 24 not out when the sixth wicket fell. He'd already played one delightful leg-side flick and rasping square-cut, but he still looked nervous and uncomfortable. After failures in the opening two games he was under massive pressure to perform.

His Test record remains excellent, his average hovering around 50, but in the one-day game, the staple diet of Sri Lanka's common cricket fan, his fortunes have been mixed. Prior to today's match-winning knock, he'd gone 18 innings without a fifty and his last century was in 2001-02 against West Indies in Kandy.

Part of the reason for this has been the team management's habit of dropping him down to No. 5 to solidify the middle order. That has denied him the prime real estate at the top order where batsmen get the time and the opportunity to build match-winning hundreds. But he would still have hoped for better returns during the last year and he has been anxious to silence his critics.

So today was a perfect opportunity. The rest of the top order had melted away and he was suddenly Sri Lanka's only chance of salvation. Fortunately, in Chandana, he knew he had someone who had the talent to stay with him. Chandana had spearheaded a similar rescue act against the West Indies in Bridgetown back in July 2003.

Their first job was to see-off Ashish Nehra, the pick of the Indian fast bowlers. Rahul Dravid still had two Nehra overs up his sleeve and he gambled on a killer punch, bowling Nehra through. Having survived that, Jayawardene, setting five-over targets with Chandana, decided to target Virender Sehwag and Sourav Ganguly, India's fifth bowlers.

The runs started to flow more freely. A few leg-side freebies helped pick up the momentum. But the laptops upstairs were still banging out stories about India's Ganguly-inspired morale-boosting victory. However, out in the grandstands, as the required runs dropped below 100, the grandstand crowd had sensed the changing fortunes on the pitch. The atmosphere was bubbling up and people were searching for the boundary cards they'd tossed away in despair half-an-hour before.

India waited and waited and must have expected a breakthrough at any time. Just one more wicket might have been enough to turn the tide and Jayawardene's innings would have been just "brave resistance before the inevitable". But Jayawardene had worked incredibly hard at the start of his innings and was now starting to reap the rewards. His feet were moving and his strong wrists were manoeuvring the balls into the gaps with ease. Dravid had tried to suffocate the pair, cutting off the singles, but Sri Lanka were ticking along.

When the last 15 overs started Sri Lanka were coasting: 76 runs required at five-an-over. Jayawardene clicked into overdrive and took the match by the scruff of the neck. Short balls were punched through the off-side, good-length deliveries were deftly guided down to third man and he even showed off his dominance with a glorious straight six off Sehwag, a blow that sent the crowd into a "Sri-Lan-Ka, Sri-Lan-Ka" chanting and stamping frenzy. They knew victory had been snatched from the jaws from defeat.

Of course, in the great scheme of things, the victory means little. Sri Lanka booked themselves into the final, but West Indies are so pitifully poor that we knew they would face India in the final on August 9 anyway. However, for Sri Lanka, victory and the manner in which it was achieved, mattered far more than points. First, it will have filled the dressing-room with confidence, a vital and precious commodity for any team, but especially for Sri Lanka, an emotional bunch. Secondly, the night freed Jayawardene and opened the gate for the second stage of his career.

When Jayawardene arrived in 1998 he started so naturally and scored so abundantly that his performances have always been harshly judged against mountainous expectation. Such unrealistic expectation is a heavy burden and the failure to live up to the hype has led to his confidence dripping away. But today he touched the past and realised just how good he can be. With his self-belief revitalised, he will wake up tomorrow with a bounce in his step.