Thursday 14 January 2010

A rare & common loss for India

This was a rare loss for India against Sri Lanka and a common loss in the finals of a multi nation tournament. What a series this has been with India and Sri Lanka winning and losing alternatively everytime they meet up to play a game. And, as the rule went, India had to lose this game. Sri Lanka won the first encounter at Dhaka last week, following which India beat them in their second encounter only to lose in the third meeting with the Lankans. Unfortunately, this happened to be the finals of the tri nation tournament which India lost. Had there been three games each in the round robin stage, may be India would have won the finals of the tournament and with it the series as well.

This once again pointed towards India who always have a poor run in the finals of a tri nation tournament to be more precise. This has been the case since Sourav Ganguly took over as the Indian captain in 2000. But, one thing that needs to be given a close look at is the fact that the series contained Bangladesh as the third team, against which winning is not at all an issue and so is making it to the finals. But, frankly speaking, and if viewers' opinion is considered, it should have been India to have walked away with the honors than Sri Lanka.

India had an upperhand not only throughout the series but also against Sri Lanka if the past three years or so are considered. Sri Lanka have been no match for India as it is evident from the past where Sri Lanka managed to win just 7 matches (including the finals of this tri nation tournament) out of 17 games in the past two years since the bi lateral series between the 2 countries in 2008 which India won 3-2. But, this time when it mattered the most for both the teams, India had to compromise being the runners up in the tournament.

In their last meeting, India had thrashed the Sri Lankans by getting to the target with as many as 104 balls to spare. But, that was not the case when Sri Lanka won the game by taking it until the last 7 balls of the game. Until the last game between India and Bangladesh, India was one of the teams not to have lost all their ten wickets even once in the series along with Bangladesh. But now, in the finals India were all out for a score of 245 which now makes Bangladesh the only team not to have been all out throughout the tournament.

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