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.

Bangladesh have not learnt from the past

This was the third time in the tri series that Bangladesh did what they were supposed to do with the bat but nowhere when it came to doing the same with the ball. In the first encounter against Sri Lanka, Bangladesh posted a total in excess of 250 and lost the game by 7 wickets showing that their bowling was nowhere close to the requirement. And in the second encounter with the Indians, there was no reason for the Bangladesh team to lose so badly despite putting up a massive score of 296 on the board. And now in the 3^rd ODI as well, Bangladesh have done exactly that.

Put up a comparatively decent total on the board and forget what to do next. Bangladesh did well to post a total of 249 on the board despite losing wickets at regular intervals with almost every batsmen from the Bangladesh team contributing upto his caliber. The single digit scorers were the ones who came in at number 8 onwards. But all these efforts from the Bangladeshi batsmen could hardly guarantee them even a close encounter against Sri Lanka. All that the Bangladeshi bowlers were able to do with the ball was to get the wicket of Mahela Jayawardane not before the batsman scored a century and ensured that Sri Lanka won the game.

The Bangladesh captain Shakib Al Hasan bought in as many as 8 of his bowlers all of whose efforts were outplayed by just 2 Sri Lankan batsmen in Mahela Jayawardane and Upul Tharanga. There was not even a single bowler from the Bangladesh side who was found bowling his entire quota of 10 overs. Sri Lanka reached the target of 250 runs with as many as 8 overs to spare. On the other hand, Sri Lanka needed the efforts of just 5 of his bowlers (though there were 6 players from Sri Lanka who bowled) to restrict the Bangladeshi batsmen. The 6^th bowler in Samaraweera going in for 17 runs of the only over he bowled.

The only reason for the Bangladesh to feel better was the fact that the Bangladesh innings had 4 hits out of the boundary compared to none from the Sri Lankan side. However, given the caliber of Bangladesh team, strong teams like India and Sri Lanka should be found resting their key players and playing some young talent which has not been the case so far in the series. The Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni is found playing his full strength team with the likes of Gambhir, Sachin Tendulkar, Sehwag and Yuvraj though it has been Ravindra Jadeja and Virat Kohli who proved to be better in their area.