Team India dished out one of its most dominant performances ever on Sunday, sounding a warning to England, Australia and other powerhouses of the sport ahead of the ICC World Cup.
The Men in Blue had been the team to beat in the 16th edition of the Asia Cup that returned to the ODI format in the build-up to ICC’s showpiece event. India had dished out clinical performances against Nepal and Pakistan and had recovered from a batting collapse to beat Sri Lanka.
A defeat against Bangladesh was disappointing, but it came against an Indian team that was missing several first-choice players, and was by no means an indication of what was in store.
On Sunday in a sold-out final at Colombo’s R Premadasa Stadium, the Indians produced the kind of collecting fast-bowling performance that was reminiscent of the destruction unleashed by some of the greatest bowling attacks in cricketing history.
Sri Lanka, who were banking on home support to halt the mighty Indians on their tracks after falling short earlier this week, simply did not know what hit them and were bundled out for a humiliating total of 50.
Given the sheer quality in the Indian batting lineup, chasing the target down was hardly a challenge and Shubman Gill and Ishan Kishan finished the job in a little over six overs.
There were a number of players who played their part in India’s journey to their eighth Asian title. From Ishan Kishan’s defiant 82 against Pakistan in Pallekele and Virat Kohli and KL Rahul slamming tons against the same side in the Super 4s in Colombo. Kuldeep Yadav was the standout bowler in the campaign, and was fittingly adjudged the ‘Player of the Tournament’.
Skipper Rohit Sharma and Gill too have been in a rich vein of form with the latter dishing out a majestic 121 against Bangladesh that ultimately went in vain.
On Sunday, however, it was Mohammed Siraj and Mohammed Siraj alone who soaked up all the limelight. And fittingly so, with one of the most destructive spells of fast-bowling witnessed in recent memory.
Indian pace department fires as a unit
India delivered just the kind of bowling performance that would have had previous bowling coach Bharat Arun and ex-captain Virat Kohli — two individuals who have had the biggest role in developing the current pace unit — beaming with pride.
India had started off solidly with the ball in each of its six outings in the tournament, including against Nepal and Bangladesh. However, while the opposition batters managed to build a steady partnership or two after a wobbly start in the preceding fixtures, Team India simply did not let go of the stranglehold on Sunday. Especially after Siraj’s sensational second over.
Sri Lanka skipper Shanaka hoped to post a competitive total on the board after opting to bat, and would have backed his spinners to test the Indian batters in tricky Premadasa conditions under lights.
Instead, a brief spell of rain just after toss that delayed the start of the game by about forty minutes resulted in the ball getting plenty of movement. And the Indian new-ball pair of Siraj and Jasprit Bumrah would make the most of the bowling-friendly conditions on offer.
Bumrah has been in fine form ever since he made his long-awaited comeback in the tour of Ireland, dismissing the dangerous Kusal Perera in the very first over to get the Indians off to an ideal start.
From thereon, however, it was a Siraj show all the way.
After starting off with a maiden, the Royal Challengers Bangalore pacer struck at the start of his second over with Pathum Nissanka driving a length delivery towards point, where Ravindra Jadeja dove to his right to pull off a fine catch. Siraj would then have Sadeera Samarawickrama and Charith Asalanka — the backbone of Sri Lanka’s in-form middle-order — dismissed in successive deliveries.
Samarawickrama was beaten by an inswinging delivery and got trapped LBW while Asalanka — Sri Lanka’s hero against Pakistan on Thursday — was early into a cover drive and chipped the ball straight to Ishan Kishan inside the circle.
Dhananjaya de Silva survived the hat-trick delivery, pushing the ball down the ground for a four, but would perish while attempting to poke an a delivery moving away from him, getting caught-behind as a result.
Despite becoming only the first Indian bowler in ODI history to bag four wickets in one over, Siraj wasn’t done. He would then complete his maiden ODI five-for in a space of 16 deliveries by castling Shanaka four a four-ball duck, breaching his defence with an inswinger after setting the Sri Lanka skipper up with a series of full, wide deliveries.
“The batters were getting beaten for the last two matches, today I found the edges. I just tried to hit the areas. The wicket was seaming for the last two matches, today there was swing so I tried to make the batters play as much as possible. Because it was swinging, I thought of putting the balls up to the batters. The way I thought, I executed it and the plan was successful,” said Player of the Match Siraj during the post-match presentation.
There was, of course, one more Ronaldoesque celebration in store for Siraj after completing the five-for. The Hyderabadi would enter an elite club of bowlers with six-wicket hauls in an ODI innings by snaring the wicket of Kusal Mendis — Sri Lanka’s leading run-scorer in this edition of the continental event who top-scored for his side with a 34-ball 17 that contained three boundaries. Mendis was looking to attack the bowler who was in the middle of a dream spell by going for a cover drive, and ended up hearing the death rattle behind him.
Sri Lanka’s last hope had been snuffed out, and it was only a matter of time before they were bundled out.
While Siraj had unleashed mayhem in the powerplay with Bumrah playing a supporting role by maintaining pressure from one end, Hardik Pandya gave a good indicator of his handiness with the ball by polishing off the tail in the blink of an eye.
The India vice-captain finished with 3/3, grabbing the last two wickets in successive balls. Sri Lanka by then had managed to avoid getting bowled out for their lowest-ever total, but could go only so far as bringing up the team half-century.
Sri Lankan batters crumble under pressure
Though they still aren’t quite the side that used to be world beaters back in the 1990s and 2000s, right up to the 2014-15 season, Sri Lanka had been a competitive outfit and their performance against Pakistan on Thursday was a reflection of their “never-say-die” attitude.
The approach of some of the key batters, especially against a rampaging Indian attack that simply wasn’t willing to give them an inch to wriggle out of the tight corner, was therefore perplexing to say the least.
Former India head coach Ravi Shastri was among those who commented on the Sri Lankan batters’ need to go after the shots and chase the ball outside the off stump in the face of ferocious fast-bowling from the Indians. Shastri, who was on commentary duty in the tournament, observed that the wicket was going to “do a bit” in the initial phase of the innings but would have gradually eased out sooner rather than later.
All they had to do, was weather the storm early on, wait for Siraj’s spell to end before unleashing some of their shots around the halfway stage of the innings. By then India would have lost some of the intensity that they had built up during Siraj and Bumrah’s new-ball spells and the likes of Mendis would have been batting in a lot more relaxed state of mind.
Coach Chris Silverwood too wasn’t happy with how the Lankans batted in the big game, especially after showing so much promise earlier in the tournament.
“It is below par. The way we got dismissed is very disappointing, think there’s a lot of reflection to be done in the dressing. I think today we’ve come up against a very high class bowling attack, thought Siraj was superb. At the same time I think we made our own life difficult as well,” Silverwood said after Shubman Gill and Ishan Kishan chased down the 51-run target in a little over six overs.
“I’m sure there’ll be a lot of questions asked, but best to assess it in the morning when the emotions have calmed down,” added the Englishman.
Sri Lanka will hope to quickly put the embarrassing defeat behind them and begin their final preparations for the World Cup that begins in a less than three weeks. India too can’t afford to party for too long after their clinical victory.
As satisfying as their performance was on Sunday, they still have an ICC trophy drought to conquer over the course of the next two months and will have to quickly shift their attention to that goal.
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