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India wins, again!

Now was that a game, or what?

Three magnificient centuries. A world record equalled. Super bowling. Acrobatic catching. Umpiring errors galore. And after something like 75 overs of incredibly exciting cricket, the last 25 overs -- and two teams both trying to make the other win, seemed like, at that stage.

India blundered, time and again, on the field, letting off the pressure just when the screws needed to be at their tightest. And then, Sri Lanka -- reputed masters of the one day chase -- stuff up, losing a won game with an absolutely inept display in the last 10 overs.

After raining on the Lankan parade right through this tournament, it finally turned out bright and sunny for the final. Producing conditions just right for one day cricket -- hard, flat pitch with the possibility of some help for seamers early on thanks to sub-surface moisture, some turn for spinners, and a tendency to get fractionally slower as the game wore on.

Azharuddin has the habit of calling right on the big ones. He did it again here, and promptly elected to bat.

What followed, was something the most die-hard Indian fan would not have predicted on a particularly optimistic day -- the openers came out, and when we got to 40 overs, they were still there and threatening to shut the innings they had opened.

In the process, records tumbled. Sachin Tendulkar, aged all of 25 and playing in his 196th one day international, got his 17th ODI century and now is tied with Desmond Haynes (238 matches, for his 17) as the man with the most ODI tonnes. And oh yes, in the process, Sachin also went over the 7,000 run mark, ending up on 7069 at the end of the innings and now having just Javed Miandad, Aravinda D'Silva, Mohammad Azharuddin and Dessie Haynes ahead of him in the all-time run accumultors' list.

The first wicket partnership was worth 251 -- the highest first wicket partnership in the world, beating the 225 recorded by Deepak Chudasama and Kennedy Otieno, for Kenya against Bangladesh at Nairobi in October 1997.

In an earlier match report, we had discussed a new found trait of the two openers, and that really came to the fore here -- namely, a willingness to work the singles, even during the first 15 overs. Ganguly in particular has done some very hard work on his running between the wickets, and the results are quite spectacular. Throughout their association, thus, the two batsmen kept it moving along smoothly.

Earlier, a good over would bring about pressure, with either Tendulkar or Ganguly trying to compensate by playing risky shots. Now that they have started taking singles with good placement and understanding, that pressure is off, and overs where they are unable to clear the field and find the fence, they ease smoothly through with singles.

For me, the best indication of what this means, for an opening partnership that must now challenge for the position of best in the world, is contained in a certain statistic. Sachin and Saurav were out within one ball of each other -- and at that stage, Sachin had faced 132 deliveries, Saurav had faced 136. Indicating, obviously, that they had rotated strike perfectly, right through an association lasting 44 overs -- and that is the key to any good partnership.

Among that tapestry of singles -- and it was rather amusing to see those two do a Ranatunga on the Lankan team, time and again driving to the deep fielders in the V and strolling the run -- were the trademark pulls and drives of Sachin, and the silken glides through cover and mid off by Saurav. Both openers hit two sixes apiece, and for me, the shot that took the cake was Saurav, down the wicket to Muralitharan, getting beautifully under the ball and just easing it, with effortless timing, over the bowler's head.

If there is one fault to find in their partnership, it is that midway through, they seemed to tire and take their foot off the accelerator. The progression tells that story: 25/0 in 5; 61/0 in 10; 104/0 in 15; 123/0 in 20; 152/0 in 25; 177/0 in 30; 198/0 in 35; 232/0 in 40; 256/2 in 45.

It might sound churlish to complain of slow run rate after a partnership of that class, but look at the Lankan chase and you'll see what I mean: 29/0 in 5; 64/1 in 10; 105/2 in 15; 133/2 in 20; 156/3 in 25; 191/3 in 30; 214/4 in 35; 256/4 in 40; 275/5 in 45.

Everything even steven till the 25th, but Lanka from there pulls away effortlessly, mainly because, with the bowling down and almost out, the Indian openers preferred to rest up and cruise along rather than finish the job off.

Like I said, that sounds a case of expecting miracles -- but hey, you don't qualify for the tag of best opening pair in the world for nothing.

Jadeja, who I like to see always coming in during the slog overs -- I would rank him among the best finishers in the game -- played a brilliant cameo, and India ended up on a healthy 307, more than sufficient to daunt even the world champions.

The Indian innings also produced a totally avoidable umpiring error, and lowered Sanath Jayasuriya in my estimation. It happened thus: Robin Singh was going for a tight first run, Jayasuriya was bowling, he got the flat, hard throw from mid on, but failed to hold on and ended up breaking the wicket without the ball in his hand.

The umpire was perfectly placed to give the decision -- and yet, even as he was getting out of the way of the throw, without waiting to settle down, he raised his finger. A problem you are going to have, all the time, when you have home umpires officiating -- eagerness on behalf of the home side does tell, on even the fairest of the fair. A moment's pause, here, would have shown the umpire the ball clearly lying at Jayasuriya's feet.

But to my mind, it was Jayasuriya who was the worst sinner -- he knew he did not have the ball, he in fact muted his initial appeal when he realised his folly. It would have been the act of a sportsman to indicate to the umpire that he had not effected the dismissal cleanly. This, Jayasuriya failed to do -- and it frankly struck a raw nerve to see him accept the high fives of his colleagues as a totally perplexed Robin walked back to the pavilion.

At the start of the Lankan innings, Kaluwitharana looked out of sorts, his muscle-bound drives and hoiks over midwicket just not working on the night.

Jayasuriya more than made up, however, with trademark slashes including a slashed six over cover off Agarkar. However, he does have a certain arrogance about his play that at times leads to his undoing. Through this tournament, he has made no secret of wanting to go after Prasad, time and again dancing down the track to the slower of India's opening bowlers. Which is fine -- only, if you do it off every ball, then you telegraph your intentions to the bowler.

And if, carried away by your success against a slower ball, you try the same stunt against the quicker one, disaster strikes. What was ironic about his dismissal was that Agarkar had actually lost the plot a bit, and was bowling too short for his own good. But when Sanath began coming down to him, Agarkar compensated by firing it in fast, and full -- and one such ball, an inswinging full toss, found the batsman committed to a lifted pull over midwicket, the ball going straight and high to Ganguly on the fence.

Kaluwitharana's dismissal was foretold in the way he was playing -- never quite behind the ball, at any point. Agarkar, whose strike rate is becoming something for Ripley to take note of, these days, bowled one of fullish length outside off. When Agarkar bowls full, he gets enormous swing at times, and this was one of them, the ball reverse-swinging late. Kalu played the drive, feet nowhere behind the line, the ball took the inner edge and carromed onto the stumps.

Then followed a partnership that threatened to take the game away from India. Said it before, will say it again -- Aravinda D'Silva has to be right there at or close to the top of any connoisseur's list of best batsmen in the world. He has more gears than he can count, can step up from cruise mode to flat out assault any time he fancies, and is easily the one batsman in the Lankan side who can take on any attack in the world and make it wilt.

Today's was an incredible exhibition -- a century that, by any yardstick, outclassed those scored by the two Indian openers. Coming in when the game was evenly poised, he swung it decisively in favour of his side, with a savage assault on Kumble whom he swept and drove to distraction.

Vital, that -- had Kumble been allowed to settle down to a miserly length and line, the ask rate would have climbed out of reach. In the event, Kumble was literally swept out of the attack, and with Robin Singh also failing to apply the breaks, the Indian bowling reserves were being stretched really thin.

When you are asked to score at six plus, however, pressure does get to you. Aravinda is experienced enough to weather it, but Atapattu succumbed, attempting to hit Harbajan (who, it must be said, showed superb temperament to attack right throughout, despite the threat of the big hit) out of the park, being deceived in the flight, and holing out in the deep.

I don't know about you guys, but I always figured a shot like this ugly dab outside off, attempting to get runs to the vacant third man, is okay when used once in a while, but you can't make a livelihood out of it. Ranatunga tends to do just that -- and that is a pity, really, because he has shots all round the wicket, and doesn't need this. He does get runs in that region, but he as consistently edges behind -- and Agarkar, brought back by Azharuddin out of sheer desperation, got the extra pace and bounce to get the edge, Mongia flying to his left to take the blinder.

Even then, heading into the turn with Aravinda and Mahanama going well -- though the latter, I thought, was more than lucky to survive an LBW shout by Kumble (I wonder what the doubt was, there, that he got the benefit of -- could it be whether the ball would have flattened all three stumps, or just taken out middle?) had things well in control.

And then, mayhem. Aravinda attempted to pull Agarkar -- and one more batsman fell to the youngster's ability to produce unexpected life and pace out of a ball by then 43 overs old. The quicker pace of the ball meant Aravinda's shot, instead of clearing midwicket, landed comfortably in mid-on's hands.

At that point, it was a run a ball, almost, and still a cakewalk -- but the Indians, incredibly shoddy in the field in the middle overs (I counted three instances when what should have been a single was let through for twos and threes, one occasion when the keeper was so busy appealing, the ball went for four byes, overthrows, the works) suddenly tightened up. And Lanka cracked.

Chandana's dismissal was perhaps on the cards -- he was trying to cut Kumble all the time, played it once too often and dragged it on. Then came the second appeal against Mahanama -- again off Kumble, again turned down. This was even plumb-er, if there is such a word, than the first one. And the Indians were obviously furious with K T Francis for the negative decision.

So when Prasad rapped Dharmasena on the pad in the next over, the umpire promptly upheld a considerbly less convincing appeal, though this was actually going down leg -- a case, I suspect, of nerves and tension getting to the officials as well.

Mahanama had played a superb knock, lives included, till then -- enough, in fact, to make one wonder how come he is not in the Lankan party to England. But in his anxiety to keep strike, he got involved in a terrible mixup, and Jadeja, whose presence of mind on the field is always impeccable, ran in instead of throwing, and caught the danger man out of his ground.

And that, barring the formalities, was that as the Indians tightened everything down -- bowling and fielding both -- and finished off the game they had come within a toucher of losing.

A fine win, India's fourth of the year. And for the Lankans, a case of going with the trend, being unable to retain their own Independence Cup -- as India, Pakistan and Bangladesh all failed to do.

For those interested, the entire transcript of our commentary being uploaded on the site. Do let us know whether you think this is a useful feature.

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