Sri Lanka makes it three in a row

Prem Panicker

Predictably enough hosts, and World Cup champions, Sri Lanka powered to a 103 run win over Bangladesh on Tuesday, to coast into the finals of the ongoing Asia Cup quadrangular with an unbeaten record in the league phase.

Ironically, the rain, which had on two successive days ruined all prospects for the key India-Pakistan encounter to be conducted, vanished, the ground dried up, and the sun shone, for this match which, as far as the tournament was concerned, had no value whatsoever. Sri Lanka by virtue of wins over India and Pakistan were in any event through to the final and Bangladesh, beaten by Pakistan and Sri Lanka, were as certainly out of the competition.

A comprehensive analysis of this game would be pointless, since it was a "game" only during two brief spells. For the rest, what we witnessed was, with all due respect to Bangladesh, a horrible mismatch.

The phase in which the game showed elements of interest was during the first ten overs. Bangladesh skipper Mohammad Akram Khan, having won the toss, had inserted Sri Lanka. "There is moisture in the wicket and we are hoping to pick up early wickets and put them under pressure," Khan said in explanation of his decision.

For a while, hope dangled teasingly in front of the Bangladesh team as Saiful Islam and Hasibul Hassan, opening the bowling, made the ball swing and seam in favourable conditions. On several occasions, Sanath Jayasuriya in particular miscued attempted strokes to the offside - in fact, twice in succession the Lankan left-hander stepped out to play his trademark full-blooded drive through extra cover only for the ball, moving late, to glance off the back and balloon to the third man and backward point regions, both times for boundaries.

If luck had run a little less for the Lankans and a little more for the Bangladeshis, perhaps Akram Khan's hope of early wickets might have fructified. In the event, Pakistan were 47/0 in the first ten overs - and from that point, simply powered away.

And again, it was Jayasuriya who was primarily responsible. Three furious drives for four in the 12th over signalled his intentions. And when skipper Akram Khan brought himself on as fourth change to bowl gentle medium pace, Jayasuriya went into overdrive. Bending at the knee to get under the ball, Jayasuriya first clubbed one from off stump back over the bowlers head for six. Next ball, holding his bat in a style more suited to baseball, the batsman swivelled to despatch it over midwicket for another six. And the next ball was clubbed furiously over mid on for the third successive six - and from that point on, there was only one team in the game.

The Lankan left hander duly raced to a century before one pull over midwicket too many put the ball down the sweeper's throat, Marvan Atapattu - who with each successive outings appears more comfortable in the role of opener which has devolved upon him following the poor run of Romesh Kaluwitharana, played his usual classical, correct game to move along to 60 off 74 deliveries before he, too, appeared to get bored by the whole thing and got himself out. Aravinda D'Silva, who probably fancied a longish bat in ideal conditions, got a faint touch to a ball from Minajul Abedin and left for an uncharacteristically low score of 15, but skipper Ranatunga and Roshan Mahanama, without ever working up a sweat, ensured that Sri Lanka ended its allotted 50 overs at 296/4.

Then followed the other brief phase of the game when it resembled something like a contest. Bangladesh openers Athar Ali Khan and Naimur Rahman, batting with calm confidence, actually matched the Lankans and took the score along to 42/0 in the first ten overs, and to 76 in the 16th over, before a Muralitharan off-spinner turned just that fraction more to defeat Khan's drive and, off the inner edge, go through to make a mess of the stumps. And there ended the contest, despite attempts at resistance by the likes of Aminul Islam and skipper Akram Khan.

Overall, Bangladesh lost this one in the field. Its bowlers predictably followed up a couple of good line and length deliveries with ones that offered the Lankan batsmen length and width for forcing strokes, while the fielders spilt chance after chance in the outfield. The first smacked of inexperience, the second of a lack of match practise in top level conditions.

Which brings up a thought. Bangladesh, having just recently been granted admittance by the ICC into the roster of full-fledged ODI nations (along with Kenya, to raise the roster to 11 full nations) will be looking now to up the quality of its cricket.

As far as the batting goes, Bangladesh appears - under the guidance of coach Gordon Greenidge - to be well on the way to mastering the basics. The opening pair in particular did everything right. Athar Ali Khan is classical in his strokeplay, Rehman less stylish but equally effective. And the two constantly looked for the singles, keeping the scoreboard ticking over at a nice even pace. The rest of the batsmen, too, showed enough ability to raise the hope that with more practise, they will begin to give the 9 senior nations more of a fight - if, that is, the bowling and fielding improve dramatically.

Maybe Bangladesh could explore, with the boards of India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, the option of playing Tests and ODIs against the A teams of these three nations. Another recent proposal - which at this stage is more in the nature of a trial balloon - is for Bangladesh to play as a guest team in the Indian domestic circuit, participating in the Ranji Trophy championships.

Both these initiatives would, to my mind, yield good dividends. You don't learn much by playing against the likes of Scotland and Canada one day and then going up against the World Champions a couple of months later. How you do learn is by playing teams that are a couple of steps - not a couple of dozen - ahead of you in terms of talent.

It is the same principle that long distance champions adopt, when they use the services of a pacemaker - a runner who, while not capable of lasting the distance, is good enough to keep a brisk pace for over half the length. The champion positions himself a few yards behind the pacemaker, running along easily, using the frontrunner as a sort of sighting mark.

Same difference here. By playing the A teams of India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, Bangladesh will be competing against teams that are ahead of them in both talent and experience, yet close enough to their standards for them to make a fight of the games. And as the newbie nation fights to bridge the gap, it will lift its own game to greater heights, improving as it goes along.

And that, obviously, would be a good thing for cricket...

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