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Sri
Lanka end 16-year drought with innings win over India
Colombo,
September 2: India
ended their Sri Lankan tour on a disappointing note going down by
a humiliating innings defeat to the hosts in the third and final
cricket Test match here on Sunday to lose the series 1-2.
The Indian second innings folded at 299 one hour 15 minutes into
the morning session on the fifth and final day on Sunday, giving
Sri Lanka, who had declared their first innings at 610 for six, an
innings and 77 run win.
The writing was on the wall for the Indians, who had scored 234 in
their first innings, when they lost two quick wickets early on
Sunday after resuming at 217 for six overnight while attempting to
wipe out a huge 376-run deficit.
Hemang Badani and Sameer Dighe, the overnight batsmen, were out
cheaply without troubling the scorers much before Harbhajan Singh
and Zaheer Khan indulged in pyrotechnics to delay the inevitable
somewhat.
Both Harbhajan and Zaheer went for the shots and produced a number
of boundaries, adding 48 runs for the ninth wicket. Zaheer
continued to plunder runs off Muthiah Muralitharan even after
Harbhajan was out, while trying to pull Chaminda Vaas, but his
heroics could only reduce the margin of India's defeat.
Going for another six off Muralitharan, Zaheer was caught by
Marvan Atapattu at long on which gave Sri Lanka their first
innings win over India. Muralitharan, who bagged 11 wickets in the
match, was declared man of the match.
India's cause was as good as lost yesterday itself when they had
slumped to 217 for six. With 159 more runs required to make Sri
Lanka bat again, it was always going to be a herculean task for
the tailenders. Badani and Dighe started tentatively and could add
just four runs to the overnight total before both got out in quick
succession.
Badani was trapped plumb before the wicket off Vaas in the fifth
over of the day while Dighe was the third batsman run out while
going for a non-existent run in the next over. India were eight
down for 221 when Harbhajan and Zaheer came together to play some
good shots.
Harbhajan lifted Muralitharan for a straight six and then
attempted a reverse sweep on the next ball. He missed but
succeeded in confusing the wicketkeeper which resulted in four
byes. That over from Muralitharan brought India 17 runs as Zaheer
had already hit him for a four on an earlier delivery.
In the next over, it was Zaheer's turn to get after Vaas. He hit
the bowler over point region and two balls later followed it up
with shot over cover for two boundaries that had Vaas fuming. But
that was not all. In the next over off Muralitharan, Harbhajan's
reverse sweep fetched three runs and then Zaheer hit a four each
at long-on and long-off boundaries. The duo had added 48 runs in
just five overs before Harbhajan was out trying to go for another
big hit.
Harbhajan pulled a short ball from Vaas but could not give it
enough power to enable it to go over the ropes. Atapattu took a
diving catch at the mid-wicket fence much to the relief of his
team. Harbhajan made 17 off 20 balls hitting a four and a six.
Zaheer then hit two mighty sixes off Muralitharan in two overs,
the second one bringing the deficit under 100 runs.
He was out in the same over while trying for the third one. The
ball went high up in the air and once again Atapattu took a good
catch. Zaheer hit 45 runs off just 40 balls that included five
fours and two sixes.
This was Sri Lanka's second series win against India, the first
coming in 1985. Sri Lanka had won the first Test in Galle by ten
wickets while India registered a seven-wicket win in Kandy to
level the series 1-1.
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