Lankans hope halt India's winning run

For Sri Lanka, it's a fight to stay alive against an Indian team that's brimming with confidence after winning seven matches on the trot. For India, it's about keeping the momentum going and wrapping up the five-match series on Tuesday, reports Nilankur Das.

For Sri Lanka, it's a fight to stay alive against an Indian team that's brimming with confidence after winning seven matches on the trot. For India, it's about keeping the momentum going and wrapping up the five-match series on Tuesday.

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The visitors would be hoping that their batsmen make it count on a Premadasa wicket on which Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir and Yuvraj Singh looked to score at will. Losing wickets at regular intervals on Saturday meant that India had the last recognised pair of Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Yusuf Pathan in the middle when the team opted for Powerplay. Both batsmen departed in quick succession and just 14 runs could be added in those five overs.

India would be out to avoid a similar scenario and also need to improve on running between wickets. There have been three run-outs in the two matches; it's a different matter that Sri Lanka failed to make them count.

The visitors had an optional training session on Monday, which skipper M.S. Dhoni and Zaheer Khan skipped, but Sachin Tendulkar was hard at work after being dismissed leg-before early in both matches. Dhoni has been spot on while rotating the part-time bowlers and though Pragyan Ojha, his leading spinner, has not really bothered the batsmen, the skipper would be happy with the two breakthroughs the left-arm bowler got him in the two matches.

Sri Lanka's problems are many. Despite their success in the last six months, the new-ball attack of Thilan Thushara and Nuwan Kulasekara is inexperienced and the hosts have realised that doing well against Zimbabwe and Bangladesh or even Pakistan is different from bowling to the big names in the Indian top order. While Thushara has offered width, Kulasekara has strayed in line.

As Dhoni insisted, the toss would be crucial as the new ball did quite a bit under lights. India were clearly 20 to 25 runs short on Saturday and had Mahela Jayawardene, who is looking to get over a lean patch, stayed on, Sri Lanka would have got home rather easily. Another factor that worked in India's favour in the last match was that the Lankan batsmen found the ball difficult to pick once it got discoloured. Jayawardene had complained that the umpires, who have already drawn flak for some poor decisions, were not eager to change the ball frequently.

Meanwhile, an injured Munaf Patel took a morning flight back to Bangalore and manager Prakash Dikshit said Lakshmipathy Balaji would join the squad as replacement on Monday night. Munaf, according to Dhoni, had injured his groin while warming up for the first match in Dambulla. The medium-pacer bowled just five overs in the match and was replaced by Praveen Kumar in the second.