Kumble was a bit of a let-down

For all of Jayasuriya's brilliance, I felt, Indians should have defended the target better. For once Kumble was a let down, writes Kris Srikkanth.

Cricket is not for the faint-hearted, is it? Zaheer Khan was not even expected to play the match but not only did he play, he was also thrust the responsibility of bowling the crucial last over, which to round off the day's surprises, he carried out with elan.

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India are thus finally in the final of the Asia Cup and I am quite sure that a lot of Indians, having switched off their TV sets towards the end of the Lankan innings in disgust, would have needed to read Wednesday's papers to have found that out.

I must admit that I too was tempted not to watch the match being allowed to slip away. C'mon, on a wicket where the ball was turning square and where half the opposition had been dismissed within 150 runs, how could the Indians have allowed the game to go this far. In my humble opinion, with 271 on the board, the Indians should have completed an easy victory.

Here, I do not want to take anything away from Jayasuriya who was pure genius on the day. He played one of the best one day innings I have ever had the privilege of watching. Till young and obviously talented Dilshan came on the scene, Jayasuriya didn't get much support and with the ball not coming on either, the wicket wasn't conducive for stroke play. Apparently nobody told Jayasuriya that and he simply blazed away.

It must be mentioned that former Lankan captain had his share of luck too. At least on two occasions, he seemed to be plumb in front of the wicket. But I am not one to make too much of the umpiring — these things are part of the game and it is always easier to make judgements outside the field than it is in the middle.

For all of Jayasuriya's brilliance, I still felt that the Indians should have defended the target better. For once Anil Kumble was a let down. I thought he was a bit too fast in the air. Had he slowed down a bit, he could have been more effective. Also Jayasuriya seems to have some sort of a psychological hold on Anil — he is able to sweep him at will. Of course, had Anil got a favourable ruling against Jayasuriya with his first ball, things may have been different.

To continue with being slower through the air in order to be effective on wickets such as those in Lanka, you only have to look at Sehwag's bowling to know what I am talking about. I have been harping that he should given a bowl and I am glad that he finally was handed the ball. He bowls stump to stump and so will always be effective in one-day cricket, more so on such wickets because he tosses the ball up nicely. I wonder sometimes how Sehwag the batsman would play Sehwag the bowler!

Sehwag's batting too was impressive. It wasn't the usual fluent knock but the fact that he can bat himself back to form is a good sign. Ganguly too was a revelation. He too is known to go after the bowling but on Tuesday he handled the responsibility of staying on for long quite well. In that respect he must have been disappointed with the final total. (XSports Bangalore)