It is not very often that a drawn rubber of two Tests is termed as anear disaster for one side

Partab Ramchand14-Jul-2001It is not very often that a drawn rubber of two Tests is termed as anear disaster for one side. But from the Indian viewpoint, there islittle doubt that the 1997-98 tour of Sri Lanka comes very close tosuch a description. Add to it the fact that India lost all three oneday internationals and went down in the final of the Asia Cup and onehas a fair idea of a trip, during which little went right for India.The tour seemed to be doomed right from the start. For beginners,Sachin Tendulkar was quoted to have said that the selectors did notgive him the team he wanted. Even though he denied this, thecontroversy did not die down. Then in the early days of the tour camea bombshell from London with Rashid Latif, the former Pakistan wicketkeeper, alleging that four Indians – Navjot Sidhu, Md Azharuddin,Nayan Mongia and Venkatapathi Raju – were involved in a bettingscandal. And even as the dust from this controversy had not yetsettled down, coach Madan Lal came down heavily against his own sideat the end of the tour with a series of personal comments that were inbad taste.Under the circumstances, the Indians could not have been in a properframe of mind to tackle the Sri Lankans, who only a year ago had wonthe World Cup and even in the Test arena had made giant strides sincethe 3-0 whitewash the visitors suffered in India in early 1994. But noone could have bargained for what actually happened.In the first Test played at the Premadasa Stadium in Colombo, Indiawon the toss on a batting paradise and hit up 537/8 declared on thesecond evening. Centuries by Sidhu, Tendulkar and Azharuddin were thehighlights of the innings. When Sri Lanka batted, they lost MarvanAtapattu to the last delivery of the second day, bowled by debutantleft arm spinner Nilesh Kulkarni, who thus became the first Indian totake a wicket with his first ball in Test cricket.What followed thereafter was beyond belief. Sanath Jayasuriya andRoshan Mahanama batted for more than two days in adding 576 runs forthe second wicket. They broke all sorts of records – not to mentionthe bowlers’ hearts. The partnership was not broken till the morningof the fifth day when Mahanama was out for 225. Jayasuriya, who had inthe meantime, become the 13th batsman to get a triple hundred in Testsadvanced towards Brian Lara’s record score of 375. But on 340, at thesame total that Mahanama was dismissed, Jayasuriya was out. There wasno respite for the exhausted Indian bowlers even after the two wereback in the pavilion for Aravinda de Silva (126), Arjuna Ranatunga(86) and M Jayawardena (66) rubbed salt in their wounds and even asthe match headed for a tame draw, interest was sustained as Sri Lankafinally overtook the highest total in Test cricket of 903/7 declared,notched up by England against Australia at the Oval in 1938. Sri Lankafinally ended with 952/6. The Indian bowling made for sorry readingwith the three spinners Rajesh Chauhan, Anil Kumble and Kulkarnisending down 78, 72 and 70 overs to bag one wicket each for 276, 223and 195 runs respectively.The second Test, played at the nearby SSC ground, was also marked byhigh scoring, though not of the kind that one saw at the Premadasastadium. Aravinda de Silva hit a century in each innings, giving himthree consecutive three figure innings in Tests. Jayasuriya got 199 inthe second innings as Sri Lanka scored 332 and 415/7 declared. Indiaalso had their share of the run feast and replied with 375 and 281/5,thanks to centuries by Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly in thefirst innings and Azharuddin in the second.By now, a jaded Indian side were obviously not in the right frame ofmind to take on the world champions in three ODIs. But they did godown fighting in the first game. Chasing a formidable target of 303,India got to 300 for seven thanks to centuries by Ajay Jadeja andAzharuddin who shared a record 223-run partnership for the fifthwicket. Despite a stroke filled 113 by Ganguly, India lost the secondODI tamely by seven wickets with 8.5 overs to spare. The third gamewas affected by rain and replayed and in this Sri Lanka emergedtriumphant by nine runs to make a clean sweep of the series and adismal tour for the Indians ended on a fitting note.In February, 1999, India were back at the SSC, Colombo to play theAsian Test Championship game against Sri Lanka. On a placid pitch, thebatsmen of both sides had a whale of a time. Put in to bat, India ledoff with 518/7 declared. Sadagoppan Ramesh (143) and Rahul Dravid(107) added a record 232 runs for the second wicket. Tendulkar (53),Ganguly (56) and Azharuddin (87) followed with valuable contributions.The Sri Lankan reply was sustained by a monumental 242 by MahelaJayawardene. His career best knock lasted 677 minutes, spread overthree days, and 465 balls with 30 fours and two sixes. Coming in whenthe first wicket fell at 18, he was last out at 485. The pitchremained a batting beauty even on the final day, emphasized by thefact that India closed at 306 for five with Tendulkar (124 not out)getting his 19th Test century. India got five points and Sri Lankafour from the game but with India having already lost to Pakistan,this was hardly sufficient and the subsequent drawn Test betweenPakistan and Sri Lanka at Lahore meant that Sri Lanka edged out Indiafor a place in the final, which was won by Pakistan.