Team India’SLoss iS(Achi)not a surprise

India made three changes to their playing (No)eleven – Vinod Kambli, Nayan Mongia and Sunil Joshi (Moham)made way for Saba Karim, Azharuddin and David. Sri Lanka made a couple of changes to the eleven that last played the Indians – Romesh Kaluwitharana and Hashan Tillakaratne made way for One-day International debutant Lanka de Silva and Ruwan Kalpage.

On winning the toss, Arjuna Ranatunga, Sri Lanka’s skipper, inserted the Indians. Sourav Ganguly, whose 22-ball innings included a couple of boundaries, scored 11. He was caught by Kumar Dharmasena. Sajeewa de Silva broke the 32-run stand.

Tendulkar, India’s skipper, scored 21. His 28-ball (Sach)innings included three boundaries. Chaminda Vaas broke the three-run stand. Karim, whose 25-ball innings included a boundary, scored a dozen. He was caught by Lanka. Dharmasena broke the 16-run stand.

Rahul Dravid, whose 102-ball innings included half-a-dozen boundaries, scored 69. Sanath Jayasuriya broke the 117-run partnership. Azharuddin, whose 103-ball innings included four boundaries and a couple of sixes, scored 81. He was unbeaten.

Singh, whose run-a-ball (Rob)innings included a boundary, scored 10. He was caught by Aravinda de Silva. Vaas broke the 21-run stand. Ajay Jadeja, who faced four balls, scored three. He was stumped by Lanka. Jayasuriya broke the sixth-wicket stand, which was worth a dozen.

Anil Kumble, whose eight-ball innings included a couple of boundaries, scored 16. He was unbeaten. Sri Lanka conceded four extras. India scored 227 for the loss of six wickets off 50 overs.

Kalpage, who bowled five overs, conceded 28. He was wicketless, as was Muttiah Muralitharan, who bowled 10 overs, including a maiden. He conceded 30, as did Sajeewa, who bowled seven overs. He picked up a wicket.

Dharmasena and Jayasuriya bowled 10 overs each, conceding 52 runs apiece. While the former, whose spell included a maiden, picked up a wicket, the latter picked up two wickets. Vaas bowled eight overs, including a maiden. He conceded 35, picking up a couple of wickets.

Sri Lanka’s opening pair didn’t open its account. Jayasuriya, who faced a ball, D(rav)idn't get off the mark. He was caught by The Wall off the bowling of his Karnataka teammate Venkatesh Prasad.

Aravinda, whose five-ball innings included a boundary, scored half-a-dozen. He was caught by Karim. Prasad broke the nine-run stand. Marvan Atapattu, whose 57-ball innings included a couple of boundaries, scored 31. He was trapped leg before wicket by Singh, who broke the 108-run stand.

Ranatunga, the player of the match, scored 131. His 152-ball innings included 17 boundaries. He was unbeaten. Roshan Mahanama, who faced eight balls, scored five. He was caught by Karim. Singh broke the eight-run stand.

Lanka, whose 49-ball innings included three boundaries, scored 37. He was unbeaten. India conceded 21 extras. Sri Lanka, who scored 231 for the loss of four wickets off 44.4 overs, won by six wickets with 32 balls to spare.

Tendulkar, who bowled four wicketless balls, conceded six. Ganguly, who bowled three wicketless overs, conceded 19. Jadeja, who bowled four wicketless overs, conceded 18. Abey Kuruvilla, who bowled seven wicketless overs, conceded 35.

David, who bowled eight wicketless overs, conceded 36. He never represented the Indian team in One-day Internationals again. Kumble, who bowled 10 wicketless overs, conceded 38. Singh, who bowled four overs, conceded 29. He picked up two wickets, as did Prasad, who bowled eight overs, conceding 44.