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NEWS Tri-Nation Tournament in Sri Lanka>India refuse to shrug-off ‘chokers’ tag 09th Aug 2005 23.13 IST By Agencies A new captain in Rahul Dravid and a new coach in Greg Chappell made no difference to India's fortunes as the side lived up to the ‘chokers’ tag in the final of a multi-national contest, this time losing the final of the Tri-Series to Sri Lanka by 18 runs at the Premadasa Stadium in Colombo on August 9. India’s last title in a multi-national tournament came in 2002 when they beat England in the final of the NatWest Trophy at Lord's.
Sehwag had the momentum going when he hit Dilhara Lokuhettige for 26 runs in one over. That was the first over bowled by Lokuhettige, the sixth over of the Indian innings and the sequence read: 4,4,6,4,4,4. But the Sri Lankan veteran Chaminda Vaas had Sehwag edge his delivery onto his stumps in the very next over for the whole Sri Lankan nation to heave a sigh of relief. Sehwag scored 48 runs off 22 balls. The next to go was Ganguly trapped plumb in front of the wicket by Tillakaratne Dilshan for 26. But Dravid and Yuvraj Singh steadied the Indian ship with a partnership of 84 runs and they were cruising along comfortably at 186/2 before Yuvraj’s dismissal, after scoring 46, turned the tide in favour of the hosts. The in-form Mohammad Kaif replaced Yuvraj. Dravid, by this time was totally exhausted. It felt almost imminent, when Dravid was run-out on a non-existent single for 69. From a comfortably placed situation, India was literally down in the dumps, now. The scorecard read 209/4 in the 40th over. 73 runs were required off the last 60 balls. Wicket-keeper Mahendra Dhoni came in next, with huge expectations on his shoulder. He disappointed though, departing for just 6. With Dhoni gone, batting moved into the tail-enders. The run chase went down hill from then on. Bowlers Irfan Pathan departed on 1, Harbhajan Singh on 0, Zaheer Khan on 5 in a space of few balls. Kaif, who was undefeated on the other end, crumbled under pressure. He walked back to the pavilion for 31 runs. Spinner Anil Kumble , next up, hung till the very end along with Ashish Nehra , both on 9 not out. India ultimately fell short of the 262-run target by 18 runs. Earlier, Sanath Jayasuriya became the fourth player to make 10,000 one-day runs as Sri Lanka made a mockery of India's decision to play with five specialist bowlers plundering the tournament's highest score. Jayasuriya, coming into the match 10 short of joining the elite club of Sachin Tendulkar , Inzamam-ul-Haq and Ganguly, made 67 as the home side, with valuable knocks from Mahela Jayawardene (83) and Russel Arnold (64) made 281 for nine in 50 overs. Having learnt a lesson or two in the earlier matches for playing with four bowlers, India went to the match with five bowlers but the move did not seem to help in containing the run flow. The attack, barring Nehra, who took 6/59, proved ineffective as Sri Lanka, electing to bat, flayed the erratic Indian bowlers to post a huge total. The irony was that except for Nehra none of the bowlers took a wicket with the other three dismissals coming through run outs. Jayawardene was adjudged both the Man of the Match and Man of the Series. The loss was India's third in succession against Sri Lanka in the series having lost both the league matches at Dambulla last week. Also View In-Depth Coverage: Tri-Nation Tournament in Sri Lanka Team Page: India Team Page: Sri Lanka | LIVE CRICKET COVERAGE NEWS ~ Gilchrist has no plans to retire after World Cup ~ Ganguly's new batting approach may cost him sixer record ~ India 'squash the Orange' in World Cup warm-up game ~ Symonds gets a new hairdo for World Cup ~ Dhoni readies himself for stand-up act at World Cup (more in NEWS) FACE-TO-FACE ~ 500-mark a possibility in World Cup: Hayden ~ Minnows add charm to World Cup: Dravid (more in FACE-TO-FACE) COLUMNS ~ Will Sri Lanka replicate 1996 World Cup success? (more in COLUMNS) OFF-THE-FIELD ~ Ganguly again the darling of corporate world ~ Ganguly roped in as brand ambassador of Puma (more in OFF-THE-FIELD) PLAYERS Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, Anil Kumble (more PLAYERS) TEAMS India, South Africa, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Australia, West Indies, Zimbabwe, England, New Zealand, Bangladesh, Kenya, Holland | 
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