Okay, India won the series 3-1 following the abandoned encounter at Delhi. However, the batters from both sides dominated the series. If Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir and Virat Kohli starred for India, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Upul Tharanga and Kumar Sangakkara were in explosive form for the Lankans.

The bowlers from both sides, experienced and inexperienced, were at the receiving end. As such, if there was one factor that decided the fate of the series, it was the inability of the weak Lankan middle-order to capitalize on the great starts provided by the trio mentioned above.

Except for Mahela Jayawardene, they did not have much when it came to experience in the middle-order. Thilina Kandamby showed some spark when India visited Sri Lanka earlier in the year, but on this tour his deficiencies were clearly exposed.

In fact, he will be remembered more for his innumerable fielding lapses during the series more than anything else. Then, there is Chamara Kapugedara, who has been retaining his place in the side for reasons unknown.

He hasn’t registered a decent score in a while and it’s about time the Lankan selectors tell him to shape up for ship out. Among the others, Thilan Samaraweera is still finding his feet as an ODI batsman, while Sanath Jayasuriya has looked anything but comfortable while batting down the order. And so, Jayawardene’s failure proved all the more critical for the visitors.

Despite being on the losing side, it was great to see Dilshan in full flow. 2009 has been his watershed year and he can only get better from here on. The drives on the up, cuts, pulls and of course the Dilscoop have made him as devastating a batsman as Sehwag.

Like Dishan, Tharanga too was in ballistic form. He had lost his way after a sensational start to his career, but this series should set things right for him once again. And about Sangakkara, one can’t be effusive enough in praise of his batsmanship. The effortless ease with which he cleared the boundaries throughout series was in stark contrast to the power play on demonstration by Dilshan, yet equally effective.

However, if the Lankan trio was explosive, India were even more deadly. Sehwag carried his murderous form from the Tests into the ODIs and gave India some enthralling starts. And when Sehwag failed, Tendulkar was there to hold fort. Gambhir only made one major contribution in the series, but it was perhaps the most significant of all. Further, this series could end up being the turning point in rookie Kohli’s career. Prior to the series, he was not able to convert the 50s into bigger scores. But at Kolkata, in the company of Gambhir, he achieved it in an impressive manner, and more importantly under pressure.

In the other departments, it has to be said that India were the slightly better of the two bowling sides, while Lanka took the honours when it came to fielding, despite not being at their best. At the end of the day, however, their overall failure as a batting unit sealed their fate.

What transpired at the Feroz Shah Kotla stadium in Delhi on Sunday was embarrassing and extremely sad. It was the last cricketing day of the year for Sri Lanka and India.

Both teams and more importantly the spectators, who had turned up in large numbers and with loads of expectations, did not deserve such an inexplicable fiasco. Surely, such things cannot happen in a nation that, everyone knows, can hold world cricket to ransom on the basis of the huge money it brings into the game. Then again, as the popular saying goes, it happens only in India.

The catastrophe in waiting was predictable even before the game began. During the pre-match pitch report, Sunil Gavaskar compared the surface to a hair-weaving job — bald patches interspersed with grass coverings. No one could predict how the pitch would play and so, not surprisingly, MS Dhoni decided to bowl first and have a look. The delay due to misty conditions only turned out to be the calm before the storm.

To take nothing away from Zaheer Khan, he bowled a peach of a delivery to send back the in-from Upul Tharanga off the first ball. But what followed from thereon can be attributed neither to the batters nor the bowlers.

It was the Kotla pitch that was dictating the terms of play. It was as if the curators had given ghostly qualities to the pitch, as some balls leapt close to or over the batsmen’s shoulder after pitching and others rolled along the square, hardly having any life as it trudged into the keeper’s gloves. And when such things happen, the chances of serious injuries to batsmen become imminent.

One can even go to the extent of saying that it was surprising Kumar Sangakkara waited for so long before calling off the game – over 20 overs. Yes, such was the viciousness of Kolta on Sunday.

Tillakaratne Dilshan was hit on the elbow by one that reared up from a good length, while Sanath Jayasuriya took one on the shoulder from a delivery that had pitched in an area close by. Luckily, no one was seriously injured and before anyone did, the suave Sangakkara took the smart decision of stepping in and bringing the curtains down on the game abruptly.

While one feels extremely sad for the fans, there are no two ways about it that the Lankan captain made the right choice. If anything, the DDCA must be held responsible.

They had enough time to prepare a good international pitch. Unfortunately, what they offered was no acceptable even by gully cricket standards. This is what happens when the reins of sports are handed over to the power-greedy politicians. Everyone wants things their way and the end result is the curator doesn’t have a proper say, leading to vicious results.

Of course, this is not the first time such an incident has occurred in India. 12 years ago, an ODI in Indore had to be abandoned between the same two teams for the same reason.

The men in charge over there have since got their act right and Indore games have produced some fabulous entertainment. DDCA too must act swiftly and move over this shameful episode, more so because they are scheduled to host four matches during the 2011 World Cup.

India gave a perfect Christmas gift to its cricket-loving public, with a convincing seven-wicket win at the charming Eden Gardens in Kolkata, which hosted an international game after quite a while. Gautam Gambhir and Virat Kolhi were the chief architects of the win, both notching up sparkling centuries. Things weren’t all that easy for India, as they lost stand-in skipper Virender Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar chasing a 300-plus score. However, Gambhir batted with great gumption and Kohli provided him with excellent support. The duo went about rebuilding the innings in a highly mature fashion and, in the end, India cantered home to a series victory.

Gambhir, who was due for a big score, stood up to the challenge, like he has so often done in the last 12 months. Despite losing the openers early to the pacy Suranga Lakmal, who extracted substantial bounce from the track, the southpaw saw to it that India never fell behind the required run-rate. It helped that Lakmal did not get an inch of support from the other pacemen. Lasith Malinga bowled like a debutant while the actual debutant, Thissara Perera, had a baptism by fire. If Gambhir was excellent in constructing his innings, Kolhi was equally impressive. This writer had mentioned in his earlier piece that Kolhi needed to learn from his mistakes and convert starts into substantial scores. At the Eden Gardens he did just that as the hunger to get a hundred was evident in the manner in which he went about constructing his innings.

The best part of the Kolhi-Gambhir association was that they complemented each other perfectly during their record third-wicket partnership. Both ran brilliantly between the wickets and stole a number of twos, even when the ball had not crossed the 30-yard circle. And they rotated the strike with effervescent ease. The job was made easier for the duo, as a number of boundary balls were on offer. Just like the singles and twos, they did not allow any of the opportunities to pass by. Even so, they managed to play rather risk-free cricket.

Against spinner Suraj Randiv, who was the best bowler on show for the Lankans once more, they were prepared to deal in singles. The fact that the ball did not turn owing to the dew factor meant Gambhir could easily clip the ball on the on side, unlike at Cuttack where the stroke cost him his wicket. As for Kolhi, his tendency to move across the stumps has often led to his downfall. But, on this day, there was no stopping him as he middled everything enroute to his maiden ODI hundred. That the innings came under trying circumstances with hold him in good stead for the future games.

Unlike their batting, the bowling effort was disappointing yet again. Ishant Sharma continued to flatter and deceive, Ashish Nehra bowled well only in patches and while Zaheer Khan put up a better effort, he was still not at his best. For a change, there was a significant improvement in their fielding effort. At the end of the day though, two magnificent tons were enough for India to chinch yet another ODI series win over Lanka and set off the Christmas festivities in the country.

Is this the stroke of luck Sri Lanka needed? For the first time in five years, India will be without the two lynchpins of their middle-order – skipper MS Dhoni and Yuvraj Singh, one serving a ban and the other ruled out due to a recurrence of his finger injury. Moreover, Lanka have fond memories of the venue for the fourth and crucial ODI. Thirteen years ago, it was here at Eden Gardens, Kolkata that a rampaging Lankans knocked India out of the World Cup in an embarrassing fashion. So despite being 2-1 down, they still have enough going for them. It’s now up to the visitors to exploit the situation to the hilt.

Let’s not be unfair to India though. Considering that they won at Cuttack in an extremely handsome fashion, the home side will start as favourites even in the absence of Dhoni and Yuvraj. In Virender Sehwag, they have a positive stand-in skipper and a batsman whose credentials do not need to be discussed. It will help that he has been in great form. Additionally, Sachin Tendulkar too has played with a lot of comfort. His knock at Cuttack should given the side further assurance that they can afford a somewhat brittle middle-order. While Sehwag and Tendulkar have been among the runs, the same cannot be said around Gautam Gambhir. And so India would be hoping that the southpaw has a big one reserved for Kolkata.

Coming back to the middle-order, this game will be a great opportunity for the youngsters to stand up and show what stuff they are made of. Suresh Raina will get an opportunity to bat up the order, and it’s about time he starts converting his 30s and 40s into big scores. Ditto with Virat Kohli. In his short stint at the international level, it has been observed that Kohli loses focus after getting a good start and looking well set for a big score. Here’s a chance for him to set the record straight. Among the others, Dinesh Karthik and Ravindra Jadeja would be expected to chip in if needed.

As has been the case throughout the series, the Indian bowling and fielding, in particular, will be under the scanner. The pacemen continued to struggle in the third ODI and it was only due to the efforts of the spinners that India could make a superb comeback. While it is good news that the Eden Gardens pitch will offer assistance to the slow bowlers in the latter half of the innings, the fast bowlers will have to put up a better show else the efficiency of the spinners will automatically be reduced.

One should also be careful of not putting excessive pressure on Jadeja, the bowler. While it is true that he bowled excellently in the last game, it is also a fact that he’s more of a part-time spinner and won’t be as successful consistently. That responsibility is still to be shouldered by Harbhajan Singh. If Jadeja manages to get through his quota of overs without being overtly expensive and picks up the odd wicket, he will have done his bit. And if India succeeds in wrapping up the series at Kolkata, the team too would have done its job well.

History repeated itself for Sri Lanka once again as their middle and lower order crumbled for third game in a row at Cuttack. While they were lucky to get away with it at Nagpur, the collapse was too magnanimous to allow the visitors to escape in the day-night encounter on Monday. The failure of the middle-order batsmen has meant that the great starts provided by the top three are constantly going in vain.

Most sides would die to have their first three batsmen in supreme form. Unfortunately, the Lankans are just not being able to capitalize on it. And being the most experienced hand in the middle-order, former captain Mahela Jayawardene must accept some part of the blame for the team’s failures. When you consider that the others like Thilina Kandamby and Chamara Kapugedera are relatively inexperienced, a lot of onus naturally falls on Jayawardene to perform. He is capable of not only scoring big runs, but also guiding the youngsters, considering he was leading the same bunch of guys not so long ago. The series is not over yet, so if Jayawardene can step up and deliver, he can still play a pivotal role in turning around Lanka’s fortunes.

Plenty has been written about the exclusion of Sanath Jayasuriya. Many have termed it unfair. True, Jayasuriya has been a great servant of Lankan cricket for two decades, but it is also a fact that he cannot walk into the team just on the basis past achievements. And so keeping sentiments aside, one will realize that the kind of form Upul Tharanga and Tillakartne Dilshan are in, there is no place for Jayasuriya at the top of the other. If anything, he can be slotted in as an all-rounder at number six, replacing one of the youngsters. This ploy was tried in the opening game and though it did not come off, there is no harm in giving it another go considering the brittle resistance the middle-order has been putting up.

The Lankan bowling hasn’t been extraordinary in any sense, but on subcontinent wickets bowlers are bound to be tanked around. Even so, the comeback of Lasith Malinga will be welcomed by the team. He may not have posed many threats to the Indian batsmen at Cuttack, but he can prove to be quite a handful if he gets it right in the coming games. Further, Chanaka Welegedara and rookie spinner Surav Randiv also have been extremely impressive with the ball. Ironically, in the bowling department too, the experienced men like Nuwan Kulasekara and Ajantha Mendis have let the team down. To be fair to Lanka, they have been hit badly by injuries. However, at the international level that cannot be an excuse to under perform.

While the Sri Lankans would be hoping that the middle-order and the bowlers get their act right, at the same time they would also be praying that Dilshan, Tharanga and Sangakkara continue in the same vein. And if all things fall in place, there might as well be another turnaround in the series.