COLOMBO // The Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardene paid glowing tribute to his bowlers after they bounced back from the second Test loss to complete a superb 2-1 series victory over India at the P Saravanamuttu stadium yesterday. "It was a hard series and the team showed a lot of character to come back after losing the second Test," said Jayawardene. "Credit should go to the bowlers as they didn't allow the strong India batting line up to score runs.
"India, we all know, has a very experienced and strong batting line-up. But our bowlers did well to keep them to a minimum. Ajantha [Mendis] was just magnificent and Murali [Muttiah Muralitharan] played his usual role in all the games." Jayawaredene's counterpart Anil Kumble was naturally disappointed with the result. "The batsmen did not put up a score and that is why we lost the series. Overall I don't think we played quality cricket to win the series. We missed a good opportunity."
Jayawardene and the opener Malinda Warnapura shared a century stand to complete an emphatic eight-wicket win after India were bowled out for 268 in the second innings, leaving Sri Lanka a victory target of 122. India enjoyed some fleeting moments when Harbhajan Singh and Zaheer Khan captured a wicket each to Sri Lanka at a precarious 22-2 but in the absence of injured strike bowler Ishant Sharma, there was no way they could have defended that score.
Earlier in the day the Indian overnight pair of Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman made a resolute attempt to bail out the tourists but the man-of-the-series Mendis made the breakthrough when he had Dravid caught by Jayewardene at slip to end an 85-run stand for the sixth wicket. Dravid's contribution was 68 with six fours and Laxman was left out of partners on 61. Mendis took 3-81 to finish with a match bag of 8-37 and end the series with 26 wickets at a cost of only 18 runs each. Mendis made the vital breakthrough when he had Dravid caught at slip by Jayawardene for 68, his highest score of the series, and ended an 85-run stand for the sixth wicket with Laxman.
Muralitharan got rid of Kumble for nine and last man Sharma to return with 3-99 and take his record tally to 756. Tendulkar ruled out for ODIs India's quest to draw consolation in the five-match ODI series against Sri Lanka - starting from Aug 18 - had its first setback yesterday when the batsman Sachin Tendulkar was ruled out with an elbow injury. Tendulkar, 35, jarred his left elbow while attempting a catch on the second day of the Test. He will be sidelined for between two to three weeks and replaced by S Badrinath.
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