Sri Lanka is a place not many cricket teams enjoy touring. The humidity, the sluggish pitches, a formidable home team all make it one of the hardest places to succeed in.
Sri Lanka is a place not many cricket teams enjoy touring. The humidity, the sluggish pitches, a formidable home team all make it one of the hardest places to succeed in.
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India skipper MS Dhoni is all smiles during their training in Colombo yesterday. pic/afp |
It is to Mahendra Singh Dhoni and his current bunch of players' credit that they have overcome all these odds and stand on the threshold of achieving a rare feat in Sri Lanka.u00a0 If they emerge triumphant in the on-going Compaq Cup, India will post a coveted hat-trick of one-day series victories in Sri Lanka.
In fact, India will become the first ever country to achieve this unique hat-trick. The only other nation to have come close to this milestone is Pakistan when they bagged the first, third and fourth series out of their first four assignments in Lanka during the period from 1986 to 1994.
The tri-series has hosts Sri Lanka and New Zealand as the other participating teams with the final scheduled to be played on September 14 in Colombo.
India's two consecutive victories in the Emerald Isles were in August last year (victory margin: 3-2) and earlier this year when they won by a whopping 4-1 margin. Both were bilateral series.
Leading from the front On both occasions, Dhoni led from the front. He was the highest scorer with 193 runs in 2008 and the third highest run-getter in 2009. He was also named Man of the series last year.u00a0 It can be recalled that he played the 2008 ODI series after opting to skip the Test series.
The most impressive aspect of Dhoni's Lanka exploits has been the way he adjusted his game to the local conditions.
