After suffering an eight-wicket thrashing by Sri Lanka in the third and final Test, Indian skipper Anil Kumble said it was their inconsistency and failure of the middle order to put up a big score on a good wicket that cost them the match and the series.
Skipper Mahela Jayawardene and Malinda Warnapura hammered half centuries to help Sri Lanka thrash India by eight wickets, as the visitors wilted under pressure in the third and final cricket Test to clinch the series 2-1.
India were desperately struggling to save the series deciding third and final Test at 161 for 5, just managing to wipe out the deficit in their second innings against Sri Lanka on the third day in Colombo on Sunday.
A valiant unbeaten 107 by Kumar Sangakkara steered Sri Lanka to a two-run first innings lead against India as the hosts piled up 251 for 6 before bad light stopped the play on the second day of the third and final cricket Test in Colombo on Saturday.
Sri Lankan bowler Dammika Prasad could not have wished for a better debut. The twenty-five years old unsettled the famed the Indian top order with his three-wicket haul that included Sachin Tendulkar.
Electing to bat, India were all out for 249 in their first innings on the first day of their third and final cricket Test match against Sri Lanka at the P Saravanamuttu Stadium in Colombo on Friday.
India skipper Anil Kumble on Thursday said that wicketkeeper Parthiv Patel will replace butterfingered Dinesh Kaarthick in the third and final Test against Sri Lanka in the match beginning on Friday.
India will be without coach Gary Kirsten for the crucial third Test against Sri Lanka as the South African would fly home to be with his mother, who is critically ill with cancer.
India made amends for the Colombo debacle by trouncing Sri Lanka by 170 runs within four days to level the three-match Test series 1-1 in Galle on Sunday.
Virender Sehwag stood bravely amid the ruins with a swashbuckling unbeaten 201, before Harbhajan Singh scalped four wickets to leave the second cricket Test between India and Sri Lanka evenly poised at the end of the second day in Galle on Friday.
Virender Sehwag blasted a quickfire unbeaten 128 as India squandered a flying start with a dramatic collapse which saw the visitors losing four wickets in the second cricket Test against Sri Lanka on Thursday.
India will have to quickly find a solution to counter the twin threat posed by Sri Lankan spinners as they go into the must-win second cricket Test in Galle on Thursday.
With the humiliating loss in Colombo still rankling the Indian cricket team, Gautam Gambhir asserted on Monday that the visitors will find a way to tackle the menacing spin duo of Muttiah Muralitharan and Ajantha Mendis.
Indian coach Gary Kirsten minced no words in blaming his batsmen for landing the team in a pressure cooker situation resulted by their poor shot selection against Sri Lankan spinners at the SSC in Colombo.
India were staring at a possible follow on with their famed batsmen crumbling to spin wizard Muthiah Muralitharan, whose sensational four-wicket haul put Sri Lanka firmly in the driver's seat in the first cricket Test in Colombo on Friday.
Captain Mahela Jayawardene, Malinda Warnapura and Thilan Samaraweera struck centuries as Sri Lanka capitalised on three dropped catches to take tight control of the first cricket Test against India in Colombo on Thursday.
Removing a couple of Sri Lankan top order batsmen on the truncated opening day was not a bad effort but Zaheer Khan wants his bowling colleagues to be more aggressive on Thursday to get early breakthroughs and pin down the hosts in the first cricket Test.
Sri Lanka were 85 for two at stumps on rain-curtailed day one of the first cricket Test against India at the Sinhalese Sports Club grounds in Colombo on Wednesday.
Both India and Sri Lanka will rely heavily on spin bowling, playing two specialist spinners, in the first Test match at Singhalese Sports Club ground that starts in Colombo on Wednesday.
Indian cricket team, led by Anil Kumble, arrived in Colombo on Tuesday to play a three-Test series against Sri Lanka starting on July 23, 2008.
