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Mon, 11th Aug 2008  Colombo: A smile said it all. It was a Virender Sehwag's referral appeal for an lbw that was rejected, but at least he could joke about it with umpire Mark Benson.
Yet even the teams and umpires would acknowledge as the statistics proved that Sri Lanka had the better equipped bowling attack, but the referral system also played its role in a three-match series won 2-1 with an eight-wicket victory at the P Sara Oval Monday.
Between them, Muttiah Muralitharan and Ajantha Mendis collected 47 of a possible 60 wickets in the three Tests and that is where the story of this Idea Cup series lay as India's top batsmen were targeted and to an extent defeated.
Amid the crumbling batting ruins that littered the Indian dressing room lay the reputation of Sachin Tendulkar while Sourav Ganguly's Test future would be in some doubt. There could be some sympathy for the Prince of Kolkata as the lbw referral given on Sunday was marginal while that of Malinda Warnapura 24 hours later was one where the technology was shown to be faulty as the Virtual Eye system used needs to be carefully examined.
This is where there is room for decided improvement and at times the referrals disrupted the flow of the game as at least 25 minutes was lost to the question of review.
India's third referral of the Sri Lankan second innings meant that the system which was trialled this Test series would need to be reviewed. But, as India, after the Test series against Australia approved of the review for this series, maybe they will need to look closer at its value, although it is known that the umpires are happy with it.
It didn't need Indian captain Anil Kumble to tell us how the failure of India's batting in this series, and the third Test at P Sara Oval, led to the team's downfall. Take away the brilliance of the Sehwag double century at Galle and Gautam Gambhir's half centuries at the seaside town and you have a dismal story.
In terms of India's future batting landscape, it suggests that maybe Ganguly's Test career, which started at Lord's in 1996, is hanging in the balance.
Maybe even at this stage, questions over the fate of the "fab four" might seem out of place as India still have limited overs series to play and crucially Mahendra Singh Dhoni missed the Test series. But a look at their record this Sri Lanka tour suggests a review at least.
A combined total of 554 runs spread over six innings in the three matches for a collective average of 24.03, which is boosted by Laxman's undefeated 61 on the last day of the Test and batting in a dodgy left ankle explains in some part the failure of India in the three-match series to put pressure on Mahela Jayawardene's side.
India have not been not been happy tourists on the emerald isle their last two Test tours. In 2001 they lost the series 2-1. It was a tour where the current captain Anil Kumble as well as Sachin Tendulkar were missing.
This was also after the amazing Test series comeback against Australia earlier that year.
It was early into the John Wright era and after their heavy defeat at the Sinhalese Sports Club, the absence of Tendulkar and Kumble were often cited as reasons for the team's failure to achieve a series victory after winning the second Test at Kandy.
There were questions about Sourav Ganguly's captaincy and the fickle Indian followers wanted to sack Wright and Ganguly as well as demand that Tendulkar take over. All were rejected by the selectors and the BCCI.
It is too early to suggest that the end of the quartet that has created the imagery of elegance, style, flair and records as well as middle-order superiority and expectations of success. But with Laxman the only one to put a half-century in the scorebook this series before a partnership of 87 with Rahul Dravid that old magic has evaporated along with the invincibility.
Tour averages make grim reading too and the run-making deficiency has brought to the side known for its fabulous wealth of strokeplay creates a suspicion of technical deficiency where as once there was none. Well, none that you would notice.
Averages of 24.66 for Dravid, 15.83 for Tendulkar and 16.00 for Ganguly are the bottom line that the selectors might dismiss as one of those things that happen, but India's lack of success on the island on successive tours and series such as the Asia Cup creates a certain psychological concern. There was also the 2005 triangular when Greg Chappell had taken over and embarked on a batting policy of experimentation to get the right combination.
Until the second innings of this third Test, it is with some obvious disappointment that Dravid did not look to be the batsman who scored that match-turning innings against Australia at Perth. But the fighting innings of 68 in that partnership with Laxman revived memories of the Kolkata miracle of 2001.
Laxman apart, the flair the big three are known to possess has been missing so far this series and was highlighted again on the first day of third Test. They managed 51 between them, and that out of a total of 249 after Kumble won the toss and had no hesitation to bat first.
It is usually the most sensible idea in Asian conditions, even at P Sara where the bounce and pace is about as close to any Australian conditions you are likely to find.
But the three on Friday were non-plussed by a mix of pace, swing and spin as first Dammika Prasad and then Ajantha Mendis. Prasad, a bustling, aggressive and highly competitive bowler, collected the wickets of Dravid and Tendulkar, both lbw on referral and both missing the straight ball.
Neither batsman looked settled and the growing concern is whether they have been psyched by either the review system or the spectre of the switch spin tactics of Mendis or undone by the pace and swing of debutant Prasad.
It was the referral system in the first two Tests that undid Dravid and Tendulkar. In the past they might have escaped the lbw decisions, but the review worked against them, although in Galle, having scored a fluent 44, Dravid, as with Ganguly at the P Sara Oval, was given what would be considered a technologically flawed decision.
But there is no doubt though the batsmen were also largely undone by man of the series, Mendis, the mystery bowler as well as Muralitharan, who was the guiding force for the new bowler.
Mendis with 26 wickets at 18.38 tells its own story. The highest number of wickets in a three-match Test series to beat Sir Alec Bedser's long-standing record, set against India in England in 1946 when Walter Hammond captained England. It is great start to a Test career.
Yet the mentoring that Muralitharan (21 wickets at 22.23) gave Mendis cannot be ignored.
The other aspect is that Sri Lanka used only five bowlers during the series while India used six, although Sehwag and Ganguly were called on as light relief and the absence of Ishant Sharma from the bowling in the Sri Lanka second innings may or may not have caused a difference.
India thought need to look at their future, especially as the youth policy, to an extent, failed in the Asia Cup and now the seniors have disappointed in Sri Lanka. There will be a lot of thinking going on and looking for answers that need to be worked out.  | 
