Enthralling Spells of fast bowling - Javagal Srinath vs Sri Lanka, Johannesburg, 2003

India gained confidence with every match in the 2003 ODI World Cup in South Africa. In the super 6 match against Sri Lanka, they scored a hefty 292-6. With the batting line up that Sri Lanka had, they were expected to come hard at India. Instead they ran into a red-hot Javagal Srinath. Off the third ball of his first over, Srinath managed to remove Marvan Atapattu as Mohammed Kaif took a very good catch at cover while the ball was dying on him.

Two balls later, Jehan Mubarak found himself walking back to the pavilion after poking at a perfectly pitched outswinger. Rahul Dravid completed a diving catch and at 2-2, India had wrested the initial advantage. But they knew that they were in a similar position in the 1996 world cup after Javagal Srinath had removed both the openers ( Sanath Jayasuriya and Romesh Kaluwitharana) in his first over in the semi final at Calcutta. Aravinda de Silva's 66 at break neck speed virtually sealed the match in Sri Lanka's favor.

If there was a man who could single handedly take the attack to the opposition and seize the initiative back, it was Aravinda. Playing with his inner white shirt T shirt partly visible, he had repeated his heroics in the 1996 final and scored an unbeaten century to guide Sri Lanka to a famous world cup title. The stage was set for him once again in 2003.

Bowling his second over, Javagal Srinath bowled the most perfectly pitched good length delivery perhaps, ensured that Aravinda was not drawn forward and hit his pad. The legendary umpire David Shepherd had no doubt in raising his finger and India was already into the middle order of the Lankan line up. With Jayasuriya and Kumar Sangakkara still at the crease, Sri Lanka had hopes and Sangakkara managed to find the boundary a few times. Srinath then bowled a back of a length delivery which was probably aimed at the imaginary 4th or 5th stump. Jayasuriya flashed at it and was caught at cover and after having lost half their side for 40, Sri Lanka never recovered and folded out for 109.

India won by an emphatic margin of 183 runs- incidentally the same number of runs Sourav Ganguly scored when the two teams met previously in a world cup game. Srinath who finished with figures of 9-1-35-4, was deservedly named the player of the match for his opening burst which razed the Sri Lankan batting line up filled with stalwarts and to-be-stalwarts.