From City of Joy to God’s own City

Rex Clementine in Trivandrum

The results have not gone their way true in the ODI leg of the tour of India and the series has been already lost while Sunday’s final game in Trivandrum is a dead rubber. But how well Sri Lanka’s bowlers fought back after a poor effort by the batters on Thursday.

Another 50 more runs would have done the deal. The efforts of young Dunith Wellalage need to be appreciated for his fighting knock which enabled Sri Lanka to give their bowlers something to bowl at. Then Lahiru Kumara was on the money generating good pace and troubling all batters. He should have played the first game too. Kumara will go for runs but he will also get you the much needed breakthroughs as batters won’t get away trying to thrash every ball during the Power Play.

At the moment Sri Lanka are following the blueprint of England of the 1990s who depended on too many all-rounders or in Sanjay Manjrekar’s words, ‘bits and pieces cricketers’. That’s not going to get you anywhere. If Dilshan Madushanka is declared fit for the final game both he and Kumara should play and we will be able to see what India will do against extra pace.

Trivandrum is in the state of Kerala. The city looks very much similar to Colombo. There are two airports in Kerala – Trivandrum and Kochi. It’s a four and half hour drive between the two cities. Kochi used to host international cricket but since 2017 Trivandrum is hosting games. Sri Lanka have never played a match in the state of Kerala.

Calcutta was short but sweet. Beef is something hard to find in India these days but Calcutta which is a multireligious city offers beef and pork in plenty. Beef after two weeks is like manna from heaven.

From City of Joy, which is how Calcutta is known, we are now heading to Trivandrum, popularly known as God’s own city.It’s only a short flight from Colombo. Someone suggested that you spend more time at the security at the airport and check-in rather than the actual flying time from Katunayake to Trivandrum.

The team travelled to Trivandrum in a chartered flight and it takes little over three hours. Direct flights from Calcutta to Trivandrum are expensive so reporters opt to travel via Bombay which is much cheaper but flying time of six hours and another three hours at airport security and changing terminals makes you exhausted. But God’s own city is a good experience and worth the trouble.