Which was the first-ever associate team to beat a Test team in an ODI World Cup? This question often resurfaces in pub quizzes around ODI Cricket World Cups. The answer will surprise one and all, but in that lies the key to know more about the India vs Sri Lanka clash in ODI Cricket World Cup (at the time of publishing, Sri Lanka had won the toss, chosen to bowl first, dismissed Rohit Sharma for four runs scored at a blazing strike rate of 200, and Shubman Gill and Virat Kohli had formed a fairly solid partnership scoring 50 runs off 58 balls).
Back in 1979, Sri Lanka was still an associate nation that qualified through a process to be in the same group as India, New Zealand, and defending champion West Indies. But as it turned out Sri Lanka was much better than India at the ODI game then, and it showed in the way Sri Lanka emerged winners in their clash at Old Trafford, Manchester, by 47 runs. So, if you are still wondering: the answer to the question earlier is Sri Lanka.
That Sri Lanka win over India played a part in them becoming a Test nation by 1981. Of course, Indian cricket had done more than its bit in helping Sri Lanka become a better cricket team over the years. Sri Lanka’s national side played annual games against the Tamil Nadu side for the MJ Gopalan Trophy and numerous unofficial tours by India to the island nation also helped develop their cricket.
So, in a way India had it coming when Sri Lanka finally won the first time they played each other in an ODI game. As it turns out, Sri Lanka always managed to get under the skin of India through the 1980s. They even beat India in one of the two warm-up games before the 1983 World Cup, a tournament that India eventually won.
Sri Lanka then beat India at home in 1985 for its first-ever Test series win! This was a huge shock for Kapil Dev on his return as India Test captain on that tour. India was undone by some questionable umpiring. Such was the impact of those decisions by umpires that Kapil even went to the extent of criticizing his host. The result: India pulled out of the 1986 Asia Cup in protest.
India, then much-heralded ODI World champion, also lost a game in the shorter format on the 1985 tour. To make matters worse, the lead fan of the Sri Lankan team, the recently deceased Percy Abeysekera, managed to get under the skin of India’s then rising star Mohammed Azharuddin. On that 1985 tour, Azhar, fresh from his three centuries in a row in his debut Test series, was simply unable to score in Sri Lanka. Abeysekera got under the skin of Azhar and completely bamboozled him with his antics when he came out to bat. The Indian team felt as if Azhar was under a spell cast by Abeysekera!
India did host Sri Lanka for a full series in 1986-87 but cricket relations were at an all-time low at that time. And an ODI World Cup clash between the two sides did not materialize till 1992 in Mackay, Australia. However, that game was washed out without a ball being bowled.
India and Sri Lanka did, however, clash in the Asia Cup regularly. They contested the 1988, 1991 and 1995 finals.
Then it all changed forever!
Sri Lanka was changing from being an also-ran to a contender during the 1996 World Cup. India was still expected to be a bit too strong for Sri Lanka during their clash in Delhi in 1996. Only thing was that no one told Sanath Jayasuriya about it. He simply demolished India and more specifically Manoj Prabhakar. The street fighter from Delhi was reduced to being an off-spinner on his home ground. India was simply stunned by the Jayasuriya sledgehammer.
Chastened by their experience, India went into their semifinal against Sri Lanka with a lot of planning around Jayasuriya and his partner Romesh Kaluwitharana. India celebrated as if they had won the World Cup when Jayasuriya and Kaluwitharana were dismissed in the very first over. No one, however, seemed to have planned for Aravinda de Silva. On a crumbling pitch after Sachin Tendulkar was stumped, India caved in without a fight.
That night, however, will forever be remembered for the way the crowd at Eden Gardens shamed India and the sport by throwing missiles at the Sri Lankan fielders. The game was aborted abruptly, leaving every India shame faced and the image of Vinod Kambli in tears will forever be etched in everyone’s minds.
Those two Sri Lankan wins in the 1996 World Cup, led to a period of domination over India. In Test cricket, Sri Lanka ground India into submission by posting the world record score of 952 for six in 1997 in Colombo. India just did not seem to have an answer to Sri Lanka in either Tests or ODIs, both at home and away.
It took until 1998 for the tide to turn again. India demolished Sri Lanka in both the 1999 and 2003 World Cups. Then in the 2007 World Cup, Sri Lanka broke a billion hearts when they beat India in Port of Spain. Indian players and their families bore the brunt of the reaction back home as they were knocked out in the very first round.
Indian cricket went through a period of upheavals right after that exit. But amazingly, relations with Sri Lankan cricket, in quite a change from the 1980s, improved dramatically. It seemed like the Indian and Sri Lankan cricket sides played each other more in the late 2000s and early 2010s than families got together in urban cities worldwide.
When the two sides finally met during the 2011 World Cup final, there was chaos from the start as the toss had to be done twice!
As Mahendra Singh Dhoni finally hit the six to seal the World Cup triumph, there was relief. All those who lived through the horrors of 2007 felt that justice was finally done.
India and Sri Lanka contests since that April night of 2011 have lacked the spice of the 1980s or 1990s. India did beat Sri Lanka in the 2019 World Cup too and now tours to the island nation are a one-way traffic in every format. In India, too, Sri Lanka find it difficult to win a game. Despite all their heroics of the 1980s and 1990s, Sri Lanka is yet to win a Test in India!
Sri Lanka’s golden generation of Muttiah Muralitharan, Jayasuriya, Mahela Jayawardene, Tillakaratne Dilshan and Kumar Sangakkara were quite the big deal in the initial years of the Indian Premier League (IPL). Since their retirements, though, things are not the same anymore.
The final of the recent Asia Cup was an example of just how much sway India holds over Sri Lanka. The match was over even before the lights were switched on!
On November 2, India and Sri Lanka are facing each other for the first time since that Asia Cup title clash. The venue is Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai, the same place where India steamrolled Sri Lanka in 2011 to tilt the scales in their favour. It is 12 years and seven months since that momentous night.
Indians all over the world are now dreaming about 2023 being a repeat of 2011. But before that, they need to get past Sri Lanka to better the overall World Cup record which stands at 4-4 in nine clashes. Else it will be time for one more question to be added to all the pub quizzes around the world!
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