ALL ROUNDER IRFAN PATHAN GRABS HIS CHANCES

 Irfan Pathan is back. Again. With consecutive Man-of-the-Match awards. With a role in four of the five Indian wins on this tour. His previous comeback arrived after nearly three years, and lasted eight ODIs and one Twenty20 international before he was left out of the squad for this trip, despite very reasonable figures. Irfan was looking for a county deal; then Vinay Kumar got injured, and Irfan got a lifeline. And boy, he has grabbed it.

The highest wicket-taker in the ODI series. The most economical Indian fast bowler in the ODI series, ahead of even Zaheer Khan. Plus, two calm and decisive knocks with the bat when the team was in trouble. And a whole-hearted effort in the field. Twist the package any way you want, you will struggle to call it anything but all-round.

Before the series started, people were wondering how many games Irfan would get. The precedent was the way he had been treated in the ODI tri-series in Australia. He played half the number of games Ravindra Jadeja did and took twice as many wickets, and made almost as many runs. Irfan batted at No.9, Jadeja at No.7.

Fortunately for Irfan, Jadeja did not make this trip. But Irfan had to earn the team management's confidence, especially after MS Dhoni spoke about Jadeja's importance as a bowler before the first match. A first spell of 6-1-20-1 with the new ball in Hambantota set the tone for the series.

Irfan swung the ball regularly into the right-handers. His pace was steady, in the mid-to-late 120s, but he got the ball to bounce and zip off the pitch, which he has said creates opportunities for him. Importantly, he did not fall apart at the death. He was involved in two match-winning partnerships with Suresh Raina and Dhoni, sensibly rotating the strike during both stands.

Three games, he played as the allrounder, batting at No.7 with four specialist bowlers to follow. In the next three games, the team management developed enough confidence in Irfan's bowling to play an extra batsman in Manoj Tiwary.

Irfan was delighted to be back, and desperate to perform. He had gone through a phase where his back had troubled him so much that he had started to worry more about his body than his career. His action had been through so many ups and downs he had no clue where the Irfan of 2003-04 had disappeared.

He had bowled for hours in the nets and local games in his hometown Vadodara to try to get some of the shape back. People didn't believe him when he said he was prepared for a comeback. He returned to the side, did not get many opportunities, and was dropped again, but destiny probably owed him another chance.

Irfan wasn't going to let it go through want of preparation. Almost every game, he would walk to the side pitches before the start and bowl and bowl. He worked on his delivery stride and on his use of the crease. He did not face the best bowling in the nets as most of the India bowlers would be done by the time his turn came to bat, but he practiced his strokes against what was on offer. He stayed back on occasions after the rest had left to bat against throwdowns.

Despite his showing, he is still on trial, in a way. Duncan Fletcher, the India coach, said after the ODI series that Irfan had done a good job "at the moment". "I think he has got the potential," Fletcher had said. "We just have got to see him progress from here and see how he bowls in India and bats in India."

He will surely be tested in Indian conditions, and Jadeja could return into the equation as well. But for the moment, India can savour the return of someone who is the closest they have currently to a fast-bowling allrounder.

RAINA AND PATHAN STAR IN INDIA'S WIN OVER SRILANKA

 After 28 consecutive wins in home ODIs when they've scored at least 250 batting first, Sri Lanka's amazing run was ended in a nailbiter at the Premadasa. Riding on a superbly paced hundred by Gautam Gambhir, India overcame mid-innings wobbles, including losing two wickets off successive balls, as Suresh Raina - helped along by Irfan Pathan - did the finishing job to perfection. India now lead the five-match series 2-1.

In conditions that offered an even contest between bat and ball, and there were several memorable performances, with fortunes swaying either way several times, till the Raina-Irfan partnership decisively swung it India's way. India held the early ascendancy in the match with three quick wickets, but a top-notch 121-run stand for the fourth wicket between Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene edged it in Sri Lanka's favour. Angelo Mathews and Jeevan Mendis further hammered home the advantage with a104-run partnership, including 97 off the last ten, as India's bowling frailties at the death were exposed again. Then, when India's chase appeared on course, Lasith Malinga, who historically hasn't had such a happy time against them, struck twice with the first two balls of the batting Powerplay, at a time when India were fairly comfortably placed, needing 107 off 90 with eight wickets in hand, with MS Dhoni and Gambhir well set. And when Gambhir was found short by a direct hit from Isuru Udana - his one redeeming act on another disappointing bowling day - India seemed to have well and truly lost their way.

The final twist in the tale, though, was still to come. When Pathan joined Raina, the task was steep - 91 runs in 12 overs, with not much batting to come. At that stage, though, Malinga, who had three overs to spare, was pulled out of the attack with three of his overs still in hand; in retrospect, another over at that stage, with both batsmenrelatively new to the crease, might have been worth the risk.

With Malinga not in the attack, both batsmen eked out the runs through intended and unintended methods - flicks, edges, outside edges, inside edges all followed, but crucially for India, they all added to the total and brought down the target. Raina then launched into his trademark meaty hoicks to leg, bringing up his half-century with one such stunning six over long-on off Malinga in the 46th. With both batsmen getting a couple of fours through third man in Malinga's previous over, the asking rate had suddenly come down to seven. India were back in control, and this time they didn't let go.

Till the 36th over of the chase, it seemed India's win might be achieved with far lesser drama, with Gambhir and Virat Kohli - their trusted pair in a run-chase, putting together 105 in quick time after the early loss of Virender Sehwag. Gambhir's was a masterclass, as he took charge of the chase from the start, upper-cutting Malinga in the first over, and then regularly finding the boundaries with square-drives and cuts. Against the spinners, he was always in his comfort zone, chipping into the outfield for twos to stay within touching distance of the asking rate.

Sri Lanka's innings was a story of two high-quality partnerships. Jayawardene's decision to bat first at a venue where recent results have favoured the team chasing seemed to have backfired when ZaheerKhan and Irfan reduced them to 20 for 3. Both bowlers made excellent use of the bounce and seam movement on offer, regularly beating the bat. The wickets followed soon, as Tillakaratne Dilshan, Upul Tharanga and Dinesh Chandimal all succumbed early.

That's when the class of Sangakkara and Jayawardene shone through. In testing conditions, where strokeplay wasn't easy against the new ball, both batsmen settled in quickly, though Jayawardene was more circumspect early. Sangakkara unfurled a couple of classy drives - straight and square - and also defended expertly, playing with soft hands, into the gaps, for ones and twos. His one testing moment came in the 15th over, when a short one from Ashok Dinda struck him on his right glove; Sangakkara continued batting, but the injury was later diagnosed as a fracture. Jayawardene, meanwhile, settled in and showed his range and silken touch, playing lofted drives on the off side and deft late-cuts off Rahul Sharma, whose extra pace suited him perfectly.

The century partnership duly came up - it was their fifth India, and only one pair has more. They both looked good to post individual hundreds too, but neither did.

When Sangakkara fell in the batting Powerplay, it seemed India had wrested the initiative again, but their slog-over bowling weakness, and some clever, enterprising batting from Mathews and Jeevan Mendis, meant Sri Lanka were the happier team at the break. Mathews had some luck when he was caught-behind off an Irfan no-ball when on 33, but there was also plenty of smart cricket from both. Mendis, brought into the team to replace Lahiru Thirimanne, justified that selection with an enterprising knock, reverse-sweeping Ashwin and then smashing Dinda's friendly short ball over midwicket for the only six of the innings. Mathews was equally enterprising, moving to leg and making room to spank the medium-pacers through the offside.

It seemed their heroics towards the end would be enough, but India's three left-hand batsmen then came to the party.

IRFAN PATHAN REPLACES VINAY KUMAR FOR SRI LANKA TOUR

 Irfan Pathan, the India allrounder, will join the squad for the Sri Lanka tour after fast bowler Vinay Kumar was ruled out with a hamstring injury. Vinay will be sidelined for three weeks, and will miss the short limited-overs series that starts on July 21.

"Obviously, when I was overlooked initially, I was thinking about what are the areas I needed to work upon and was focussing on my training at the National Cricket Academy," Irfan told PTI.

"I am pretty satisfied with the hours that I have put in at the nets and in the indoor sessions there. After this call-up, the focus will shift to the Lankan series."

Irfan made a comeback to the national squad after almost three years when he was included during West Indies' tour of India in December 2011. Since then, he has played in India's last two ODI series - the Asia Cup in March, where he was preferred over Ravindra Jadeja and the CB series in Australia. He took five wickets, including a four-wicket haul against Sri Lanka, in the three matches during the Asia Cup at an average of 32 and got six wickets in the four he played in Australia. However, neither Irfan nor Jadeja were included in the original squad for the Sri Lanka series, with the emphasis of selections being on specialists rather than allrounders.

"I played 8 ODIs after my comeback and have got 13 wickets. I have scored around 100 runs in the five innings that I have batted. For someone like me, the more I play international matches, the better I will get," he said.

India will play five ODIs and one Twenty20 during the tour which starts with an ODI in Hambantota.