Colombo: 

Dhoni and his mates celebrate the fourth ODI win on Wednesday

WHEN India lost the first of the five-match series against Sri Lanka, everyone predicted India would go down 0-5 unless rain played its part.

And the predictions had quite a bit of logic too. Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag were injured and the in-form Ishant Sharma was unavailable too. To add to the woes, Ajantha Mendis still remained a mystery.

It was quite remarkable, how India came back to win the next three games to clinch the cup and their first bilateral series win in Sri Lanka.

For someone who has been there and coached India to a tri-series win in 1998, Anshuman Gaekwad can fully understand the importance and significance of this series win. "It is a very creditable victory considering the problems the team had with injuries," Gaekwad said.

Significant

"The team was playing much below its strength against the home side so the advantage was always going be with Sri Lanka.

Hence it is a very significant victory. It was a total team effort with someone or the other coming good when required. Pacers Zaheer (Khan), Munaf (Patel) and Praveen Kumar did well as did Suresh Raina and MS Dhoni," Gaekwad said, adding that Dhoni's responsible innings helped India no end.

"He came in at a time when things could have gone either way. But he made sure he stayed till the match was well within India's grasp. He showed a lot of maturity and kept a cool head in the middle," the former India Test opener said.

Poor record

Since the 1985-86 season when India first travelled to Sri Lanka, they have managed just 12 wins out of 38 matches against the hosts.

The overall record is completely the opposite with India winning 55 of the 105 matches against the Lankans with 10 matches producing no result.

"The biggest factor for India struggling in Lanka is the weather.

The humidity completely saps you and most of the Indian players sweat a lot. So, their performance in every department is affected. The Indians are not used to playing in such conditions. This has always given Lankans a big advantage," Gaekwad said.

"I remember during our series win, the physio was making sure that each player was drinking enough water even two days before the match.

"All players were made to carry water bottles wherever they went, so that they would keep sipping on it," recollected Gaekwad.