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Muralitharan ambushes India

S. Ram Mahesh

Wily off-spinner snatches the spotlight from Ajantha Mendis

— Photos: AFP

NETTING THE BIG FISH: A moment of indecision on the part of Sachin Tendulkar cost him his wicket.

Colombo: Sri Lanka ambushed India on day three of the first Test here at the Sinhalese Sports Club (SSC), and it wasn’t the freshly dubbed Man of Mystery, Ajantha Mendis, but a familiar, ruthless illusionist who directed operations.

On a surface that did nothing untoward but couldn’t contain his extravagant talent, Muttiah Muralitharan took four wickets to leave India teetering on 159 for six, needing a further 242 to make Sri Lanka bat again. V.V.S. Laxman kept the great man at bay long enough for the evening to turn murky and force the players off the field.

Virender Sehwag had begun India’s innings as if he intended to halve Sri Lanka’s score by stumps, punching, whipping, and back-cutting Chaminda Vaas and Nuwan Kulasekara, the new-ball bowlers. But Kulasekara, in a clever change-up, fed the opener a wide, loopy bouncer that had to be fetched; well, it didn’t quite have to be fetched, but Sehwag rarely holds back, and the resultant top edge was held at deep backward square-leg.

Control of craft

Gautam Gambhir’s comeback to Test cricket went well, till he fell victim as much to Muralitharan’s control of craft as his own over-confidence. Having dealt capably with Vaas, his nemesis from a series past, the left-hander tackled Mendis with a manner approaching ease. But against Muralitharan, who he played so well in Australia, Gambhir over-reached himself.

Immediately after tea, Muralitharan followed a delivery that was late cut with a wrist-spun off-break that hung in the air like a blues note. Gambhir, cajoled by the line to push across his body, leading-edged it to short extra cover. As if given permission by his senior partner to join him in the wickets department, Mendis struck in the next over.

Muttiah Muralitharan , who had the Indians in a tangle, celebrates the fall of the master batsman with his skipper Mahela Jayawardene.

Remarkably for a spinner, Mendis’s run-up and gather at delivery recall that of a medium-pacer: a measured burst through six steps is followed by a powerful set-up at the crease. This is required, for some of his deliveries are propelled by the flick of a folded middle finger — getting a cricket ball across the best part of 20 yards in this manner needs sufficient momentum to be built.

The delivery that bowled Rahul Dravid and brought the bowler his first wicket in his debut Test was one such — a conception termed the ‘carom’ ball. Mendis’s middle finger applied just enough leg cut for the ball to turn the batsman inside out; Dravid might have jabbed a smidge inside the line, but the length forced him to commit late, enhancing both the deception and the break off the surface.

Tendulkar’s innings

Sachin Tendulkar appeared to pick Mendis, sweeping to leg both the squeezed-out off-break and the two-finger-held, wrist-flipped googly.

But having countered Muralitharan with high skill, once advancing and off-driving the great bowler, he allowed a moment’s indecision to consume him. Unsure against a doosra from around the wicket, Tendulkar, in offering no stroke, permitted his bat to linger too long.

The day’s final wickets fell after a break for bad light. Sourav Ganguly, who had survived a referral for a leg-before decision, top-edged a sweep to be caught in the deep. Dinesh Karthik didn’t learn from it, and couldn’t walk the line that separates foolhardiness from valour. This time the top edge didn’t go far. Muralitharan’s endearing, crooked smile couldn’t have been wider.

Mahela Jayawardene had earlier declared Sri Lanka’s innings after the score touched 600 — further proof, if any is needed, of the inexorable hold numerical benchmarks exert on cricketers. The declaration came 40 minutes after lunch, time enough during the day for the picaresque Dilshan to score his fifth Test hundred and then some.

The advantage of a fearless stroke-maker at number six cannot be overstated, and in Dilshan, Jayawardene has just that. Dilshan’s methods are refreshingly original: not for him the niceties of a high left elbow; his driving, even off the front foot, is powered by a violent and imaginative use of the bottom hand — a legacy, no doubt, of growing up on slow wickets.

At a fair clip

Although he lost Thilan Samaraweera — caught at gully off Zaheer Khan for a solid, professionally crafted 127 — in the day’s tenth over, Dilshan ensured Sri Lanka scored at a fair clip. And he did it in a rough-edged manner that was thrilling to watch: leaping across his stumps, and aborting hook strokes; swiping blithely across the line; flaying the ball through cover having leant dangerously backwards; running sharp, aggressive ones and twos.

Dilshan exchanged his helmet for a white floppy hat, and swept Harbhajan Singh for four in the last over before lunch to become Sri Lanka’s fourth century-maker of the innings. Then Vaas, who followed wicketkeeper Prasanna Jayawardene’s no-frills 30, struck a crisp ball, and survived India’s third failed referral, to extend the bowlers’ misery before the declaration.

SCOREBOARD Sri Lanka — 1st innings: M. Vandort c Karthik b Ishant 3, M. Warnapura c Dravid b Harbhajan 115, K. Sangakkara c Dravid b Zaheer 12, M. Jayawardene c Karthik b Ishant 136, T. Samaraweera c Laxman b Zaheer 127, T. Dilshan (not out) 125, P. Jayawardene c Ishant b Harbhajan 30, C. Vaas (not out) 22; Extras: (b-4, lb-5, nb-18, w-3) 30; Total: (for six wickets decl. in 162 overs) 600.

Fall of wickets: 1-7 (Vandort), 2-57 (Sangakkara), 3-212 (Warnapura), 4-360 (Mahela Jayawardene), 5-454 (Samaraweera), 6-545 (Prasanna Jayawardene).

India bowling: Zaheer 37-2-156-2, Ishant 33-4-124-2, Ganguly 8-1-24-0, Harbhajan 43-2-149-2, Kumble 37-4-121-0, Sehwag 4-0-17-0.

India — 1st innings: G. Gambhir c Samaraweera b Muralitharan 39, V. Sehwag c Warnapura b Kulasekara 25, R. Dravid b Mendis 14, S. Tendulkar b Muralitharan 27, S. Ganguly c Kulasekara b Muralitharan 23, V.V.S. Laxman (batting) 19, D. Karthik c & b Muralitharan 9, A. Kumble (batting) 1; Extras: (lb-2) 2; Total: (for six wickets in 45 overs) 159.

Fall of wickets: 1-36 (Sehwag), 2-79 (Gambhir), 3-79 (Dravid), 4-123 (Tendulkar), 5-138 (Ganguly), 6-147 (Karthik).

Sri Lanka bowling: Vaas 5-0-23-0, Kulasekara 7-0-38-1, Mendis 18-3-58-1, Muralitharan 15-3-38-4.

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