Sri
Lanka v India, 2nd Test, Galle, 4th day
The Bulletin by Sidharth Monga
August 3, 2008
Scorecard
On
a pitch and in a series where the fast bowlers have only
been making up the numbers, a hostile and quick Ishant
Sharma helped India seal an incredible comeback after
they had slumped to their third-worst defeat ever in the
first Test.
In
the first session of the day, Muttiah Muralitharan and
Ajantha Mendis had made sure India didn't take their lead
into the realms of the impregnable, but with Ishant bowling
the way he did, the target of 307 stayed secure. Ishant
got good support from Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan Singh;
the latter finished with his fifth ten-wicket haul.
Sri
Lanka were attacked from a quarter they would have least
expected hostilities from, and after having done well
playing catch-up throughout the match, they finally fell
short. The match was much closer than the 170-run margin
indicated.
Ishant
was accurate, he hit the bat hard, gave Dinesh Karthik
some more difficulties behind the wicket, and most importantly,
kept producing his special delivery repeatedly: the one
that holds its line after having pitched on a length.
Ishant
began with a wicket with the third ball he bowled, sending
down a perfect right-armer's ball to a left-hander, pitching
it around leg and moving it away, making Malinda Warnapura
play and edge. Zaheer, in the next over, produced a legcutter
for Sangakkara similar to the one he did in the first
Test, with similar results. And in his next over, Ishant
got the biggest wicket of them all for India - Mahela
Jayawardene, who looked to counterattack and cut straight
to gully, where Rahul Dravid held on to a sharp chance.
Dravid was exuberant at having taken the catch - he had
dropped Michael Vandort in the first over, and had also
been pushed out of the cordon.
Ishant
and Zaheer then tightened the screws. Ishant, in particular,
seemed to be bowling on a different pitch from the one
that had been on display on the four previous days. At
one point, the preceding 12.3 overs had cost India 11
runs and featured two huge lbw shouts, one catch off a
no-ball, and most importantly, robust fast bowling. Harbhajan
took advantage of that period, and trapped Vandort with
an arm-ball in his first over.
But
there was one final twist left in the match, and Ishant
it was who pulled India out of a threatening situation.
Thilan Samaraweera and Tillakaratne Dilshan had put together
a swift 76-run stand, pulling Sri Lanka out of the shell
they had played themselves into. Dilshan, in particular,
hustled the bowling, briefly changing the texture of the
game.
Ishant
came up with a special over after tea, bowling at high
pace, extracting extra bounce, and getting the ball to
hold its line. After having beaten Dilshan twice, he finally
got him to edge one, and it was all downhill for Sri Lanka
after that.
Harbhajan
took control of the situation then; both lower orders
have, on this pitch, been hard pressed against quality
spin bowling. Samaraweera, who scored a resolute half-century,
could not do much about what happened at the other end.
The last five wickets fell for 23 runs, Harbhajan taking
three of them. When he got Mendis, he completed his ten-for,
and a successful redemption after his recent misadventures.
Mendis,
incidentally, had finished his first ten-wicket haul by
taking Harbhajan's wicket earlier in the day. That was
the end of a collapse in which India lost their last five
for 17 runs. India had started the day tentatively, but
the overnight batsmen - VVS Laxman and Sourav Ganguly
- kept the runs coming. They hadn't yet played themselves
in when Mendis nailed Laxman with another one of his special
carrom balls - pitching within the stumps, breaking rapidly,
and heading for off stump. Laxman's pad intervened, but
the umpire had no hesitation in sending him on his way.
Karthik
came out aggressive, stepping out and hitting both Mendis
and Murali for sixes, and also pulling out a reverse-sweep.
He might even have had a hand in suggesting to Ganguly
that he ask for a review when Ganguly was given lbw to
one that seemed to be missing off stump. But just when
it looked like the two might get too many, too fast, Murali
pulled them back. Karthik, going for a third six, was
beaten in the flight and caught in the deep. Ganguly was
suckered out of the crease by a flighted, fiercely dipping
delivery, and Prasanna Jayawardene's quickness with the
stumping made the dismissal look more even more comprehensive.
The
rest contributed enough only for the so-called psychological
advantage: when Karthik got out, India's lead was 292;
they finished on 306. Ishant, though, rendered the tussle
in the first session superfluous.
That
India came into the fourth day still alive had all to
do with a near-solo effort by Virender Sehwag, who reached
his fifth double-century in the first innings, and for
the first time in his career scored a fifty in a match
in which he had also scored a century. India, out of habit
perhaps, managed to waste a fiery start from Sehwag, but
he had done enough, as was proved when India went on to
win only the third Test in which he had scored a century.
Sidharth
Monga is a staff writer at Cricinfo
Courtesy - cicinfo