THE weather forecast in an area renowned for long spells of rain was better than what was predicted for the Indians as they went into the second Test.
A battered and bruised side, further weakened by the absence of five key players that included Master Batsman Sachin Tendulkar, was up against a home team bristling with confidence.
"This wicket has grass and it will be even harder than the one at Galle. There will be plenty of help for the pace bowlers," Lankan skipper Sanath Jayasuriya said on the eve of the contest, and already he was trying to psyche out the Indian side.
Another defeat loomed large for the visitors. And with that a meek series reverse. "Three nil for sure," a wizened old man said after the Galle Test concluded inside four days.
Wait a minute... there is a change in the script.
Perhaps they were inspired by the sight of the hills that formed a fascinating backdrop to the Asgiriya Stadium. The Indians, down in the dumps at Galle, conquered a peak at Kandy.
And just who could have foreseen the turnaround. That after the massacre in the first Test the Indians would actually win the second by seven wickets, levelling the series at 1-1. No many for sure.
That's exactly what makes sports such a wonderful arena for stirring dramas to unfold. You never really know what's around the corner. It gives an opportunity for the wounded to rise again.
The Indians are dangerous when they are wounded. One saw evidence of this in the Coca- Cola triangular one-day competition. This trait in Sourav Ganguly's men surfaced again in Kandy.
For the skipper himself the match meant a personal triumph, following a horror run with the willow, that saw him without a Test half-century in 13 innings. He would for long remember his unbeaten 98 (152b, 15x4) as India successfully chased 264.
An innings that was more precious than several of his hundreds. "It was among my better innings. It won a Test match for India."
Vice captain Rahul Dravid was once again in the thick of things for India, making 75 vital runs (123b, 12x4), an innings oozing with class. The two Indians were determined to be positive in their outlook and this was the key to India's successful chase, 209 of them on the fourth day.
The slight switch in the batting order with Dravid moving up to No. 3, and Ganguly following him at 4, also worked, and the move made sense. The two experienced customers were around to grab the initiative early.
Indeed, the Lankans ran out of ideas as Dravid and Ganguly batted positively. Soon the Lankan shoulders dropped.
It was a battle within a battle when off-spin wizard Muttiah Muralitharan came on to bowl in the first hour on Day Four and Dravid won the duel with some audacious back-foot play square of the wicket against a bowler who can spin the ball sharply into the right-hander.
And Ganguly was not far behind either, cutting and off-driving Muralitharan and it was here that the Lankans really lost it. "If a ball was there to be hit we wanted to hit it," revealed Ganguly later and the Indians were right on cue in dealing with a pressure situation.
Ganguly did offer two chances at 26 and 59, Muralitharan at point and Russel Arnold at second slip putting them down, Chaminda Vaas and Dilhara Fernando being the bowlers to suffer. However, when the two erred in length, the southpaw took a heavy toll of Vaas and Fernando.
Ramesh (31) and Mohammed Kaif, who offered Ganguly valuable support during the climactic stages, chipped in with their bit as India, considering the situation, scored a memorable victory.
To compound the Lankan problems, the speedy Fernando was strangely not used by Jayasuriya in the morning when there might have been a certain freshness in the wicket.
Fernando had troubled the Indians with his persistent hostility at Galle and holding him back for sure eased a little bit of pressure on the Indians.
If Dravid and Ganguly finished things off, the pace attack of Venkatesh Prasad and Zaheer Khan set up the victory for India with some fine seam bowling, the two complementing each other. Both ended with seven wickets in the match, Prasad coming up with a five-wicket haul in the second essay.
Their spells on the third day was particularly significant in the context of the match. Zaheer, who had dented Lanka late on the third day by castling Jayasuriya, made inroads into the Lankan top and middle order, removing Kumara Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardene and Hashan Tillekeratne.
And then, Prasad, who had prised out Atapattu (45) in the morning with help from 'keeper Sameer Dighe, who took a brilliant catch in front of first slip, cut a swathe through the line-up in the post lunch session, invariably putting the ball in the right place and grabbing four wickets in 16 balls as Lankans slumped to 157 for nine, the overall lead was just 199 at this point, before Murali's astonishing cameo (67, 65b, 3x6, 5x4) enabled Lanka set India a much healthier target.
For the Sri Lankans, it was yet another defeat in Kandy, the side losing seven matches, winning just two at the Asgiriya Stadium. At the end of the duel, skipper Jayasuriya refused to call the string of setbacks a jinx. "We just didn't play well. It was a good wicket to bat on. The batsmen didn't apply themselves." A frank assessment.
When the Test got underway on August 22, Ganguly did not think twice before inserting the opposition. There was a cloud cover, the pitch was fresh, and this represented the best chance for his pacemen to make inroads.
On the flip side there was a chance that the pitch might take turn from the third day onwards, and chasing a target could become hazardous with Muttiah Muralitharan around.
Well, it was a match in which Ganguly got most things right. And Jayasuriya most wrong.
It was the Lankan skipper's error of judgment in going for a second run after glancing Zaheer Khan very early on Day One that set the ball rolling for the visitors.
Jayasuriya made just three and that was a huge psychological boost for the Indians, for the explosive left-hander had feasted on the bowling at Galle. And this Lankan line-up can be vulnerable once Jayasuriya departs.
It proved so, despite a stroke-filled hundred (104, 149b, 17x4, 1x6) from Mahela Jayawardene. Marvan Atapattu (39) and local boy Kumara Sangakkara (31) played some spanking strokes but could not consolidate, the out-of-touch Russel Arnold perished early to Zaheer and it was left to Jayawardene to pull the chestnuts out of the fire for the Lankans.
The small structured Lankan is a gifted batsman, possessing fluency in footwork and the gift of timing. The ball was seaming around when he came in and batting certainly was not easy, with Zaheer Khan and Venkatesh Prasad, in their contrasting ways, testing the batsmen.
Jayawardene had his share of problems early on in the innings, but once he found his range, he was a different proposition altogether, going down on his knees to caress the ball through the covers, flicking and pulling with aplomb, finding the gaps with ease.
Before the start of the match, Jayasuriya had made it clear that he expected batsmen who had got a start to go on to bigger scores. And among the middle-order batsmen not to cash in after getting his eye in at Galle was Jayawardene. On this occasion, he did not let down his skipper.
But the Lankan innings suffered because there was hardly any other significant contribution. Chaminda Vaas' spirited 42 being the next highest score. A total of 274 might have appeared adequate on the surface, given India's collapse in the first Test, yet it provided the Indians with a bit of an opportunity if they hung in there.
Zaheer Khan attacked with his sharp left-arm pace, Prasad kept up the pressure, and Ganguly chipped in with his mediumpace as well, making the batsmen play more often than not and picking up two vital wickets.
Harvinder Singh, giving the batsmen width, disappointed despite picking up a couple of late wickets while Harbhajan hardy got to bowl on a surface more conducive to seam bowling.
Indeed, match-winning off-spinners Harbhajan Singh and Muralitharan did not have a great Test with the ball, but got the crowd excited about their batting ability.
Harbhajan's 72-ball 44 was next only to Ramesh's 47 in the Indian first innings and it was his bold strokes down the order that whittled Sri Lanka's lead down to 42. The chirpy Sardar takes his batting seriously and is the kind of player who wants to be in the game all the time.
And Muralitharan's 67 (65b, 3x6, 5x4) was the highlight from the crowd's point of view, the Kandy cricketer picking everything from off to leg, swinging his way to a maiden Test half century even as the Indians ran out of ideas.
The last-wicket pair of Muralitharan and Ruchira Perera added 64 important runs, but it was not going to be enough in the end. It was the Indians who celebrated at the end this time around.
Perhaps the Lankans paid the price for being a touch over-confident. This was reflected in the selection of the XI as well. Pace-bowling all-rounder Suresh Perera, already under a chucking cloud, was chosen for the game, though it was obvious that he would have very little of bowling to do. "He was picked as a batsman who could bowl," said Jayasuriya at the end of the Test and that was laughable. By standing on prestige, the Lankans had wasted one place. Nothing is ever given away in Test. And the faith shown in the experienced left-hander Hashan Tillekeratne was also baffling. He is struggling to find form and is the weak link in the middle-order. India was not complaining as a series was squared.
The scores: Sri Lanka 274 (Atapattu 39, Sangakkara 31, Jayawardene 104, Vaas 42, Zaheer 3-62) and 221 (Atapattu 45, Jayawardene 25, Muralitharan 67, Zaheer 4-76, Prasad 5-72) lost to India 232 (Ramesh 47, Dighe 28, Harbhajan 44, Vaas 4-65) and 264 for 3 (Ramesh 31, Dravid 75, Ganguly 98 n.o.).
Comments
SHARE