High farce in Kandy leaves Test on a knife edge
Charlie Austin - 24 August 2001
Can the hill country folk of Kandy have ever been so richly
entertained? For the first half of the day the Indian fast bowlers
scythed through the Sri Lankan batting and in the afternoon, hometown
hero Muttiah Muralitharan thrashed a comical half-century that put his
side firmly in the box seat at the end of the third day of this second
Test.
It was an astonishing day. Zaheer Khan and Venkatesh Prasad bowled
their hearts out, taking nine wickets between them, as Sri Lanka
slumped from 52 for one to 124 at lunch and then lost four wickets in
33 balls in a postprandial slumber to leave them on 157 for nine, with
a lead of just 199.
In 76 crazy minutes, however, Muralitharan and last man Ruchira Perera
swung the game emphatically back towards Sri Lanka with a 64-run
partnership for the last wicket, which was a record for the wicket
against India and the equal highest of the game. Sterile statistics,
though, do not tell the real tale.
It was the manner in which Muralitharan scored his first ever first-
class fifty, 67 runs off 65 balls, which included three sixes and four
fours, that brought the crowd, which swelled to nearly 8000 as news of
Muralitharan's heroics spread through the town, to hysterics and
India's players to their knees in frustration.
He strutted to the wicket to a standing ovation and then taunted the
tourists like a chief clown. His strokeplay mixed outlandish heaves,
full-blooded pulls and exaggerated defense he even padded up to
Ganguly eight yards down the pitch, much to the bowlers verbal
disgust. In between balls he rehearsed a startling array of innovative
strokes and in between overs he exercised his novel right to request
refreshment and a rub down from the 12th man.
When Ruchira Perera walked in to bat, Muralitharan was only on 11, but
he took firm command of the situation as Ganguly bizarrely pushed
eight fieldsmen back onto the fence, surely the first time that the
Lankan spin ace has been handed such respect while he was batting.
Psychologically and tactically the plan backfired as Muralitharan
cleverly farmed the strike. He refused to take ones until the final
two balls of the over, but managed to scramble the odd two and belt an
occasional boundary. When he was finally caught on the long off
boundary India needed 264 runs for victory.
It is a testing target. England only limped home by three wickets when
asked to chase 160 in Kandy last March and Sri Lanka lost to South
Africa by seven runs when they were bowled out for 169 here last year.
This pitch has not crumbled like those two surfaces, however, which
should give India hope.
India's openers survived the new-ball by the skin of their teeth,
especially Shiv Sunder Das (19), who looked fortunate not to be
adjudged leg-before wicket by Chaminda Vaas on two occasions before he
had scored. He was also bowled off a no ball of Vaas, who bowled
superbly in his seven over burst (7-5-6-0).
Das and Sadogoppan Ramesh (13*) had added 31 for the first wicket
before Sanath Jayasuriya threw the ball to Muralitharan. Das pull-
swept him to the mid-wicket boundary, but the off spinner deceived the
right-hander with his straighter delivery in his third over to leave
India on 42 for one.
They lost no further wickets before bad light stopped play at 6.05pm
with India on 55 for one with 209 still required, but Muralitharan
created enough problems to suggest that he holds the key to this match
tomorrow.
Were it not for top scorer Muralitharan then Sri Lanka would in all
probability have been heading towards their third successive defeat in
Kandy, as the Sri Lankan top order crumbled under the pressure exerted
by Zaheer Khan in the morning and Prasad in the early afternoon.
Khan struck with his third delivery of the day, which brushed the
outside edge of Kumar Sangakkara's (13) bat and was neatly taken by
wicket keeper Sameer Dighe.
Mahela Jayawardene and Marvan Atapattu, who scored 45 from 88 balls,
added 32 runs for the third wicket, before Prasad had Atappatu caught
behind to leave Sri Lanka on 84 for four.
Ganguly bowled a short two over spell without success, but quickly
called back Khan who then dismissed first Test centurion Mahela
Jayawardene (25) in the slips and trapped Russel Arnold (4) leg-before
wicket with a ball that nipped back off the seam.
Hashan Tillakaratne (16) and Suresh Perera (15), both of whom are
fighting for their places after an unsuccessful series thus far, also
put up some resistance for 50 minutes either side of lunch, adding 21
further runs.
Venkatesh Prasad then took over the mantle from Khan. Swinging the
ball away from the right handed Perera he caught the edge of Perera's
flashing blade and Hemang Badani redeemed himself for an earlier miss
with a sharp left handed catch at second slip.
Tillakaratne had been shuffling across his stumps throughout his
innings and had survived several close leg-before appeals before
Prasad trapped finally trapped him in front with an inswinger. Prasad
then quickly followed up with the wickets of Dilhara Fernando and
Chaminda Vaas to secure his seventh five-wicket haul in his 32nd Test
and set the stage for Muralitharan's theatrical performance.
© CricInfo
Teams
|
India,
Sri Lanka.
|
Players/Umpires
|
Muttiah Muralitharan,
Ruchira Perera,
Sourav Ganguly,
Shiv Sunder Das,
Sadagoppan Ramesh,
Rahul Dravid,
Zaheer Khan,
Venkatesh Prasad,
Chaminda Vaas.
|
Tours
|
India in Sri Lanka
|
Scorecard
|
2nd Test: Sri Lanka v India, 22-26 Aug 2001 |
Grounds
|
Asgiriya Stadium, Kandy
|