It is hard for the Indian supporter to be proved right so often. When, during those debates in packed trains or at the tea stall, you proclaim that Fernando was born to blast Ganguly right back across the Palk Strait, declare that this batting line-up without Tendulkar and Laxman is nothing if not bunkum, and dismiss Srinath and Prasad as toothless and thoughtless geriatrics, you secretly wish someone would come across and stuff your feet in your mouth. One wicket away from an embarrassing innings defeat - for the first time against Sri Lanka - optimists will need to wait at least until Kandy. This Galle pitch was tailor-made for Muttiah Muralitharan. And Jayasuriya didn't even know it when he tossed. It became apparent after lunch on the first day when the green began to rapidly peel away. India knew then what they needed to do - and what not to.

They needed not to lose two wickets to the second new ball late on the first day. They needed not to lose four more for 11 runs the following morning. They needed not to bowl obsessively short and wide at Jayasuriya. They needed not to drop Sangakkara on 8. What they did need to do, instead, was to put up half-decent totals and watch the pitch wag fingers at Jayasuriya, singing "fooled you, fooled you", when Harbhajan Singh bowled in the fourth innnings.

Murali didn't bowl fourth, but he has certainly (barring a miracle) bowled last. His eyes mirrored rough and only rough as he bounced in to deliver from wide of the crease, and made the middle and lower order look like fumbling novices. Only Rahul Dravid showed enough class to keep him out.

It's been almost two years since Sourav Ganguly scored that fine 60 at Adelaide. Since, he's managed only two scores of over fifty - 84 at Dhaka against Hassibul Hossain, Ranjan Das, Naimur Rahman and Mohammad Rafique, and 60 not out against Zimbabwe on a belter at Delhi. Against quality bowling, he has been not just very bad but - to bum a few adjectives off John Woodcock - horribly, insufferably, supremely bad.

He is the best man to captain the team, but should he be batting for India? This perhaps is the last tour that he, and not the selectors, will provide an answer.

Sadagoppan Ramesh, centurion in his previous Test in Sri Lanka, now looks almost guilty when attempting a scoring shot. It was his ability to easily score runs - sometimes even off good balls - that gave him success in his first series against Pakistan. Whose shell has he gone into?

Towards the end of the day, Jayasuriya came on and broke the sticky eighth-wicket partnership with his first ball. Nothing could have been more apt. For the last three days he has been a brave captain and a braver batsman. That the magic has rubbed off on his bowling surprised nobody.

Rahul Bhattacharya is staff writer with Wisden Online India

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