da dobrowin： India started promisingly in their quest to exorcise the ghosts of the SSCTest but were thwarted by double-strikes from Ajantha Mendis and ChamindaVaas
The Bulletin by Sidharth Monga31-Jul-2008
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were out
Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir put on 167 in quick time © AFP
India started promisingly in their quest to exorcise the ghosts of the SSCTest before being thwarted by double-strikes from Ajantha Mendis and ChamindaVaas. Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir played India into a position ofdomination but, after a rain break that accounted for the middle session and75 minutes, Sri Lanka struck gold, taking four wickets for 11, bringing thememories of the collapses in the first Test back to roost.Like the pitch at the Galle International Stadium, which comprised two polarhalves - one cracked and unreliable, the other flat and damp - the firstday’s play featured startling contrasts. In the first half of the day Sehwagand Gambhir put behind them not only the debacle at the SSC but alsothoughts of how, early in the piece here, they played and missed, and howthe ball misbehaved when it hit the cracks. They got India off to a flier;Sehwag fell just short - for the second time in his career - of a hundredin the first session of a Test, a session in which India scored 151 runs,registering the second biggest opening stand in Galle.What made Sehwag and Gambhir’s partnership – which came at more than five an over- remarkable was that both batsmen were troubled amply by the bowling. NuwanKulasekara was the most testing, and the most unfortunate, of the bowlersin the first session, getting the ball to move both off the seam and off thecracks. In his first three overs he beat Gambhir and Sehwag more than onceeach, even getting a leading edge from Gambhir, and used the variablebounce well, bowling shooters and bouncers.Gambhir was the first to counter the cracks: he stood outside the crease,and then walked down the pitch, almost like Matthew Hayden, as the bowlerran in. The lbw was ruled out, and a game of tip-and-run got underway, withthe batsmen taking singles almost intuitively.Soon Sehwag shook off the early jitters and shifted gears. No bowler wasspared: only a soggy outfield saved Ajantha Mendis from being hit for a fourin his first over. Muttiah Muralitharan was hit for a four off the firstball he bowled. Mendis was hit for a six for the first time in Tests.Kulasekara employed a similar field for Sehwag as at the SSC - two fieldersin the deep on the leg side. Here he bowled a head-high bouncer again, andSehwag went for the pull again, but this time he got on top and hit it tocow corner. This was a batsman who reached a triple-century with a six,after he had tried - and failed - to get to a double the same way. Sehwagwas true to character in his approach to moving from 90 to 100. The firstball he faced after the break, he edged Vaas to gully, who collected it first bounce. The second ball, he moved his front leg out of the way andalmost hit it into the Galle Fort. Two balls later he bludgeoned a straightboundary to get to his 15th century.Smart statsVirender Sehwag’s 15th Test century was his first against Sri Lanka. Fourteen of the 15 have come in India’s first innings in a Test.Sehwag’s 128 came off 122 deliveries. He scored 91 off 108 balls that pitched on a good length and nine off six pitched short. He was lethal on anything too full: nine deliveries bringing 28 runs.The 167-run stand between Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir is the second-best for the opening wicket in Galle.In 22 innings that they have opened the innings together, Sehwag and Gambhir have scored 1230 runs, at an average of 58.37 – the best for Indian opening pairs with over 1000 runs.Rahul Dravid has faced 32 balls from Ajantha Mendis in the series, scoring just eight and getting out thrice.The 21st over best illustrated Sehwag’s approach. Mendis started by beatingSehwag with a carrom ball, which he didn’t read. Then a straight one thatbeat him again. And he was almost caught and bowled off the fourth ball. Twoballs later, reading the regulation offbreak correctly, Sehwag opened hisarms and thrashed it through the covers for a four. The plan was simple forboth batsmen: hit whatever you read, and rely on short-term memory loss ifyou are beaten. It worked in the first session.In the third over of the second, Mendis got Gambhir with a googly thatwasn’t. Gambhir had read the wrong’un correctly, playing for the offspin,but this one straightened to trap him in front. He was so befuddled by thedeception that he called for the review, which only confirmed theunpalatable truth.In came Rahul Dravid, not VVS Laxman - that experiment lasted only oneinnings - to face Mendis. To the second ball Dravid faced from Mendis, hethrust his pad forward to a regulation offbreak, and bat-padded. MalindaWarnapura, at forward short-leg, took the catch on the third take, but theball had hit the visor of his helmet on the way. In any case, Dravidrendered the debate superfluous by walking. Dravid has now faced 32 ballsfrom Mendis, scored three runs, and got out thrice.Leading up to the match, there was some debate over Vaas’s utility to theside; it was even thought that Dammika Prasad’s inclusion in the squad was anudge. Only three Tests ago, in Providence, Antigua, on a pitch thatresembled Sri Lankan wickets, Vaas had taken eight wickets. Here in Galle,he proved once again his utility to the side with two wickets in one over,which helped turn 167 for 0 into 178 for 4.Sachin Tendulkar played outside the line to one that straightened up enoughto be hitting off stump. Sourav Ganguly was done in by the reverse-swing,the ball moving away with the shiny side; with a spectacular diving catch in front of Kumar Sangakkara at slip, Prasanna Jayawardene made amends fora slip he had made in similar circumstances earlier in the innings, causingGambhir to be dropped on 13.Sehwag has previously seen fiery starts given by him go to waste - inMelbourne in 2003-04, and in Mohali and Bangalore against Pakistan in 2004-05, to name a few. A similar story seemed to be panning out here, but thank goodness for small mercies - he was still unbeaten when bad lightfinally stopped play.