da bet7k： Sri Lanka couldn’t get Virender Sehwag out, but Ajantha Mendis found a wayaround him, helping Sri Lanka dismiss the others cheaply before HarbhajanSingh enacted a similar turnaround to restore the balance
The Bulletin by Sidharth Monga01-Aug-2008
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were out
Harbhajan Singh’s four wickets in the final session helped India fight back © AFP
Sri Lanka couldn’t get Virender Sehwag out, but Ajantha Mendis found a way around him, dismissing most of the others cheaply, before Harbhajan Singh enacted a similar turnaround to restore the balance at the end of day two in Galle.It was an eventful three sessions: Sehwag was imperious as he scored his fifth double-century even as he lost partners at the other end; Malinda Warnapura and Kumar Sangakkara threatened to run away with the match, but Harbhajan pulled Sri Lanka back with a four-wicket burst in the final session.Sri Lanka dismissed the last six Indian batsmen for 51 runs; India repliedby taking four of their batsmen for 55. WhenSangakkara and Warnapura were going hell for leather, it seemed they wouldtake Sri Lanka’s second innings out of the equation, but then Harbhajan cameup with one of his best spells in recent times.Warnapura, especially, showed he had learned a lesson or two from Sehwag. Hesaw his opening partner, Michael Vandort, get out in the first over, andthen played at and missed a few times against Zaheer. But all along he keptpunishing even the smallest errors of length. Zaheer’s fourth over was themost expensive of the series: Warnapura took four successive boundaries toreach 24 off 18 balls.The Indian bowlers looked helpless in the face of Sangakkara’s determination to set right a minor dip in his form. Sri Lanka raced to 50 in 8.5 overs, and by the time spin was introduced Sri Lanka had scored 60 for 1 in 11 overs. Anil Kumble and Harbhajan brought in some control, but their fortunes were not changing just as yet: just before tea, Dinesh Karthik made a mess of a regulation stumping chance off Harbhajan when he couldn’t even collect the ball with Sangakkara way down the wicket.When India came back from tea, they continued with the pressure tactics, and Warnapura yielded, giving Gautam Gambhir a difficult low catch at short cover. The ten overs preceding that dismissal had yielded 15 runs. Harbhajan took heart from that wicket and got a leading edge from Sangakkara, which he caught himself, just in case. Two new batsmen were in, and Kumble and Harbhajan were finally being treated with the sort of respect they have been used to.Harbhajan went round the stumps and trapped Thilan Samaraweera with aslider. In the same over, he got Tillakaratne Dilshan with one that bounced and turned in sharply.In thefinal overs Harbhajan twice came close to getting his fifth: first he beatMahela Jayawardene with a sharp offbreak from round the stumps; thefield umpire thought it would have gone down the leg side, and the reviewsaid no different. Prasanna Jayawardene offered Gambhir a sharp chance atforward short leg, but Gambhir couldn’t cap the good day he had had in thefield with another catch.Smart Stats Sehwag’s was the 42nd instance, but only the second by an Indian, of a batsman carrying his bat in Tests. Sunil Gavaskar had done it in 1983 against Pakistan, scoring 127 out of 286.Sehwag scored 61.09% of India’s total, which is 11th in the all-time list and the third-highest for India in a completed innings. Only VVS Laxman (167 out of 261 against Australia in 2000) and Mohinder Amarnath (60 out of 97 against West Indies in 1976) have scored a higher percentage. Sehwag’s last 11 Test hundreds have all been 150-plus scores. His strike rate in those 15 innings is 78.41, only marginally higher than his career strike rate of 77.05 Sehwag scored 73 against Vaas and Kulasekara at a run a ball. Against Mendis he scored 70 from 77, while Murali kept him down to 58 from 81. Sehwag and Laxman put together a century partnership for the first time in Tests. In 15 innings they have scored only 430 runs at an average partnership of 28.66.The collapse that Sri Lanka faced paled in comparison with the two India hadendured. India went from 167 for 0 to 178 for 4, and then from 278 for 5 to 327all out, and both collapses were triggered by Mendis, who was facing thefirst big test of his short career. Sehwag read him and went after him,taking 70 runs off the 77 deliveries he faced from him. But that failed tointimidate Mendis, who stayed accurate, made the batsmen play almost everyball, and earned his first five-for in Tests.After the wicket of VVS Laxman, who took his overnight stand of 36 with Sehwag to 100 before hitting a long hop from Mendis straight to midwicket, Mendis began to toy with the tail. Karthik seemed in no mental shape to play high-quality spin bowling; his lack of confidence showed when he didn’t ask for the review after he was eventually given out: replays indicated the topspinner from Mendis would just have brushed off stump.Mendis then repeated the now-famous carrom ball that got Rahul Dravid in thefirst Test to Harbhajan Singh: it broke away at a rapid pace and took thetop of off.The story of the day, though, remained Sehwag, who scored 61.09% of India’s runs. This was the 11th consecutive hundred he had converted into a 150-plus score. He also became the second Indian to carry his bat through, and passed 5000 Test runs.It is a shame that some of Sehwag’s best innings have come when histeam-mates have been struggling for form. Only two of his 15 centuries – allscored at a maddening pace – have resulted in victories for India. Aftermany a quick Sehwag hundred, the other batsmen have either folded or slowedthe pace down so much as to deprive the bowlers of sufficient time in whichto force a result. Something similar seemed on the cards here, but thedifference this time was that Sehwag was around for the duration to makeamends for the collapses.Muttiah Muralitharan, surprisingly ineffective in the innings, began bowlingwith an in-and-out field. Sehwag smartly resorted to opening the face of his batand finding twos. Mendis, back for a new spell, was welcomed with a six; theoff stump at the non-striker’s end prevented another certain boundary in thesame over.As the wickets fell, Murali at the other end started to rip his doosras, ending Anil Kumble’s resolute innings, and Zaheer Khan’s brief one. When Zaheer, the No. 10, launched into an irresponsible sweep off Murali, Sehwag was on 195. At 199, with just two overs to lunch, Sehwag refused the single twice, preferring to shield Ishant Sharma rather than get to the mark. Off the last ball of the over, he then nonchalantly flicked to deep square leg for a single.The rest of his team owed him an apology for the lack of support – 307 oftheir 326 runs were scored by three batsmen – and Harbhajan went some waytowards doing so. Whether it was enough remained to be seen.