da betsson： On a pitch and in a series where the fast bowlers have only been making up the numbers, a hostile and quick Ishant Sharma helped India seal an incredible comeback
da aposte e ganhe： The Bulletin by Sidharth Monga03-Aug-2008
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were out
Ishant Sharma started Sri Lanka’s slide with early wickets, including that of the in-form Mahela Jayawardene © AFP
On a pitch and in a series where the fast bowlers have only been making upthe numbers, a hostile and quick Ishant Sharma helped India seal an incrediblecomeback after they had slumped to their third-worst defeat ever in thefirst Test.In the first session of the day, Muttiah Muralitharan andAjantha Mendis had made sure India didn’t take their lead into the realms ofthe impregnable, but with Ishant bowling the way he did, the target of 307 stayedsecure. Ishant got good support from Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan Singh; thelatter finished with his fifth ten-wicket haul.Sri Lanka were attacked from a quarter they would have least expectedhostilities from, and after having done well playing catch-up throughoutthe match, they finally fell short. The match was much closer than the 170-run margin indicated.Ishant was accurate, he hit the bat hard, gave Dinesh Karthik some moredifficulties behind the wicket, and most importantly, kept producing his specialdelivery repeatedly: the one that holds its line after having pitched on alength.Ishant began with a wicket with the third ball he bowled, sending down aperfect right-armer’s ball to a left-hander, pitching it around leg andmoving it away, making Malinda Warnapura play and edge. Zaheer, in the nextover, produced a legcutter for Sangakkara similar to the one he did in thefirst Test, with similar results. And in his next over, Ishant got thebiggest wicket of them all for India – Mahela Jayawardene, who looked tocounterattack and cut straight to gully, where Rahul Dravid held on to a sharp chance.Dravid was exuberant at having taken the catch – he had dropped MichaelVandort in the first over, and had also been pushed out of the cordon.Ishant and Zaheer then tightened the screws. Ishant, in particular,seemed to be bowling on a different pitch from the one that had been ondisplay on the four previous days. At one point, the preceding 12.3 overs hadcost India 11 runs and featured two huge lbw shouts, one catch off ano-ball, and most importantly, robust fast bowling. Harbhajan took advantageof that period, and trapped Vandort with an arm-ball in his first over.But there was one final twist left in the match, and Ishant it was whopulled India out of a threatening situation. Thilan Samaraweera andTillakaratne Dilshan had put together a swift 76-run stand, pulling SriLanka out of the shell they had played themselves into. Dilshan, inparticular, hustled the bowling, briefly changing the texture of the game.Ishant came up with a special over after tea, bowling at high pace, extracting extra bounce,and getting the ball to hold its line. After having beaten Dilshantwice, he finally got him to edge one, and it was all downhill for Sri Lankaafter that.Harbhajan took control of the situation then; both lower ordershave, on this pitch, been hard pressed against quality spin bowling.Samaraweera, who scored a resolute half-century, could not do much aboutwhat happened at the other end. The last five wickets fell for 23 runs,Harbhajan taking three of them. When he got Mendis, he completed histen-for, and a successful redemption after his recent misadventures.Smart statsSri Lanka once again failed at chasing a target over 200. They have successfully pursued a target of over 200 three times in 33 Tests.Harbhajan Singh’s 4 for 51 in Sri Lanka’s second innings completed his first ten-wicket match haul away from home. It’s his fifth overall.Sri Lankan openers Malinda Warnapura and Michael Vandort managed only eight runs in their two partnerships, the lowest return for an opening pair in a Test in Galle.Ajantha Mendis became only the fourth Sri Lankan bowler to take ten wickets in a Test. Mendis’ first ten-wicket haul came in his second Test; Chaminda Vaas needed five, Upul Chandana 12 and Muttiah Muralitharan 35.It was only the sixth time that all 40 wickets had fallen in a Test in Sri Lanka; this Test had the least number of balls bowled among the six instances.Mendis, incidentally, had finished his first ten-wicket haul by takingHarbhajan’s wicket earlier in the day. That was the end of a collapse inwhich India lost their last five for 17 runs. India had started the daytentatively, but the overnight batsmen – VVS Laxman andSourav Ganguly – kept the runs coming. They hadn’t yet played themselves inwhen Mendis nailed Laxman with another one of his special carrom balls -pitching within the stumps, breaking rapidly, and heading for off stump.Laxman’s pad intervened, but the umpire had no hesitation in sending him onhis way.Karthik came out aggressive, stepping out and hitting both Mendis andMurali for sixes, and also pulling out a reverse-sweep. He might even havehad a hand in suggesting to Ganguly that he ask for a review when Gangulywas given lbw to one that seemed to be missing off stump. But just whenit looked like the two might get too many, too fast, Murali pulledthem back. Karthik, going for a third six, was beaten in the flight andcaught in the deep. Ganguly was suckered out of the crease by a flighted,fiercely dipping delivery, and Prasanna Jayawardene’s quickness with thestumping made the dismissal look more even more comprehensive.The rest contributed enough only for the so-called psychological advantage:when Karthik got out, India’s lead was 292; they finished on 306. Ishant,though, rendered the tussle in the first session superfluous.That India came into the fourth day still alive had all to do with anear-solo effort by Virender Sehwag, who reached his fifth double-centuryin the first innings, and for the first time in his career scored a fiftyin a match in which he had also scored a century. India, out of habitperhaps, managed to waste a fiery start from Sehwag, but he had doneenough, as was proved when India went on to win only the third Test inwhich he had scored a century.
