Sport

Abject surrender by India’s famed batsmen

— Photo: AFP

SPINNING A WEB: Sri Lanka’s match-winning spinners Ajantha Mendis and Muttiah Muralitharan lead the team off the ground after fashioning an emphatic win over India on Saturday.

Colombo: On a fourth day thick with bewitching spin bowling and inept batting, India surrendered the first Test by an innings and 239 runs despite most of the first day being lost to rain.

Muttiah Muralitharan orchestrated Sri Lanka’s victory here at the Sinhales Sports Club (SSC) finishing with eleven wickets in the match. Ajantha Mendis ended with eight for 132 — the best by a Sri Lankan on debut.

The Indian batsmen will have to front up to the fact that, despite the Big Five sharing nearly 40,000 Test runs between them, they couldn’t last 120 overs in two innings combined.

Forced to follow on, India began assuredly before Virender Sehwag fell at the stroke of lunch. Sehwag padded up to a Muralitharan delivery that revolved in the air like an off-break, but didn’t turn, probably because the ball was only six overs old.

Mahela Jayawardene made the first of three successful second-innings referrals and the umpires concluded that the ball, having pitched in line from around the wicket, was on course.

The promotion of V.V.S. Laxman to three, a move inspired, it would seem, from the gambit in 2001 against Australia, didn’t fetch dividends (although it’s worth persisting with).

Laxman inspired stout resistance for India’s last first-innings wicket, summoning memories of Kolkata. With Anil Kumble and Zaheer Khan perishing, leg-before to Mendis’s finger-flicked creations, and Harbhajan Singh falling to Muralitharan, Laxman found in the stringy Ishant Sharma the partner he needed.

Ishant looked assured against both Muralitharan and Mendis. Indeed, the number eleven was an equal-stakes partner in the 35-run alliance, in terms of balls faced. Ishant watched as Laxman reached his 34th Test half-century. But this was to end soon: Mendis, who would claim Laxman in the second innings as well, set his man up masterfully.

Mendis beat Laxman with two ‘carom’ balls, drawing the bat further and further away from the front pad. This achieved, he tricked a flighted googly — delivered with a turn of the wrist, the fingers unfurling like a flower in bloom — through the gap created.

The same style of delivery did Laxman in the second innings, although this time, the googly was flatter and straighter, and was preceded by little build-up. In neither instance did the batsman appear to read it out of the hand.

Laxman’s second-innings dismissal brought Sachin Tendulkar to the wicket. The great man, in pursuit of Brian Lara’s record for the most Test runs, immediately reached out to drive a Mendis googly through cover — giving the impression that he picked the mystery spinner.

For a while Tendulkar and Gambhir, who was batting particularly well, looked as if they might play till tea and set up a tense, rewarding third session.

But Muralitharan, brought on from his favourite Southern End, struck at once. Tendulkar attempted to sweep the off-spinner, the ball ballooned behind square, and Tillakaratne Dilshan, at leg gully, took a splendid diving catch. The umpire reckoned bat wasn’t involved. Jayawardene asked for a review, and replays confirmed that the ball had indeed been directed off the bat.

Gambhir was again bested by a wonderful bit of flight bowling. His driving against the new-ball bowlers had shown off his newly acquired poise: he hadn’t allowed his bottom hand, and by extension the left side of his body, to take control, and as a result, had kept his shape. But Muralitharan is the consummate interrogator, a man who relentlessly probes a vulnerable part till it disintegrates.

The off-break had Gambhir thrusting awkwardly forward. Prasanna Jayawardene was finally allowed a moment that would make his wicket-keeping skill obvious. The Sri Lankan is one of the two most naturally gifted glovesman in world cricket — Brendon McCullum, the other — and he had kept superbly (if unobtrusively) to Muralitharan and Mendis until the stumping chance.

In catching Gambhir short, he showcased wicketkeeping at its finest: low, strong, sideways movement, having stayed in his crouch and lifted with the ball.

Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, and Dinesh Karthik fell without the score registering a tick. Ganguly was sucked into playing an off-break, and although he re-adjusted, he couldn’t direct it past a diving Dilshan. Dravid, who had approached both spinners as one would a nest of vipers, inside-edged a Mendis googly to short leg — Jayawardene’s appeal to overturn the ‘not out’ verdict again proving successful.

Karthik was claimed at slip off Muralitharan, completing a wretched match for the wicketkeeper-batsman. Mendis cleaned up the tail and Sri Lanka had its biggest Test victory over India — and its biggest at home.

SCOREBOARD Sri Lanka — 1st innings: 600 for six decl.

India — 1st innings: G. Gambhir c Samaraweera b Muralitharan 39, V. Sehwag c Warnapura b Kulasekara 25, R. Dravid b Mendis 14, S. Tendulkar b Muralitharan 27, S. Ganguly c Kulasekara b Muralitharan 23, V.V.S. Laxman b Mendis 56, D. Karthik c & b Muralitharan 9, A. Kumble lbw b Mendis 1, Harbhajan c Warnapura b Muralitharan 9, Zaheer lbw b Mendis 5, Ishant (not out) 13; Extras: (lb-2) 2; Total: (in 72.5 overs) 223.

Fall of wickets: 1-36 (Sehwag), 2-79 (Gambhir), 3-79 (Dravid), 4-123 (Tendulkar), 5-138 (Ganguly), 6-147 (Karthik), 7-170 (Kumble), 8-181 (Harbhajan), 9-188 (Zaheer).

Sri Lanka bowling: Vaas 5-0-23-0, Kulasekara 11-2-42-1, Mendis 27.5-5-72-4, Muralitharan 29-4-84-5.

India — 2nd innings: G. Gambhir st P. Jayawardene b Muralitharan 43, V. Sehwag lbw b Muralitharan 13, V.V.S. Laxman lbw b Mendis 21, S. Tendulkar c Dilshan b Muralitharan 12, R. Dravid c Warnapura b Mendis 10, S. Ganguly c Dilshan b Muralitharan 4, D. Karthik c M. Jayawardene b Muralitharan 0, A. Kumble b Muralitharan 12, Harbhajan b Mendis 15, Zaheer b Mendis 3, Ishant (not out) 5; Total: (in 45 overs) 138.

Fall of wickets: 1-25 (Sehwag), 2-53 (Laxman), 3-82 (Tendulkar), 4-95 (Gambhir), 5-103 (Ganguly), 6-103 (Dravid), 7-103 (Karthik), 8-120 (Kumble), 9-133 (Zaheer).

Sri Lanka bowling: Vaas 5-0-27-0, Kulasekara 9-3-25-0, Mendis 18-3-60-4, Muralitharan 13-3-26-6.