India vs Sri Lanka, 3rd Test Day 3: The picture of the day at SSC

An unexpected turnaround

Eventually Perera did die by the sword, but by then he had scored a 56-ball 55 and added 79 with the gritty Rangana Herath. He had given a rather on-sided Test an unexpected turnaround and the narrative a stunning twist in the tale. Perera had impacted the game in a fashion that Jayasuriya used to. That the Indians felt obliged to indulge in a verbal exchange with the debutant post his dismissal was only a sign of how flustered they were by him.

Then the Indian top-order added to the drama while showing that they were equally adept at looking inept against the moving ball like their counterparts by being reduced to 7/3 before Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma survived, somehow, to take India’s lead to 132 before a heavy shower stopped play for good on Day Three.

But prior to Perera’s assault—which then inspired Herath to add to India’s woes with crucial partnerships with the tail—India had run roughshod over the Lankans with Ishant holding the reins. For far too long, the beanpole pacer has taken the flak for a lot of India’s failures overseas. But in Sri Lanka—even if the wickets haven’t come his way like they did at the SSC—he’s always given the visitors a convincing start with the new-ball. He’s also set the bar and the yardstick for his younger — not so much in age as in experience — pace colleagues. You didn’t need to be a bowling guru to realize where you needed to pitch the ball on the SSC wicket. If it needed further advertisement, Prasad had provided that with his first-innings spell.

Much like Ishant did on Sunday morning. And once Sri Lanka decided to send Upul Tharanga to open the innings, you kind of knew the lanky pacer had the perfect batsman to exhibit it against. For, Tharanga’s outside-edge seems to be on sale throughout the year, even if he might have 15 ODI centuries to his name. And Ishant found it not once but twice, with KL Rahul dropping the first one before holding on to the second. It was a length delivery that could ideally have been played forward to but wasn’t and allowed the ball to get the snick. It was the next one though that had more to do with Ishant’s skill than the pitch itself. It was a big wicket as well with skipper Angelo Mathews being dismissed for a solitary run.

It’s a delivery that Ishant has been working on relentlessly in the nets throughout the Sri Lankan tour in the company of bowling coach Bharat Arun. Going wider of the crease, angling it in and then straightening it a tad to square up the batsman and it worked like it should against Mathews.

It wasn’t so much a leg-cutter but one where did Ishant did roll his fingers over the ball in the direction of slip. That meant that the ball upon pitching didn’t quite break off the wicket but rather just held its line. The angle of course acted as the drift, while also ensuring that the ball caught the edge rather than rip past it, making it look like a dream ball but with no wicket-taking impact.

While Ishant has always had a very penetrative natural in-swinger, he’s never been someone who takes the ball away much. And like he proved with the Mathews dismissal, he’s only evolving new weapons as his much-debated career wages on. “When the ball is moving a lot, coming wider of the crease and creating that angle can often be a far more successful weapon than actually bowling in straighter lines,” is how a member of the team management would explain it.

He would then get Thirimanne with a slanted delivery across the left-hander, his more trademark wicket-taking option, before getting rid of Perera and Herath to become the first Indian fast bowler since Venkatesh Prasad in 2001 to take a five-wicket haul on Lankan soil. It was an ode to his efforts throughout the series, and he blew kisses into the air upon achieving it. But by then Perara had already survived a number of potential kisses of death, lived on the edge and given India a real scare.