Ganguly, Tendulkar obliterate 45-year-old record

The ravages caused by Srinath was apparent in the scene out in the Lankan dressing room at the end of day’s play. Jayasuriya was sitting dazed with a bandaged head, ready to leave for Jaslok Hospital with physio Alex Kontourri for an X-ray to assess the damage to his skull. The rest of his leg-weary mates trooped in funereal fashion to the team coach.

The final session was full of drama. After the 256-run stand for the fourth wicket between Saurav Ganguly (173) and Tendulkar (148) erased the oldest surviving Indian partnership record (222 that Vijay Hazare and Vijay Manjrekar posted in 1952), the home team lost seven wickets for 46 runs. And in the 15 overs that India bowled before close, it was the Srinath-Jayasuriya duel which held centrestage as the Indian paceman fired away with four slips, two gullys and a 500-plus total as back-up.

Jayasuriya’s discomfiture was too obvious and when on 15, he took his eyes off a Srinath delivery which did not rise as the batsmen expected and got hit. The helmet saved Jayasuriya from a grave injury, but he needed on-field medical attention before resuming. He showed guts to battle on. Seven of his eight boundary hits square off the wicket on either side were off Srinath. But the Karnataka paceman hounded and harried him right through his spell, striking his body, getting the edge but not his wicket.

Spin came as a relief for Jayasuirya and also as a possible lapse in his concentration. He heaved indiscreetly at Anil Kumble but only managed to give Mohammed Azharuddin at slip his 93rd catch in Tests. The day, however, was dominated by the Wednesday night not outs — Ganguly and Tendulkar. Tendulkar hoisted Kumara Dharmasena over long-off soon after completing his half-century to cross 4,000 runs in Test cricket in his 86th innings — the seventh Indian to reach the milestone. Only 13 batsmen in the century-old history of the game have got to the mark in fewer innings than Tendulkar. One of them being an Indian — Gavaskar, who needed five innings less than Tendulkar.

Tendulkar raced to 99 with successive sixes off Dharmasena to the straight field and then took a single to post his 14th Test hundred and fourth in 17 Tests as captain.

At the other end, Ganguly strode majestically and duly got his fifth Test hundred. Soon after, he slammed Dharmasena for his second six and then carried on with determination to surpass his previous highest of 147, which he scored a few months back at Colombo.

With Tendulkar and Ganguly in full flow, runs came in a torrent as minus Muttiah Muralitharan, the Lankan attack looked below par. In fact, the third hour realised 83 runs in 14 overs. But in their bid to sustain the tempo in the final session, the Indians failed.

Ravindra Pushpakumara began the slide with some brilliant exhibition of reverse swing bowling. After Ganguly fell in the first over after tea, gloving a catch behind while trying to sweep Dharmsena, Pushpakumara bowled Tendulkar through the gate, with the Indian skipper just 13 short of completing 1000 runs in the calendar year — a landmark achieved this year by Jayasuriya, Aravinda de Silva and Greg Blewett. Pushpakumara’s swing then trapped Mohammed Azharuddin lbw — the third successive time that he was being dismissed in this fashion in this series — and later sent Kumble’s middle-stump cart-wheeling.

ScoreboardIndia (1st innings): Nayan Mongia b Wickremasinghe 1 (6b, 7m), Navjot Sidhu c Mahanama b Dharmasena 35 (67b, 113m, 5×4), Rahul Dravid c Mahanama b Ranatunga 93 (221b, 308m, 14×4), Saurav Ganguly c Lanka de Silva b Dharmasena 173 (361b, 516m, 2×6, 25×4), Sachin Tendulkar b Pushpakumara 148 (244b, 320m, 3×6, 20×4), Mohammed Azharuddin lbw Pushpakumara 0 (2b, 7m), Anil Kumble b Pushpakumara 6 (8b, 10m, 1×4), Rajesh Chauhan lbw Dharmasena 4 (8b, 15m, 1×4), Abey Kuruvilla c Pushpakumara b Wickeremasinghe 6 (27b, 40m), Javagal Srinath not out 15 (33b, 42m, 2×4), Venkatesh Prasad run out 3 (6b, 9m).

Extras: (b 3, lb 15, w 4, nb 6) 28

Total: (all out in 162.1 overs and 697 minutes) 512

Fall of wickets: 1-1 (Mongia), 2-55 (Sidhu), 3-215 (Dravid), 4-471 (Ganguly), 5-475 (Tendulkar), 6-476 (Azharuddin), 7-481 (Kumble), 8-487 (Chauhan), 9-502 (Kuruvilla), 10-512 (Prasad)

Bowling: Vaas 26-4-86-0, Wickremasinghe 31.1-10-76-2, Pushpakumara 28-5-108-3, Dharmasena 48-12-144-3, Ranatunga 17-7-35-1, Jayasuriya 12-2-45-0

Sri Lanka (1st innings): Sanath Jayasuriya c Azharuddin b Kumble 50 (44b, 69m, 9×4), Maravan Atapattu batting 15 (44b, 79m, 2×4), Kumara Dharmasena batting 0 (3b, 9m); Extras: (nb 1) 1

Total: (for one wicket, in 15 overs) 66

Fall of wicket: 1-65 (Jayasuriya)

Bowling: Srinath 6-0-43-0, Prasad 4-3-6-0, Kuruvilla 2-0-10-0, Kumble 2-1-6-1, Chauhan 1-0-1-0

MILESTONES

The 256 run partnership between Ganguly and Tendulkar is the highest ever for the fourth wicket for India against any country. They surpassed the previous best of 222 by Vijay Hazare and Vijay Manjrekar against England at Leeds in 1952.

Ganguly and Tendulkar also obliterated the previous best for the fourth wicket against Sri Lanka which was 221 between Tendulkar and Azharuddin at Colombo (Premadasa) in August this year.

Sachin Tendulkar, playing in his 58th Test and 86th innings, reached his 4000th Test run when his score reached 55. He joins Sunil Gavaskar (10122 runs in 125 Tests), Dilip Vengsarkar (6868 in 116); G R Viswanath (6080 in 91); Mohammad Azharuddin (5382 in 88); Kapil Dev (5248 in 131) and Mohinder Amarnath (4378 in 69) to become the seventh Indian and the 61st batsman to do so. Tendulkar now has 4093 in 58 Tests.

Saurav Gaguly (173), playing in his 17th Test, achieved his highest Test score. His previous highest was 147 at Colombo (Sinhalese) in August this year.