Jayawardane leads Lankan run chase with panache

India declared immediately after Nayan Mongia was out at the stroke of tea. Debutant left-arm medium-pacer Ashish Nehra scalped his maiden Test wicket with his 14th delivery, which came in sharply to have opener Marvan Atapattu in front. ThenKumble and Harbhajan took over to pose problems to the batsmen, who survived, though not very convincingly while enjoying some luck.There was one sure chance but Laxman failed to latch on to a sharp one from Jayawardane at short-leg off Kumble. Then Saurav Ganguly, fielding at fine-leg, reacted late to a miscued pull from left-hander Russel Arnold off Kumble. Had these catches been pouched, the Indians surely would have been in a happier frame of mind.

Kumble was further dejected when Zimbabwean umpire Russell Tiffin was unmoved after a ball appeared to brush Arnold’s gloves before landing in Laxman’s hands. This apart, Jayawardane got the benefit of doubt — a leg-before decision — from umpire Rudi Koertzen off Harbhajan.

However, one should not take away the credit from Jayawardane. He stuck to his task as he played the ball on its merit. He walked in when Sri Lanka lost Atapattu in the sixth over. He forced the Indian skipper Mohammad Azharuddin to take away Nehra from the attack after strikingfour boundaries.Venkatesh Prasad was also given the same treatment. He was pulled over mid-wicket for the first six of the match. Kumble earned respect, as the crafty leg-spinner mixed his deliveries with top spinners and flippers, while Harbhajan bowled a few loose balls which Jayawardane punished with two fours in one over, and reached 50 with a pull shot.

But Sri Lanka lost their second wicket, that of Arnold, who was brilliantly run out by Rahul Dravid, who back-flicked the ball from silly-point. The second wicket pair added 75 runs.

Lanka will look to Jayawardane to carry the battle in the same vein with Aravinda de Silva and Ranatunga to follow. The two veterans have seen through similar situations and would require all their experience to keep Sri Lanka afloat.

Earlier in the day, the Sri Lankans had begun well. They picked up the prize wicket of Sachin Tendulkar with the very first ball of the morning. Left-arm medium-pacer Chaminda Vaas forced Tendulkar into playing a false stroke as henicked the ball to the wicketkeeper.

Lanka needed one more wicket for their second bowling point which they nearly got when a tentative Azharuddin edged twice to the slip cordon, off Vaas and Ruchira Perera. Thereafter, Azharuddin and Ganguly batted grimly to deny Lanka their second point in the `live’ 100 overs.

Azharuddin may not have played the best of his knocks, but showed glimpses of old form. With the bowlers totally shackling him with an off-side attack, most of Azharuddin’s boundaries came from the cut stroke. Although he completed his 21st half-century, he could not reach his 22nd century as he fell to a brilliant catch by Chandika Hathurasinghe, who scooped the ball inches from the ground at long-on.

Ganguly was circumspect against a tight attack, but he held on grimly to score his half-century before he too fell to a super-fine effort. He failed to keep a drive down and substitute Ruwan Kalpage took the catch air-borne at short-cover to give Eric Upashantha his maiden Testwicket.

SCOREBOARD

India (first innings, overnight 351 for 3)

S Ramesh c Ranatunga b Jayawardane 143 (214b, 317m, 18×4); VVS Laxman c De Silva b Jayawardane 11 (22b, 37m, 2×4) 11; R Dravid c Ranatunga b Hathurasinghe 107 (218b, 314m, 12×4); S Tendulkar c Kaluwitharna b Vaas 53 (54b, 94m, 10×4); M Azharuddin c Hathurasinghe b Arnold 87 (161b, 218m, 12×4); S Ganguly c Kalpage b Upashantha 56 (127b, 209m, 6×4); N Mongia c De Silva b Arnold 25 (75m, 58b, 2×4); A Kumble (not out) 10 (24m, 50b, 1×4). Extras (b 5, lb 6, w 3, nb 12): 26. Total (for 7 wkts decl, 645m, 142.5 overs): 518.

Fall of wickets: 1-20 (Laxman, 7.1), 2-252 (Ramesh, 71.3), 3-288 (Dravid, 79), 4-351 (Tendulkar, 90.1), 5-463 (Azhar, 125.3), 6-491 (Ganguly, 136.3), 7-518 (Mongia, 142.5).

Bowling: Vaas 31-5-108-1, Perera 30-4-125-1, Upashantha 28-3-94-1, Hathurasinghe 18-3-51-1, Arnold 24.5-2-94-2, Jayawardane 11-3-35-1.

Sri Lanka (1st innings)

M Atapattu lbw Nehra 6 (13b, 24b, 1×4); R Arnold (run out, Dravid) 34 (93b, 120m,4×4); M Jayawardane (batting) 59 (93b, 127m, 10×4, 1×6); C Hathurasinghe (batting) 11 (24b, 21m, 2×4). Extras (lb 5, w 4, nb 2): 11. Total (for 2 wkts, 37 overs, 153m): 121.

Fall of wickets: 1-18 (Atapattu, 5.2), 2-93 (Arnold 29.3).

Bowling: Prasad 7-2-31-0, Nehra 7-1-24-1, Kumble 12-2-28-0, Harbhajan 9-3-27-0, Tendulkar 2-0-6-0.ÿ