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Journalism of Courage
Just when a clear, black and white pattern was emerging on the leaderboard of the second Test, the final moments of the third day’s play added a shade of grey. The Indians were in the driving seat all through the day but a poke from pillion towards the end saw them lose grip on the accelerator.
At lunch, the Indians had taken a lead of 37 runs. This was followed by a 90-run opening stand in the second session. The creases on the visitors’ foreheads eased when the Indian middle order finally appeared to be finding its feet on this tour. Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid seemed like celebrities who are fashionably late at the party, and their appearance on the brown carpet at Galle was making heads turn. Both were approaching their half-centuries but the last two overs of the day saw them heading to the exit in unusual circumstances.
First Sachin Tendulkar (31) chased a wide Chaminda Vaas off-cutter to be caught in the slips. On the final ball of the next over, Rahul Dravid missed sweeping a fullish Muralitharan delivery around the off-stump and was given lbw after the third umpire’s intervention.
With the score reading 200/4 and the overall lead being 237, India’s grip on the game had slightly loosened, and the two big scalps meant the Sri Lankans had an outside chance to bolt ahead in case the Indians dropped their guard on Sunday morning.
And, as thrice in three days one heard the clichéd but apt phrase ‘the first hour will be important tomorrow’, it was clear that crests and troughs are a part of a Test match that is played just two-Sehwag-shots away from the sea. If one just concentrates on the day’s happenings without indulging into predicting the future course of the game, India had a very satisfying outing. If the Test at the SSC was a no man’s show, the first two days at Galle were one-man acts.
Virender Sehwag playing the lone hand with the bat on the first day and the next day it was Harbhajan Singh’s turn to be the boy on the burning deck.
On Saturday, for the first time in this series, the Indians came up with a team effort. After a forgettable Friday, Anil Kumble was among wickets. It took 29 overs of toil for Kumble to get his first wicket. He got a nasty blow on his hand after collecting a throw from the deep but that didn’t stop him from repeatedly having a go at the Mahela Jayawardene and the tail-enders. Persistence paid as Kumble got the rival skipper with a leg-break that took a faint edge and Dinesh Karthik, after a fumble, held on to the catch. Saturday, it seems, was a day of forgetting the failures and Karthik, too, did his bit. Though Harbhajan finished with six wickets, Kumble took three of the five wickets that fell on Saturday.
The Indian batting effort, too, was about everybody chipping in. Sehwag was first to go after compiling a 50 but it was Gautam Gambhir’s turn to stick around. After his walking-out-of-the-crease ploy worked against the not-too-express Lankan pacers Vaas and Kulasekara, he tackled the two Ms – Murali and Ajantha Mendis — perfectly. “I have played too many spinners back home so I am used to it. But one can’t have a pre-determined plan to face such bowlers since they have so many variations,” said Gautam, adding that he read Mendis from his hand.
The team effort theme seemed perfect for the day for the Indians with Tendulkar and Dravid getting into the groove. But the final two overs changed it all. In the next two days, the team that manages a collective effort will prevail. If the clouds don’t add a grey shade to the clear blue sky, that is.
