India vs Sri Lanka: Against the run of play

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The mood, the match situation and even the music around the ground would all change in dramatic fashion as the day came to a close with Dinesh Chandimal producing one of the more breath-taking rear-guard salvos ever seen in Sri Lanka.

And the hosts would leave the Indians-who looked at one stage set to wrap up proceedings by mid-day-a tricky chase of 176 going into the fourth day after a dramatic one, which even saw a spirited monkey scramble across the field of play.

But during first session on Friday, Galle was experiencing an Indian summer in more ways than one, on and off the field.

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Some brief defiance from Kumar Sangakkara — playing his last innings in Galle — and Angelo Mathews did follow after Aaron’s disposal of Dhammika Prasad. But R Ashwin and Amit Mishra got rid of the experienced duo in quick succession.

At 95/5 — the lead still in three-figures —the Indians were rapidly closing in on the Lankans, both metaphorically and literally with the close-in-fielders breathing down their necks. The ball was turning square — or so it seemed-the ball only looked interested in finding the edge of the bat, and the appeals were getting louder, and more raucous. All the Lankans could do was watch on in silent horror. Then, three umpiring decisions would go their way — all in the space of a manic 10 minutes before the lunch-break. Chandimal would be reprieved twice, and Lahiru Thirimanne once.

The turnaround

When the duo returned for the second session, still unbeaten even if many felt only on borrowed time, they had decided to not just break the shackles but tear them open. They went about scoring 155 runs in an incredible middle session off just 28 runs.

Chandimal, in particular, was taking no prisoners, and holding no punches back. The slight welterweight jabber had turned heavyweight slogger. And with the spinners piling on the pressure with a mixture of accuracy and bite from the wicket, the Sri Lankan wicket-keeper turned to his trademark shot, the sweep. It didn’t matter to him that it was the sweep that had almost got him out before the lunch-break. And it didn’t matter where Ashwin, Harbhajan SIngh and Mishra were pitching the ball. He swept them from outside off. He swept them from middle-and-leg. He swept them from outside leg. Some were hit fiercely. Some were tapped finely. If Ashwin’s off-breaks were being bludgeoned to the deep square-leg fence, Mishra’s loopy leg-breaks were being deposited over the deep mid-wicket fence. Then came the reverse-sweep. Sri Lanka were yet to overcome the deficit when he attempted the first one.

Overall he attempted 26 sweeps, of both conventional and reverse variety. Off them he scored 56 runs, including four fours and three sixes. He missed only five of them, including getting a top-edge to one. Nine reverse-sweeps in all is what he struck, scoring 22 runs off them. It also included a staggering hit over the deep-point fence off a shocked Harbhajan.

While Chandimal was rocketing along to what would eventuate in a run-a-ball century, Thirimanne was finding his feet too. And once he left, the towering Jehan Mubarak replaced him in style, scoring over 40 for the first time in 13 years-he had made 48 in 2002 at Centurion.

India pushed back

But India had no answer to Chandimal. Sri Lanka were suddenly in front. And the lead was burgeoning. So much so that Virat Kohli had no choice but to start spreading the field. At one point he had three men on the fence to prevent Chandimal’s sweep going to the fence-including one at deep third-man for the reverse. He himself stood at short fine-leg hoping in vain that the batsman top-edges one. Ishant Sharma was shown scant respect too as Chandimal kept standing up on his toes and cutting him away. There was also a hook and a slice over the covers, with the tall pacer being hit for two boundaries in the same over on two separate occasions.

By now, there was a buzz around the stadium. They were grooving on the grass-banks, swaying to the live band there. And the music was anything but Indian with those in the aisles dancing to the Sinhala beat. The Indian bowlers too were dancing to the beating down Chandimal was laying down on them in the middle.

By evening, there was a massive crowd outside the stadium as well with Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe set to address an election rally. Fire-crackers would go off and hundreds of green balloons would be released as Wickramasinghe took the stage. The green balloons would float over the Galle stadium, and symbolically so, on a day Chandimal and Sri Lanka got the rub of the green, and made the most of it.

And a day that finished as it started with fielders hovering around the batsmen. Only that the roles had changed. And it was the Sri Lankans going for the kill.

 Jinx breaks record

8 is the number of catches that Ajinkya Rahane took in the ongoing Test match at Galle. It’s a world record. Rahane went past five international players — Yajurvindra Singh (India), Greg Chappell (Australia), Hashan Tillakaratne (Sri Lanka), Stephen Fleming (New Zealand) and Matthew Hayden (Australia), all of whom took seven catches.