Lanka down but not out

WHAT an eventful week it has been for cricket in India. The second cricket Test between Sri Lanka and India played at the capital New Delhi produced enough action, milestones and controversy in the five days to satisfy the appetite of the connoisseur.

If the opening day of the Test belonged to Sachin Tendulkar who became the world's highest centurion in Test cricket when he surpassed another Indian batting maestro Sunil Gavaskar's record of 34 hundreds, the second was dominated by Sri Lanka off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan who ran through the Indian batting taking seven wickets as they crashed from a commanding 254-3 to 290 all out in the first innings.

However by the end of the day the odds had evened out as Sri Lanka tamely handed over the advantage back to India when they lost four wickets for 23 runs in what coach Tom Moody described as "45 minutes of madness".

That collapse was more or less the turning point of the Test for after being in a strong position at 175-2 and well placed to obtain a big first innings lead over India, Sri Lanka instead, ended up 60 runs in deficit.

From there on India converted that fortunate advantage which at one stage of the Sri Lankan innings they never looked like getting, into one of winning proportions as they built up a huge lead in their second innings to bat Sri Lanka out of the match.

Yet for all Sri Lanka could have still saved face and got away with an honourable draw. But once again just when they looked to be in a promising position towards the end of the fourth day they once again gave India the upper hand with another collapse akin to the first innings losing four wickets for 14 runs in the final session.

With half the side back in the pavilion, India had only the mopping up operations to perform on the final day which they did shortly after lunch to go 1-up in the three-Test series.

Sri Lanka's two batting collapses was hard to comprehend. It only showed that the batsmen were not applying themselves diligently to the task that is expected of them even after Muralitharan had changed the odds from the first day to Sri Lanka's advantage.

One cannot expect Muralitharan to perform miracles every time he takes the ball into his hands and the solitary wicket he took in the Indian second innings was ample proof that he is not a superman.

Where the fault lay is not in Sri Lanka's bowling, but in their susceptible middle order batting which has time and again let them down.

Following Sri Lanka's defeat there were opinions expressed back home that Russel Arnold instead of Jehan Mubarak would have been a better choice as replacement for the injured Chamara Kapugedera. Whether it was Arnold or Mubarak, the fault lay not in the No. 7 batting position but in the top order.

Had the top order delivered instead of caving in twice at crucial moments, the match could have easily been saved or even won.

That skipper Marvan Atapattu and his former deputy Mahela Jayawardene scored fifties apiece in the Test proved that there was nothing wrong with the pitch in which case the rest of the Sri Lankan batsmen must take the blame for the defeat.

The absence of Sanath Jayasuriya to open the batting could be a major factor. He is Sri Lanka's most capped player with 100 Tests and also the country's leading run-getter in both forms of the game. If there is one batsman whom the Indians fear it is Jayasuriya.

Indian captain Rahul Dravid when queried by the media whether Jayasuriya's presence would have made any difference to the result said: "Jayasuriya is a terrific player, there is no doubt about it. Jayasuriya playing at his best is a lethal player. But we can't worry about whether he is here or not.

Sri Lanka had to decide basically whether to chose him. That was their call.

From our point of view we were playing against a Sri Lankan team we believe they had selected to be the best in form at this particular point of time."

Some sections of the Indian media have become Jayasuriya fanatics that they even went to the extent of querying whether he would be flown down for the third Test at Ahmedabad.

India's victory at Delhi was their sixth straight win at this venue in as many Tests since 1992-93 and leg-spinner Anil Kumble emphasised his familiarity with the ground by capturing a match bag of ten wickets, six years after becoming only the second bowler in Test history after England's Jim Laker to take all ten in an innings, a feat he performed against Pakistan.

India's victory was overshadowed by the dropping of former captain Sourav Ganguly from the Test squad for the third Test. Ganguly's exclusion took headline news in virtually all the newspaper sidelining the Indian victory to the sports pages.

The Times of India said: Goodbye Ganguly?, The Asian Age: India win, Sourav out; and The Hindustan Times: Good win. But why was Sourav axed? The next few days leading to the Ahmedabad Test will see the debate on the dropping of Ganguly gathering momentum.