Lanka save follow-on but face daunting target

Sa'adi Thawfeeq reporting from India

AHMEDABAD, Tuesday - Sri Lanka's hopes of saving the three-Test series and recording their maiden Test victory in India gradually faded into the background as the home country piled on the runs in the third and final cricket Test played at the Sardar Patel Gujarat Stadium in Motera here today.

With a handy first innings lead of 192, India who is 1-0 up in the series went for quick runs and by the end of the day had extended their overall lead to 479 with two days remaining. As it is, India's lead looks an overwhelming one for Sri Lanka to conquer especially for a side that has failed to score no more than 247 runs in one innings in the series. India scored 398 in their first innings and Sri Lanka replied with 206.

Whatever target India sets Sri Lanka tomorrow it will be in the hands of the batsmen to either cover themselves with glory, go down fighting or surrender tamely as they had done in their previous three innings.

What the Sri Lankan batting lacks is character. They have fallen far short of the requirement to have the will to fight it out tooth and nail against the opposition. Sri Lankan batsmen in the past have been renowned to be good players of spin bowling. But the way the present team has tackled the Indian spinners leaves an element of doubt whether that tag can be attached to them any longer.

At Delhi they collapsed to the right-arm leg-spin of Anil Kumble who went on to capture ten wickets in the match. Today they floundered against the off-breaks of Harbhajan Singh who ended up taking seven wickets for 62 runs off 22.2 overs.

What this series has thrown up is that even India's lower order batsmen are capable of scoring runs whereas Sri Lanka's batsmen are still faltering against the Indian spinners. The moment the Indian bowlers take the ball into their hands the contest becomes a totally different ball game.

Even today India showed great reserves of strength in their batting recovering from 100-5 to finish the day at 287-9 with useful contributions coming from Yuvraj Singh (75) and Ajith Agarkar (48).

If there was one man who was outstanding for Sri Lanka on the field it was Tillakaratne Dilshan. Apart from his brilliant fielding, his attacking stroke play against the Indian spinners brought him his fifth Test fifty.

It came at a time when his team needed it most to avoid the follow-on.

Although he was dismissed with his team one run away from the target of 199, he had done enough to bring them this far to avoid the ignominy. On a pitch of this nature where the odd ball was bound to pop up at any time, Dilshan's positive approach was the wisest thing to do in the circumstances. His knock of 65 off 109 balls comprised eight fours. He then showed his hand as a bowler by trapping SachinTendulkar lbw for 19.

Malinga Bandara proved himself a capable tailender scoring an unbeaten 28 in an hour's batting. He put together 43 vital runs for the eighth wicket in a face-saving partnership with Dilshan after Sri Lanka had lost Jehan Mubarak and Farveez Maharoof within five overs of each other at the start of the day.

Bandara has turned out to be handy leg-spinner who attacks the batsmen. If at all Sri Lanka can draw some positives out of this series, it is the discovery of Bandara as a bowler. Not since Somachandra de Silva who retired two decades ago has Sri Lanka been able to find a successful leg-spinner.

INDIA 1ST INNINGS 398
SRI LANKA 1ST INNINGS (overnight 131-5)

W.U. Tharanga c Dhoni b Pathan     		02
M.S. Atapattu c Sehwag b Harbhajan		40
K.C. Sangakkara b Harbhajan			41
D.P.M. Jayawardene c Kaif b Harbhajan		00
T.T. Samaraweera c Kaif b Harbhajan		01
T.M. Dilshan c Kaif b Harbhajan			65
J. Mubarak b Kumble				13
M.F. Maharoof c and b Harbhajan			04
C.M. Bandara not out				28
M. Muralitharan st Dhoni b Kumble			03
S.L. Malinga c Sehwag b Harbhajan			00
EXTRAS (b-1, lb-2, nb-6)				09
TOTAL (all out, 63.2 overs, 262 mins)		206

Fall of wickets: 
1-14 (Tharanga), 2-74 (Atapattu), 3-74 (Jayawardene),
4-82 (Samaraweera), 5-105 (Sangakkara), 6-144 (Mubarak), 
7-155 (Maharoof), 8-198 (Dilshan), 9-201 (Muralitharan), 
10-206 (Malinga).
Bowling: Pathan 10-1-36-1, Agarkar 6-2-18-0 (6nb), 
Kumble 25-3-87-2, Harbhajan 22.2-3-62-7.

INDIA 2ND INNINGS
V. Sehwag c Maharoof b Malinga			00
G. Gambhir c Sangakkara b Muralitharan		30
V.V.S. Laxman c Sangakkara b Maharoof		05
S.R. Tendulkar lbw b Dilshan			19
Yuvraj Singh c Sangakkara b Bandara		75
M. Kaif lbw b Bandara				09
M.S. Dhoni lbw b Muralitharan			14
I.K. Pathan b Muralitharan				27
A.B. Agarkar c and b Bandara 			48
A. Kumble not out 				23
Harbhajan Singh not out				19
EXTRAS (b-7, lb-9, nb-2)				18
TOTAL (9 wkts at close, 66 overs, 278 mins)		287

Fall of wickets: 1-0 (Sehwag), 2-9 (Laxman), 3-34 (Tendulkar), 
4-81 (Gambhir), 5-100 (Kaif), 6-134 (Dhoni), 7-174 (Yuvraj), 
8-198 (Pathan), 9-247 (Agarkar).
Bowling: Malinga 10-2-51-1 (2nb), Maharoof 6-0-25-1, 
Dilshan 12-2-36-1, Muralitharan 21-5-90-3, 
Bandara 16-2-67-3, Mubarak 1-0-2-0.