Lankans must gohard at the Indians

Elmo RODRIGOPULLE

Now that the Sri Lankans have the Indians by the jagular after throttling them to an innings and 239 defeat in the First Test, the Lankans must pounce on them from the first ball, when the Second Test begins in Galle tomorrow.

The Indians looked an utterly helpless side surrendering with more than a day to spare. This defeat, one of their worst would have been hard to swallow.

But the Indians stung by this defeat would want to come back and show that they had a bad First Test. The Lankans must go hard at the Indians now that they hold the advantage, and not let up till victory is achieved and the Three Test series is wrapped up.

There has been intermittent showers in Galle. But the wicket and the outfield have been covered and if there is sunshine then a prompt start is assured.

The winning of the toss will be of paramount importance, as it showed at the SSC and the side winning the toss would have no hesitation in batting, putting up a huge score and letting their spinners loose at the opposing batsmen.

Mahela Jayawardena had luck at the SSC and he must be hoping that, that luck continues to follow him at Galle. IT was obvious the manner in which Jayawardena marshalled his bowlers and set attacking fields that he is way ahead of his vis-a-vis Anil Kumble.

Any captain has to keep thinking and thinking deep as to when to switch his bowlers, place his field and generally keep his team focused instructing them every moment.

What is amazing in Jayawardena is that in addition to his heavy burden as captain, he plants himself in the slips which is one of the most difficult positions to field.

We say this because in that position, one has to concentrate every ball. The moment you lose concentration, even for a moment, that is the time that the snick comes to you.

So you can just imagine what a burden he carries on the field. He could field at any other position, so that he could relax a bit. But Jayawardena is one who always leads by example and that is how he will always be.

Sri Lanka is lucky to have a skipper of Jayawardena’s calibre. He must be encouraged and also be allowed to take the men he wants to the field, and not some nincompoops team. Jayawardena is one who has the courage to stand by his convictions. He is not one who will shriek responsibility or run away from a situation.

His exemplary batting rubbed off on those who followed and what one saw was centuries rolling off the bats of Malinda Warnapura, Thilan Samaraweera and Tillekeratne Dilshan, which helped the home team to a mammoth 600 for 5 declared.

The Galle wicket has been a happy hunting ground for Jayawardena with centuries and double centuries cascading and he will be looking forward to repeating.

The Lankan batsmen must once again give the spin marvels Muttiah Muralitharan and Ajantha Mendis a total to exhibit their demoralising and venomous spin on the opponents and rub them in again. It has to be a team effort.

Galle wicket usually favours spin. With the selectors opting to toss in another paceman Dhammika Prasad to the squad, the gut feeling is that something heartbreaking is going to happen when the final eleven is named.

It is customary for a winning team to go in with the winning combination. But it need not be necessarily so. As for the Indians, their supporters will be praying that their highly rated batsman - Gautam Ghambir, Virender Sehwag, V.V.S. Laxman, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly show their true capabilities.

If they continue to fail like they did in the first Test, then it will not be a happy side that will go back.

The best way to blunt spin is to get to the pitch of the ball. But sadly the Indian batsmen seemed scared to leave their crease, and if they did it was half way and were clueless.

With the onfield umpires being embarrassed with the new ‘referral’ or ‘review’ system coming into play, the onfield umpires would do well to take every appeal to the man upstairs, only count the deliveries so that they would not be red-faced when their decisions are negatived by the man upstairs.

Over then to the picturesque Galle stadium and wishing the Lankans another crushing victory.

Jayananda Warnaweera, the former Sri Lanka off cutter has been the godfather of the Galle International Stadium. He has nursed and nurtured the wicket, the ground and everything that it stands for and the Indians and the Sri Lankans need not have any fear.