Tendulkar, Raina and Vijay save the day for India

Dilanka MANNAKKARA

The Indian batsmen, especially Sachin Tendulkar batted with patience and solidarity and battled hard to avoid the follow on. Sachin scored his 48th Test ton off 167 balls and it was his 9th century against Sri Lanka and the 5th made in Sri Lankan soil.

At stumps India were placed at 382 for 4 wickets with another 60 runs needed to avoid the follow on. Sachin Tendulkar was not out on 108 while debutant Suresh Raina on 66. Sachin displayed immense levels of concentration and solidly defended the ball and pinched the singles whenever he can and also put the bad ball away for boundaries.

Sachin survived an intriguing session to lend some stability to the Indian innings but Sri Lanka’s spinners made steady inroads to undermine a strong start by the visitors. After Suraj Randiv had rattled the top order, Ajantha Mendis snared VVS Laxman, who fought hard with Tendulkar in a determined stand, just at the stroke of tea with India still 199 away of the follow-on target. In fact this was the sixth instance that Mendis had got the wicket of Laxman in just 8 innings.

India started off the days play resuming from 94 for no loss and Virender Sehwag was ruthless in attack putting the pressure on the pace bowlers as he hit some crisp drives both on the back foot and the front foot and also played some delightful flicks and cut shots.

Murali Vijay played the second fiddle role and gave Sehwag the strike whenever possible. Vijay reached his maiden half century of 110 balls with 8 fours and it seemed as India were going for lunch with no wickets fallen.

However, there was far more encouragement for the spinners and although they didn’t turn the ball much, both Ajantha Mendis and Suraj Randiv did generate a good amount of bounce that created opportunities. Sehwag slashed Mendis for a boundary through point and aiming to repeat the shot the next ball, played one upishly towards Thilan Samaraweera who fluffed a low catch when he was on 89. He had another life at 90 when Skipper Sangakkara dropped a catch of the bowling of Dilhara Fernando. It didn’t cost Sri Lanka much as Sehwag who was coasting towards a fourth century in successive Tests inexplicably charged out to Randiv’s first ball of the day, targeting cow corner when on 99.

The ball didn’t turn as much as he expected, beat the swing and Prasanna Jayawardene knocked off the bails and handed the debutant his first Test wicket. This was only the third instance that a batsman has been stumped on 99.

Murali Vijay who played a calm and composed knock made an error when opting to play a length delivery from Mendis off the back foot to be caught plumb as it turned in.

Rahul Dravid “The Wall” didn’t last long as he was trapped in front as he tried to whip off the back foot of Randiv.

Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman survived a tense few overs before lunch, playing for spin when there wasn’t much on offer, and are yet again charged with reviving India amid pressure. India went for lunch when the score was at 173 for 3.

During the post lunch session Sachin given a life when he was on 25 as he attempted a upper-cut against Dilhara Fernando, only to be dropped by the ‘world’s best pure wicketkeeper’ Prasanna Jayawardene.

Thereafter he batted with determination, steadily in defence, and eased any pressure created by the spate of dot deliveries with the intermittent boundary. He along with Laxman put on 68 valuable runs in 180 balls before Laxman departed for a Mendis’ googly.

Thereafter the “Little master’ Sachin along with Raina anchored the ship and attacked whenever it was possible.

Raina did not show any signs of nervousness and he played some glorious inside out shots specially against Dilshan and Mendis and reached his maiden Test fifty in grand style with a exquisite cover drive of Randiv.