On a sun-lit day of twists and turns, Muttiah Muralitharan delighted with his spin and guile. He continues to do magic.
The off-spinning wizard followed his five for 63 in the Indian first innings with the wicket of the left-handed Yuvraj Singh in the dying moments of the fourth day as the Sri Lankans celebrated.
The ball, delivered from round the wicket, spun away and Yuvraj was clueless. The crowd roared. With 798 scalps, the Sri Lankan maestro is only two short of a historic 800. More importantly, Muralitharan has taken his team to the brink of victory in his final Test.
Following on 244 runs behind, India was 181 for five at stumps on Wednesday in the first Micrimax Test. Mahendra Singh Dhoni's men are still 63 runs short of Sri Lanka.
The match witnessed a dramatic turnaround in the last eight overs; India lost Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar and Yuvraj.
It had been high-quality Test match batting as a resolute Dravid (44) and a brilliant Tendulkar (84) added 119 runs for the third wicket in the cauldron.
Just as the Indian hopes rose, the fiery Lasith Malinga snared Dravid (44). The batsman, unable to keep a flick down, was pouched at a cleverly placed leg-gully. During the course of his innings, Dravid became only the second batsman – Ricky Ponting being the other – to score 9000 Test runs at the No. 3 slot.
The speedy Malinga bowled with heart and fire. The slinger moved the new ball both ways, sent down a few telling bouncers and got the delivery to reverse in the final session. It was with a reverse swinging scorcher that Malinga took out Tendulkar; the Indian legend missed as he attempted to work the ball to the leg-side.
Tendulkar had batted beautifully before that. With a straight head and back-swing, he drilled holes on the field. His batsmanship was once again marked by footwork, balance and an alluring economy of movement. His duel with Muralitharan was engaging; this was classical Test match cricket.
Earlier, Malinga rocked the Indian second innings at the start. The left-handed Gautam Gambhir was prised out by a delivery that left him around the off-stump.
Then, Virender Sehwag was well held by Mahela Jayawardene at deep point as he attempted to cream a short of a length delivery angled across him by left-arm paceman Chanaka Welegedara. As in the case of Dravid, the trap was laid. And the ploy worked.
In the morning session, Muralitharan's flight, deception and spin tormented the Indians. The legend ended a threatening 74-run partnership between Yuvraj Singh and Mahendra Singh Dhoni in the Indian first innings with a brute of an off-spinner.
Dhoni stretched forward but committed the folly of playing with an angled bat and left a gap between bat and pad. Among Muralitharan's glowing attributes is his ability to change the angle even while controlling the extent of spin. The Sri Lankan switched to round the wicket to have Yuvraj caught at slip with a delivery that pitched on off and spun away just a shade. Then, Muralitharan toyed with the tail. The Sri Lankan wizard is now the first bowler with 100 scalps against India in Tests.
At the other end, Harbhajan Singh, with lunch only three minutes away, jumped to left-arm spinner Rangana Herath to be stumped by a mile.
The Indian batting in the first innings was largely bereft of application and character. When the need was to bat out time and get past the follow-on mark, the famous line-up disappointed.
Virender Sehwag rollicked to his 20th Test century before succumbing to Welegedara's plan of frustrating him with deliveries way beyond off-stump. Sehwag had gifted his wicket away.
V.V.S. Laxman was tested with short-pitched deliveries from both Malinga and Welegedara. And a lifter from Malinga struck Laxman on helmet grill as the batsman shaped to hook. Laxman did not last long; a meek pull off a short-pitched delivery from Malinga was held at deep square-leg.
Sri Lanka had achieved vital breakthoughs in the morning. However, skipper Kumar Sangakkara's reluctance to bring on Muralitharan was baffling. More so since Yuvraj Singh, troubled by Muralitharan in the past, had arrived at the crease. Herath and Dilshan bowled along with the pacemen before Muralitharan was introduced.
This said, Yuvraj batted with a measure of solidity and flair. He no more than pushed Welegedara and the ball streaked to the long-off fence; this was sheer timing. When Herath flighted one around the off-stump, Yuvraj danced down to effortlessly strike the ball over long-off.
At the other end, Dhoni punched Welegedara through the covers. Then, Muralitharan imposed himself on the contest.
Scores
Sri Lanka (Ist inngs) 520 for eight decl.
India (Ist inngs): G. Gambhir lbw b Malinga 2 (2b), V. Sehwag c Paranavitana b Welegedara 109 (118b, 19x4, 1x6), R. Dravid (run out) 18 (33b, 1x4), S. Tendulkar lbw b Muralitharan 8 (21b, 1x4), V.V.S. Laxman c Dilshan b Malinga 22 (61b, 2x4), Yuvraj c M. Jayawardene b Muralitharan 52 (64b, 8x4, 1x6), M.S. Dhoni b Muralitharan 33 (47b, 4x4), Harbhajan st P. Jayawardene b Herath 2 (8b), I. Sharma (not out) 5 (19b), P. Ojha c M. Jayawardene b Muralitharan 3 (17b), A. Mithun b Muralitharan 8 (10b, 2x4), Extras (b-1, lb-1, w-2, nb-10) 14; Total (all out in 65 overs) 276.
Fall of wkts: 1-2 (Gambhir), 2-68 (Dravid), 3-101 (Tendulkar), 4-169 (Sehwag), 5-178 (Laxman), 6-252 (Dhoni), 7-259 (Yuvraj), 8-259 (Harbhajan), 9-266 (Ojha).
Sri Lanka bowling: Malinga 13-0-55-2, Welegedara 11-1-69-1, Herath 18-1-62-1, Mathews 5-0-19-0, Muralitharan 17-1-63-5, Dilshan 1-0-6-0.
India (IInd inngs): G. Gambhir c P. Jayawardene b Malinga 0 (3b), V. Sehwag c M. Jayawardene b Welegedara 31 (30b, 6x4), R. Dravid c Sangakkara b Malinga 44 (152b, 3x4), S. Tendulkar lbw b Malinga 84 (142b, 11x4, 1x6), V.V.S. Laxman (batting) 9 (20b, 1x4), Yuvraj c M. Jayawardene b Muralitharan 5 (14b, 1x4), Extras (lb-3, w-1, nb-4) 8,
Total (for five wkts in 59.3 overs) 181.
Fall of wkts: 1-0 (Gambhir), 2-42 (Sehwag), 3-161 (Dravid), 4-172 (Tendulkar), 5-181 (Yuvraj).
Sri Lanka bowling: Malinga 9-2-33-3, Welegedara 6-1-26-1, Herath 14-2-27-0, Mathews 7-3-13-0, Muralitharan 18.3-1-57-1, Dilshan 5-0-22-0.
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