Tortured by Muttiah Muralitharan and Ajantha Mendis, India headed to a massive innings defeat, 131.4 overs to play out and the confidence of handling the spinners nowhere in sight. Murali and Mendis, assisted by the ever-alert close-in fielders and the wicketkeeper, did not loosen the vice grip they have had over the batsmen ever since the ball was thrown to Mendis in the 10th over of India’s first innings. VVS Laxman and Ishant Sharma batted freely in a resolute 10th-wicket stand in the first innings, but that was the only respite India had.
With India trailing by 377 in the first innings, the follow-on decision was a no-brainer. The new-ball bowlers were fresh: they bowled only 16 overs in the innings, with Murali and Mendis bowling 49 successive overs in tandem. Going by the trend, it seemed the new-ball bowlers might bowl even fewer overs than they did in the first innings. Jayawardene promptly summoned his spinners five overs into the second innings and struck immediately. Murali accounted for Sehwag in a controversial manner, with what was the last ball before lunch.
In the next session, India lost five. Hoping for a repeat of Kolkata 2001, Laxman, the first-innings half-centurion, was promoted to No. 3. He hit three beautiful boundaries off the medium-pacers, before Mendis nailed him. This time it was the quicker googly, perhaps because the ball was fairly new, which caught him on the back foot. Laxman didn’t have a clue as to which way it would spin, and was out plumb.
Tendulkar was a tad unfortunate, when he missed a sweep outside the leg stump, and the ball caught the edge and lobbed to leg slip. Gambhir found his Pied Piper in Murali, and was drawn out for the second time in two innings and beaten in the flight. Prasanna Jayawardene completed an exceptional stumping to register his presence.
Just before tea, the black-magic men worked their magic again in successive overs. Murali got Ganguly to edge to second slip to move one short of what would be a 21st 10-wicket haul, and fourth at the SSC. Mendis, then, made Dravid revisit the first-innings horror, just missing the off stump with his carrom ball. The next ball was a googly, and had Dravid lunging, and bat-padding it.
India had started the day needing 242 runs to avoid the follow-on, and managed only 64. Muralitharan completed his 64th five-for with Harbhajan Singh’s wicket, 13th at the SSC, but it was Mendis who inflicted major damage in the first session. Even Laxman had trouble picking him, the carrom ball being his main tormentor. Laxman was let off in the second over of the day, as an outside edge off Mendis bisected the keeper and Mahela Jayawardene at slip. The other batsmen were even more clueless. Anil Kumble and Zaheer Khan were trapped by Mendis topspinners. Harbhajan played for a Murali doosra, but got an offspinner, which resulted in an easy bat-pad catch.
With the tailenders for company, Laxman did not refuse singles off the last ball of the over on two occasions. Harbhajan fell in the over that followed, while Zaheer survived. Laxman started farming the strike with the No. 11 Ishant Sharma, though, and continued to do so until he was fairly confident in Ishant’s ability. Laxman had himself grown in confidence, had started reading Mendis better, and kept employing the wristy flick to the leg side. Despite the odd leading edge, Laxman kept attacking.
In the 69th over, the 10th-wicket partnership became the longest partnership of the innings, beating the 82-ball stand between Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly. The first sign of success for the pair was when Mendis was taken out of the attack after an unbroken 27-over spell.
But Mendis returned from Murali’s end to get his man. He first beat him with a 95kph legbreak, angling in and then breaking away, and then beat Laxman – 158 minutes old at the pitch – all ends up with a googly.
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