India throw away first morning gains

The scoreboard makes miserly reading -- 163/5 at close of play after being put in to bat.

And that score, spelt out in words, means just this -- India had the advantage thanks to a misjudgement of the pitch and his own bowling strength by Sanath Jayasuriya; openers SS Das and S Ramesh consolidated that advantage with a solid start; and finally, thanks to bad batting and lack of application in the final session, India threw away its gains.

I'm beginning to suspect the green covering on the Galle strip has seduced everyone into misreading this wicket -- if what we saw on day one is any indication, stand by for a track that, by tomorrow evening, misbehaves.

There is already traces of variable bounce with the odd ball staying low. Worse, from a batting point of view, is the fact that deliveries just short of the good length have been kicking up visible puffs of dust. And together, that translates into the kind of situation where batting will become increasingly dodgy by day three.

And if in fact that happens, both teams could regret being swayed by the grass and going in with seam-centric attacks. Sri Lanka in fact went overboard with four seamers, while India looks a bit better balanced with three seamers, including the slowish Prasad, and one spinner. Against that, Lanka have two non-regular but effective spinners to call upon in Sanath Jayasuriya and Russel Arnold.

Curiously enough, on the anniversary of the day Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar scored his first ever Test hundred (119 not out against England, Old Trafford, August 1990), India went into a Test for the first time without the master batsman -- and without VVS Laxman as well.

The seam orientation, which sees seven bowlers of varying degrees of pace operating for the two teams, owes to two factors. The weather -- cloud cover, a maximum temperature of 30 degrees, humidity levels expected to hit a high of 88 per cent -- made for ideal seam conditions early on.

Galle pitches, by repute, take turn getting into the fourth and fifth day. But for the first time, this one showed a substantial layering of grass -- which in tandem with the morning weather made for bounce and lateral movement. Sanath Jayasuriya called right, and promptly inserted.

The Lankans, having done the insertion, went on a desperate wicket hunt, using all four of its seamers to fields of three slips, two gullies, and the occasional leg gully. As far as the Indians were concerned, the only slot in the scoreboard that concerned them was the one showing wickets fallen -- and the focus was on keeping that blank.

Das looked good, off both front foot and back. The normally flamboyant Ramesh, coming back after the injury sustained in Zimbabwe, batted with a circumspection that indicated he was aware of the axe hanging over his head -- the selectors have, of late, been eyeing a few other opening options.

Left-arm seamer Ruchira Perera, coming in as first change, got a ball on full length outside Ramesh's off stump to deviate just enough to take a faint edge through to the keeper. Curiously, neither the bowler nor the 'keeper really went up in appeal and Ramesh, with the score on 6/0, got himself a life.

Vaas was the most impressive of the Lankan bowlers in the morning session, bowling the fullish length and letting the ball bend in the air and seam off the deck. Both Perera and Fernando seemed seduced by the sight of all that lush grass and bowled too short to really pose sustained problems for the batsmen.

The most interesting sight of the morning was Muralitharan getting the ball to turn almost square, and bounce, on the first morning. If this is an indicator of trends to follow, Lanka just might have dug a hole for itself by opting to bat last here.

Lanka began post-lunch play with its two frontline seamers, Dilhara Fernando and Chaminda Vaas. But though the former managed to get Das in a tangle on a couple of occasions with short-pitching lifters, it was clear that with the sun having burnt the sub-strata moisture off the deck, conditions increasingly had swung in favour of the batsmen.

Neither Das nor Ramesh were prepared to go full throttle -- but unlike in the morning, both openers made more of an effort to work the ball around, and the running between wickets improved as well.

The feature of the second session was the duel between Muralitharan and Das. The offie continued to get bounce and lots of turn, and Das showed mastery in the art of playing quality off spin. By alternating judicious pad play with little skips down the track to get to the pitch and smother the turn, Das kept the bowler guessing and kept him from settling into a dominant line.

For his part, Ramesh gradually eased himself back into form, his footwork and timing noticeably improving in this session. For trivia buffs, the first boundary of the Indian innings came in the 27th over, with Ramesh flicking Vaas off his pads square on the on. The 50 of the Indian innings, off 177 deliveries, also came in this session.

The first wicket in fact came against the run of play, when Murali went around the wicket to toss one up at Ramesh. The batsman checked a drive, got it high on the bat and straight to short extra-cover to end a composed innings of 42 off 127 deliveries (India 79/1, Das batting 30).

Ruchira Perera was the standout performer from either side, during the post-lunch session -- the left-arm seamer hit an optimum length, and with his ability to make the ball go both ways at will, posed problems to all three Indian batsmen.

At tea, India was on 95/1, with Das batting 37 to Kaif's 8. The second session produced 79 runs off 36 overs -- hardly a crackling rate, but on balance, it was Lanka that came off the poorer, having failed to consolidate the advantage of the toss.

Post-tea play resumed 15 minutes later than scheduled, thanks to another spell of rain.

For those who have not seen too much of Mohammad Kaif (only the second Test player from Uttar Pradesh, after Gopal Sharma), the lad is lanky, very easy and relaxed at guard and technically compact. He plays with a loose bottom hand, making him more of a guider, a persuader, than a hitter of the ball. His real forte is a brilliant eye to the run -- assured, quick calling, inch perfect judgement, and very good footspeed between wickets. To which, he adds the ability to deliberately angle the ball into gaps to work the quick singles and twos.

Trivia alert: Throw your mind back to the Move America Challenge -- a tournament played in Los Angeles in 1999, on the kind of track you don't want to see even in your nightmares. The India A lineup included the likes of VVS Laxman, Virendra Sehwag, SS Das, Sridharan Sriram, Vijay Bharadwaj, Devang Gandhi. India scored around 130-odd -- and Kaif, with 38, was the only player who handled Brett Lee on that torrid track with assurance and poise. "I'd like to play Brett Lee on a better track sometime," the 21-year-old right-hander told my colleague, Faisal Shariff, while discussing that innings.

Das, for his part, seemed to have lost the edge of his immaculate concentration during the tea interval -- his play after resumption was a touch dodgy, an uppish cut narrowly eluding the point fielder. That was off Vaas. An over later, the same bowler got him pushing loosely at an angled delivery across the right-hander, to guide it straight to Jayasuriya at first slip to end a patient knock of 40 (169 balls) with India at that point on 105/2.

Fernando, in the first over of his post tea spell, produced a superb slower ball that foxed Dravid (10 off 19 deliveries) into playing too early. Suresh Perera, at mid off, got both hands to the ball and let it through, with India on 118/2 and Lanka badly needing a wicket at that point.

Murali got rid of Dravid in somewhat fortuitous fashion as Dravid (12 off 26 balls) came dancing down the track to work one out on the on side. The turn beat the bat, took the pad, and ballooned up for Arnold at silly point to judge to a nicety and hold, India at that point being 123/3. Problem with the dismissal was, the ball had narrowly missed the inside edge.

Mohd Kaif by then was looking increasingly solid, and despite the presence of two gullies, Saurav Ganguly played with a minimum absence of fuss to pull India back out of the hole left by Dravid's exit.

However, with light fading as play extended beyond the scheduled close to make up for the rain delays, Kaif seemed to lose his concentration. Fernando, bowling with the second new ball, brought one back off the seam and Kaif (37 off 144), normally compact to that line, played with bat away from body for the ball to castle him through the gate. A pity, that, because it was, till then, a promising display by the young right-hander, marked by assurance and calm competence.

Hemang Badani finally gave it away. With overs running out and occupation being the need of the moment, the southpaw opted to slash outside off stump at a short, wide delivery from Fernando that took the edge through to Sangakarra, and with that dismissal, India surrendered its initiative.

Ganguly took his cue when the umpires offered the light, and play ended with five overs of the scheduled 90 still to be bowled.

And with only Dighe and the tail to support him, the Indian skipper will need to bat out of his skin -- and way beyond his current form -- if India is to get the kind of score it can use to pressurise the Lankans with.

Detailed Scorecard