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India take the honours on day one

Prem Panicker

Simply put, at the end of the first day's play of the first Test between India and Sri Lanka at the Premadasa Stadium in Colombo, the touring side found itself in a position from where, unless they bat shockingly badly, they just can't lose.

280/3 at the end of day one is the kind of score that makes defeat virtually impossible - at least, against this particular side. But is it a platform from which the side can push to a win against this Lankan side? An answer to that question, I suspect, will only be evident by this time Monday evening - that is, at the end of day three.

But back to the game as played - on a Premadasa wicket that looks hard, flat, and totally devoid of grass. There was seam movement there but very little movement in the air - a miraculously clear sky being the main reason for the absence of swing - and turn for the finger spinners right from the first hour. But movement, whether for the pace bowler or the spinner, was slow and the batsmen had plenty of time to read it and adjust. Another plus for the batsmen on day one was the fact that unless the bowler really bent his back and banged it in way short, there was no alarming bounce on this track - which meant that it was possible to come onto the front foot without any hesitation.

A good toss to win, and Tendulkar duly won it. India went in with five bowlers, blooding Nilesh Kulkarni and bringing back Rajesh Chauhan to partner Anil Kumble. Sri Lanka, for its part, capped Mahela Jaywardene who, besides being a decent left arm spinner, is by repute a big scoring batsman. Ranatunga also brought in the young left arm spinner Jayanta Silva to back up Muralitharan.

India predictably opened with Nayan Mongia and Navjot Singh Sidhu, and thanks largely to the fact that Sidhu, for once, showed no sign of the preliminary jitters he is prone to, cruised along to 36 before Mongia, on the stroke of the first drinks break, played at a ball wide of him on the off side and gave an easy catch to Jayawardene in the slips.

The point was made in our curtain raiser yesterday, but bears reiteration - why didn't India open instead with Saurav Ganguly? It is not by accident that throughout the world, wicketkeepers (Alec Stewart of England is the exception, but then he is more of a batsman-keeper than the other way around) bat at number six or seven. At this position, the keeper provides a buffer between the last of the recognised batsmen, and the tailenders. Meanwhile, look at the situation here. If India loses its fourth wicket, in comes Ganguly. And when the fifth wicket falls, whichever batsman is left standing finds himself suddenly in the company of the tail.

Bat Ganguly at the top, and when wicket number five falls, there is still Mongia to follow - and if you look back at previous performances, the Indian keeper has always proved a combative, obdurate number six. Oh well... spilt milk, really, talking of strategies not implemented.

Sidhu seems to make a habit of scoring centuries each time he comes back into the side - and this latest one was as good an effort as you want to see. No nerves, no stutter in the early stages of the innings - just smooth footwork onto the front foot and refreshingly free strokeplay on both sides of the wicket. Two big hits, off Jayawardene and Muralitharan, were in keeping with the opener's penchant for getting after the spinners, but Sidhu on the whole restrained his impetuosity against the slower bowlers and picked the balls to punish very well - till that one airy slash at a ball going outside off from Vaas landed in the glove of the keeper. In fact, Vaas - judging by his body language - did not even expect to take a wicket with that delivery, bowled more as a defensive ploy than with any aggressive intent.

Rahul Dravid was, well, Rahul Dravid. Cool, calm, compact, collected - and quiet. Anytime a ball was loose in line and length, Dravid promptly despatched it, as witness his 10 fours. And he continus to show the ideal temperament for a number three - first ensuring that the first wicket is not followed by a swift second one, then slowly working himself into the runs. The one valid criticism against him continues to be that he doesn't work the singles as much as he should.

And the danger of playing dead defensive strokes, as opposed to gentle pushes into the gaps, is that the former allows the bowlers to settle into a line and length, while a steady accumulation of singles spoils their line, has the fielding side captain thinking defensively, and keeps the strike rotating at the same time. And this is something the coach of the Indian side needs to talk to Dravid about - not that Madan Lal, after his foot-in-mouth interview to the media the other day, will be attended to if he says today is Saturday.

Dravid will probably count himself unlucky for getting out the way he did - he rocked back to a short ball from Jayasuriya and slammed a square drive that hit Marvan Atapattu, fielding at silly point, on the shin and richocheted for Jayasuriya to take the catch on his follow through. That's the kind of dismissal that has the batsman fuming on the way back to the dressing room - for he can neither credit it to bad shot selection on his part, or good bowling... and "caught and bowled Luck" is rather difficult to reconcile to at any stage.

Tendulkar's innings was, for the viewer, rather bewildering. He started off in absolutely fluent touch and, at one point, was going along smoothly at 34 off 43 balls without really getting into overdrive. And then, next thing you know, he gets into a defensive shell for no visible reason, stretching way forward even before the ball was delivered and putting bat in front of pad - a style of play that got him two runs off the next thirty deliveries, and it was not that the bowling in that phase was any different from what he was comfortably working around for runs earlier.

The danger, when Sachin goes exaggeratedly defensive, is that he inevitably makes an error and gets himself out. It is probable that when Dravid left, Sachin told himself that it would be a good idea to let Azhar play the shots while he dropped anchor - but to my mind, it was reminiscent of his effort in the second innings at Calcutta against South Africa last year, when he kept stretching way forward to everything, and ended up popping a simple catch to short square leg off Pat Symcox.

Here, it was Jayasuriya who nearly did for Sachin - the Indian skipper lunged way forward before the ball was bowled, it turned out to be a shorter one that turned and nicked the pad on the way through the keeper, and the only thing that went against the umpire confirming the LBW appeal was how far forward Tendulkar was.

In the event, that served as a wakeup call and it was Vaas, returning with the second new ball, that got the short end of the stick as Sachin Tendulkar blazed four superb boundaries off the Lankan quick. None of the deliveries were bad, loose, whatever - it was just that Sachin again shifted gears for no visible reason. A delicate flick through midwicket was followed by a smashing off drive on the up, and that in turn by a blazing cover drive. And off the last ball, on a perfect length on off stump, Tendulkar gently leaned forward, showed the bowler the maker's label on his bat and next thing anyone knows, the ball is richocheting off the hoardings behind the bowler's back.

Azharuddin meanwhile was his usual self - all wrist and timing. Barring a loose slash at Pushpakumara off the penultimate over of the day, to which he was lucky not to get a touch, the former India skipper looked in awesome nick, which in turn bodes pretty badly for the Lankan bowlers tomorrow.

The Lankan bowling was as good as it was allowed to be. Vaas was outstanding in his first spell, Muralitharan good always. The trouble though is that well as Jayantha Silva bowled, tight though Jayasuriya was, neither they, nor Pushpakumara, looked likely to break through at any stage against batsmen apparently in top form.

Which brings up a thought - could it be that the Lankan bowling, awesomely efficient in the abridged version of the game, is just not quite up there yet when it comes to Test cricket? In the one day version, the bowlers can by bowling a restrictive line and backed by the superb Lankan fielding frustrate batsmen and induce errors. But when run rates are not the criterion, as here, the bowling looks restrictive without being penetrative - and this could be the one factor that inhibits Lanka's bid to attain best Test nation status within its self-imposed deadline of 2000 AD.

That, then, is where we are at close on day one - 280/3, with India's most experienced batsmen at the wicket and Saurav Ganguly to follow. For India, the goal tomorrow is obviously to see off the first hour and then make a push for a huge total. For Sri Lanka, with a new ball just four overs old, the goal will be to try for a wicket or two early on - for if Vaas and Pushpakumara allow Tendulkar and Azhar to get their eye in again, a leather hunt could well be on the cards.

All makes for an interesting morning session on Sunday... see you, live, then...

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