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Runs by the ton for Sachin, Azhar

Prem Panicker

At close on day two, one thing was pretty clear - day three is the one that will decide whether Test number 1374 will be consigned to the 'drawn games' column, or produce a result.

The second day's play began with India on 280/3, Tendulkar on 65 and Azhar on 18). The wicket hasn't changed much in character - still flat and hard and not affording much bounce for the medium pacers, but lots of turn for spinners.

The key to the game lay in the first hour - if Vaas and Pushpakumara could break through with a ball just four overs old, taking advantage of the fact that the batsmen needed to get their eye in again and also using the early morning moisture on the pitch for some assistance, then India would have been forced on the defensive.

The Indian batsmen - and particularly, Sachin Tendulkar - scotched that one with a blistering assault on the Lankan quicks that fetched 66 runs, including nine fours, before the drinks were called for to signal the end of the first hour. Tendulkar began the day with an immaculate straight drive off the first ball of the morning, off Vaas, and then just went on from there while Azhar, after taking a couple of hours to get his timing right, joined the party with three fours in a Pushpakumara over, two of them blazing drives through the covers.

And then the game entered a totally different phase. For one hour before, and another hour after, lunch, Arjuna Ranatunga treated us to a reprise of Courtney Walsh's recent tactics against the Indian batsmen. And if Chanderpaul was Walsh's weapon, then Jayanta Silva in particular was Ranatunga's.

Seven fielders on the onside, just two on the off. And Muralitharan and Jayanta Silva bowling in tandem. The offspinner concentrated on a line of middle and leg, turning the ball further towards the leg side, while Silva just stuck to bowling his left arm spin over the wicket, and keeping the ball consistently two, three feet outside leg stump.

This phase of play is going to form subject for considerable debate in the media. And the debate, I suspect, will centre mostly around the question of whether such a tactic is fair, or unfair.

There is nothing in the rule books forbidding it (though I must confess to some surprise that the umpires did not call wide when, on several occasions, the ball was pitched a good four feet down the leg side - which even by Test match standards is inadmissible). So, since there is no prohibition against such a ploy, it has to qualify as "fair" - and cries of "it's not cricket" serve no purpose here, because if it was not cricket, then the rule books should have been suitably tailored to put a stop to it.

But look at the thing from another angle. Here we have Sri Lanka which, by its own admission, wants to be the best Test-playing nation by the year 2000 AD. That is, in another two and a half years from now. In its ranks it has Chaminda Vaas - easily one of the finest pace bowlers today. It has Muralitharan, who is easily today's premier off spinner and the only one, apart from Shane Warne, capable of turning the ball on the flattest of tracks.

And the game is played on a track where the ball was turning by several inches right from the first hour of play on day one - in fact, one ball from Jayanta Silva pitched in the rough caused by the bowler's footmarks, a foot outside leg, spun square, beat the bat and the keeper and went down for two buys to third man.

So what signal did Ranatunga send out with the defensive tactic? This - that with four spinners in his ranks plus the part time services of Aravinda to call upon as well, he was not, on a turning track, confident that his bowlers could get the Indian batsmen out. And this, when they are backed by easily one of the best fielding sides in the business.

I don't know about you, but to my mind, this is not the signal I would want to send. Not, more especially, to a team like India which, going into this Test, was as low in morale as it could possibly be. Not, even more especially, when Sri Lanka is slated to play against India once more in this series, and then in three more Tests later this year.

When you have four Tests ahead of you, do you want to tell your opponents 'hey, guys, guess what, I don't think my bowlers have what it takes to get you out even when the wicket is turning square'?

And what made it all the more ridiculous is that in those two hours, despite the defensive (I think I prefer the adjective "defensive" to "negative" - after all, defense is as much a part of cricket strategy as offense is) tactics, India added another 109 runs to its score. Which, for 120 minutes of batting time, is good going for a Test match.

So hey, I don't know - when Ranatunga does his balance sheet at the end of the day, what do you reckon he will write down as the plus and minus for that phase of the game? I for one would dearly love a peek over his shoulder as he makes that entry.

Equally interesting was the Indian response. Sachin Tendulkar - accused, often enough, of rashness bordering on recklessness - countered everything with the straightest of defensive bats, relying on gentle pushes wide of the onside fielders for his runs.

And Azhar, who has in recent essays at the Test match level displayed a marked disinclination to hang around out there in the middle, used his tensile wrists brilliantly to take balls from two feet wide of leg stump and work it square on the untenanted off side - revealing, in the process, not only that his touch and confidence are back, but also that he has sloughed off the disinterest that characterised some of his recent Test innings, and is back in the mood for a hard grind, if necessary. For it pays to keep in mind that not once did Azhar try any of his airy drives with feet stationery, or those swishes outside off, or even the slashing strokes through point, that have got him into trouble in the recent past. And for India, that could be very good news indeed, if this innings is really an indication that Azhar is now back in the mood to do what he does best - which is make runs at the highest level, in his own inimitable style.

Incidentally, this is Azhar's 18th century, passing the 17 scored by Vengsarkar and now behind only Sunil Gavaskar in terms of 100s scored at the Test level.

A passing thought - what is good news for Azhar and the team could be bad news for one Vinod Ganpat Kambli, whose only hope of making the side was for Azhar to fail. That hope being now denied - remember that if you count his three innings in the Asia Cup in which he made a total of 185 runs and was dismissed just once, that too to a superlative catch by Muralitharan, Azhar has now got .... in his last four international innings - Kambli now has to wait either for Ganguly to hit a bad patch, or for India to opt for an extra batsman at the expense of a bowler. A good thing, too, having a batsman of Kambli's ability pushing hard for a place in the side.

Tendulkar's enormous patience was finally exhausted in the second hour after lunch. An inside out drive into the untenanted off side fetched him four, but when, a ball later, he danced down to try and lift Muralitharan back over the bowler's head, the extra turn meant that the batsman didn't quite middle the hit and Mahela Jayawardena, stationed wide at mid on, ran round to his left to hold a well judged catch on the line. (Sachin Tendulkar caught Jayawardene bowled Muralitharan 143 off 247 deliveries with 20 fours, India 451/4).

Tendulkar and Azharuddin added 221 runs for the fourth wicket - which, for the stats-conscious guys out there, is one run short of the Indian record for the fourth wicket of 222 between Vijay Manjrekar and Vijay Hazare, way back in 1952.

Saurav Ganguly for his part will probably be pretty sore at having missed out on the party. After watching four deliveries from Jayasuriya - who replaced Silva for just the one over - go by, he aimed a cover drive at a wide one outside off stump, got an edge and Mahanama, the lone slip, dived to his left to bring off a blinder. (Ganguly caught Mahanama bowled Jayasuriya 0 off five, India 451/5).

Mohammad Azharuddin came back after tea apparently determined to go for the bowling - for, off the very first ball after the break, there he was about five steps down the wicket, driving with a nice easy swing of his arms to a flighted ball from Murali. The ball went back like a rocket and the bowler, one of the finest fielders to his own bowling in contemporary cricket, reacted in a flash to hold the blinder with deceptive ease. (Mohammad Azharuddin caught and bowled Muralitharan 126 off 199 with eight fours, India 479/6).

That brought Rajesh Chauhan and Anil Kumble together. And another little thing for me to puzzle over. I mean, I can maybe understand Jayanta Silva's line to the likes of Sachin and Azhar. But why on earth was he allowed to persist with the same wide-of-leg line to Kumble and Chauhan? True, there were a couple of close catchers - a slip and silly point - in place, but how an edge would get to silly point when the bowler was bowling about a couple of feet wide of leg stump beats me.

Chauhan with the bat looks pretty interesting. "Accomplished" would be a better word. On one occasion, he went on his knee, right forward, and pushed his bat way down the track to let a ball from Silva take it on the full and go over midwicket for four. To Murali, he was down the track in a flash, driving up and over the bowler's head for four. And an over later, he leant back, let Murali's off spin turn well into him, and then eased it down to the backward point boundary for yet another four. And to cap it all off, he then danced down to Silva, covering the leg side line and going down on his knee to take it on the full and swing it over square leg for a six. Intelligent batting on each occasion, very good footwork against the spinners (which opens up another thought - how come Vaas wasn't given a go against the tailenders?) and his prowess with the bat opens up a fresh option for the Indians.

Sanath Jayasuriya seems to make a speciality of coming in and taking a wicket in his first over. As with Ganguly, so with Chauhan, Jayasuriya replaced Silva, tossed one up, the Indian offie went for that one swing over square leg too many, and gave an easy catch to Chaminda Vaas, placed deep down there for just that shot (Chauhan caught Vaas bowled Jayasuriya 23 off 49 with three fours and a six, India 516/7).

At this point, 163 overs had been bowled - in other words, Sri Lanka had at that point bowled 73 overs, of the 90 that are stipulated as the day's quota. What if India had declared at that stage? The Lankans were a tired lot - remember, the sun was blazing down all day, for the second day on the run, which is all the more draining when it comes after a few days of rain. Two overs would have been deducted for the change of innings, which meant India would have got 15 to bowl at the tired Lankans.

Enough, in other words, for the two medium pacers to have had a quick three overs apiece, say, and three apiece for the three spinners. Given that it was late in the day, the Lankans were unlikely to have a go at the bowling, which meant that Tendulkar had the option of setting a really attacking field and pressing for a wicket or two.

India however batted on - and I'm not too sure that was the right thing to do. Makes you wonder if the Indian cricketing thinking is a shade on the simplistic side. I mean, it is one thing to decide at the start of the day that you are going to bat through the day - which was evident from the way Tendulkar and Azharuddin put their heads down and ground it out as long as they could. But when you have lost all your frontline batsmen, it maybe calls for a rethink, doesn't it now?

In the event, Kuruvilla kicked off with a nice easy swing for six off Muralitharan over mid on, Kumble played a couple of pleasing extra cover drives and at drinks, going into the last hour of play on the day, India were 531/7.

Vaas finally got a bowl, with the third new ball taken immediately after the drinks break. Also, immediately it came due, for the second new ball was taken only in over number 94.

In the event, it was Pushpakumara with a slower one who foxed Kuruvilla into mistiming an intended lofted drive straight into the hands of Atapattu at mid off. (Kuruvilla caught Atapattu bowled Pushpakumara 9 off 10 with one six, Anil Kumble not out 27 off 76 with two fours, India 537/8).

India declared at that stage, with 167.3 overs having been bowled. Rounded off, that meant 168 overs. Two more factored in for the change of innings, and India had 10 overs to bowl to the Lankans - who, for their part, would be looking first at getting 338 to avoid the follow on.

For Lanka, the bowler to really impress was Muralitharan, whose 65 overs for 174 (2 wickets) comprised one terrific expenditure of energy. Murali turned the ball right through the two days, and I figure he would have got more than the two wickets he ended up with if he hadn't been bowled on a defensive line for a good part of the day.

Sanath Jayasuriya kept coming back for one over spells and taking wickets each time, to get his career best Test figures of 18-3-45-3.

Jayanta Silva has been hyped as a very talented youngster - maybe so, but neither the line he bowled today, nor his figures of 39-3-122-0, justify that rating. The Lankan quicks - Vaas in particular - did bowl well, but had the bad luck to run up against Sidhu, Azharuddin and Tendulkar at the top of their touch.

The Lankans opened with Jayasuriya and Atapattu, preferring the youngster (opening in a Test for the first time) to the more experienced Mahanama. And India, to my surprise, kept just two slips in place, besides a short square, for Jayasuriya - another slip and maybe a gully would have been a more aggressive field to set given that there was just 10 overs of play left in the day. And three men in the coverpoint, extra cover, mid off arc is hardly symptomatic of an aggressive, 'let's get cracking' outlook.

I mean, Ranatunga defending with India 250-plus for three is one thing - but what the deuce was Tendulkar defending right in the beginning of an innings? If we talk of the signal Silva's defensive line sent to the Indians, then this was an equally clear signal from Tendulkar to the Lankan batsmen that he is none too sure his opening bowlers have what it takes to break through.

An early indication of how the Lankans might play this innings came when Jayasuriya walked into a drive to one outside off from Prasad in the first over, the ball missing the edge by the merest fraction. The batsman, of course, promptly off drove Prasad for four next ball, by way of starters. And then he took a short one outside off from Kuruvilla and smashed through cover - very much in his one day mode, that shot.

Atapattu is a classy little player, with shots straight out of the copybook. No flash, no dash, just an easy glide into line, bat moving very cleanly into the shot and the follow through, especially on his driving through on and off, the kind of stuff you want to freeze-frame and use to illustrate a coaching manual. And equally to the point, the lad shows no sign of nerves at all.

Five overs of medium pace - wasted, actually, since neither bowler could find a testing line and length - and Tendulkar brought in Rajesh Chauhan to the bowling crease, with slip, silly point and short square leg in place. Chauhan didn't look too worried about the fact that the umpires would be watching him pretty closely - tossing the ball right up, he got turn from ball one and as early as his fourth ball of the first over, Chauhan switched to round the wicket to the left-hander, a sign that the Indian offie is in a pretty confident frame of mind.

This report, thanks to technical reasons, is being left incomplete with Sri Lanka's score, at the time of closing this, on 26 for none off 5.5 overs, Jayasuriya batting 12 off 22 deliveries and Atapattu 13 off 15 deliveries with three classy boundaries. "Sorry for the break", as our national television is so fond of saying - we will be live again tomorrow for day three, which promises to be a contest between the Indian spinners and the Sri Lankan strokeplayers.