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Of mice and men...

Prem Panicker

There are times when you sit in front of a blank page on a computer screen, knowing you have to write an objective, analytical report of a day's proceedings on a cricket field.

You reach deep into your mind - and there are no words there.

You flip through the thesaurus. And find words. Like incredible. Unbelievable.

Awesome!

Awesome? Just the other day, I heard one college kid telling another that the sizzler he had at a newly opened restaurant in the locality was awesome.

You cannot use the same word to describe two men who, today, stand atop a mountain of cricketing records, can you? More so when you know that you are writing during a break. A lull, while the duo catch their breath before going on to scale even greater heights?

You think maybe facts will serve, where language cannot. So you mention that Sanath Jayasuriya and Roshan Mahanama have just batted out 12 straight hours. That they have put together 548 runs for the unbroken second wicket - the highest ever partnership for any wicket, by any country against any opponent, in international annals. That Sanath Jayasuriya has faced 568 deliveries and remains unconqured on 326 with 33 fours and two sixes. That Roshan Mahanama - the man who supposedly is merely warming a place in the side till Hashan Tillekeratne returns after his injury break - is unconquered after 551 deliveries, batting 211 with 24 fours. That between them, these two have batted longer than the cream of the Indian batting did, and scored more runs than eight members of the opposition.

So? For once, even facts do not tell the tale. Using statistics to capture this performance is like using a foot-rule to measure Mount Everest.

So I can only sit here, reliving the last 12 cricketing hours, and tell you what I saw.

And first up, let us not do Roshan Mahanama and Sanath Jayasuriya the discourtesy of saying that the wicket was a flat-top, that batting was easier than falling off a log. True, this was no minefield - but the ball has been turning from day one (ask Jayasuriya himself, who took 3 for 45 from 18 overs when India batted).

Run-making wasn't a matter of standing there and merely deciding which corner of the ground you wanted to despatch the ball to - as witness the fact that Jayasuriya, whose fetish for 100-plus strike rates are already the stuff of modern cricketing legend, has taken 568 deliveries to get to his score.

Let us remember, too, that there have been flat-tops before. And mediocre bowling sides. Ask Brian Lara, who milked 375 runs off the England attack not too long ago, and whose record could well fall before we write finis to this match. And, remembering that, let us also realise that no two human beings have in the history of the game done what these two have accomplished - in terms of concentration, effort, strength of character, and the unshakeable determination to go on and on and on...

Praiseworthy, that. More so when you consider the identity of the players concerned - especially the lead actor in the cricketing drama of the day. Sanath Jayasuriya is admired the world over (though perhaps not unanimously - I am sure many a bowler must have felt he could cheerfully pull the trigger at point blank range if he was sure he could get away with it) for an ability to stand on the accelerator from ball one, even if the false shot, and dismissal, is just another ball away. A dasher, he - but no one, till now, could ever accuse him of patient, painstaking accumulation and hope to make out a case that would stand up in court.

Today, he revealed a maturity, a hunger for runs, an implacability that bodes very ill indeed for the teams that will come up against him in course of the season just beginning.

And at the other end, Roshan Mahanama - a man who has been bounced up and down the order, a man living under the shadow of the axe, a man who knew that whatever he did, he would be outshone by his partner - proved the perfect foil. Totally selfless, Mahanama was entirely committed to the cause of supporting his partner. And in the process - more bad news - he batted himself back into form, and showed again the advantage of having a classicist in a Lankan batting orchestra studded with rock stars.

Another fact that needs mentioning in context of this report is that on the day, the Indian bowlers, without exception, tried harder, used the conditions better, bowled with more sense than they did yesterday. And for once, the fielders remained on their toes - perhaps because, as the hours passed, as the runs kept coming, they realised that right at the start of the season they were facing not just a drawn Test, but irreparable harm to their morale, to their reputations.

They tried - all the five Indian bowlers used. They just weren't good enough.

Sachin Tendulkar tried, too. He switched his bowlers, he varied his field settings, he tried applying whatever pressure he could. Thus, when Mahanama neared his 200, he suddenly found a ring of four fielders around his bat. The same with the case of Jayasuriya, as he neared his triple century mark. And in the very last over of the day - when the two needed to play out just six balls to go undefeated for two whole days - back came the ring of close in fielders, captain and bowler (Kulkarni) met in mid-pitch (in the style patented by Shane Warne and Ian Healy) for elaborate conferences after every other ball, every mind game possible was played to force the lapse in concentration.

Against two batsmen who, for 12 hours, have personified determination, nothing worked.

So when the last ball was bowled, the Indian players, all eleven of them, came running up to the smiling Mahanama and the phlegmatic Jayasuriya as the two walked off for a rest before resuming on the morrow. To shake their hands. To pat them on their backs.

To, as it were, reach out and touch greatness...

Scoreboard

Records at a glance