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India pull it back on day two

To reduce the batting side from 280 for four to 369 all out is very good. To then end the second day on 91 for no loss is even better.

So why do I feel my face crease into a frown as I review the second day's play? Perhaps because two other statistics keep crowding in on the mind. The first being, that the Sri Lankan tail, specifically the last two wickets, added 56 after being eight down for 313, and that is not what a team needs when trying to force a win. And also because the 91 runs accruing to India have come in a massive 53 overs, which to my mind is worth a frown or two.

But to take things in order, and go back to the start of play:

The fun began in the third over, when Srinath produced a ball at close to his top pace that kicked up off a length. Tillekeratne fended it off, ball went off the glove onto body and then down the legside, for Mongia to get his glove to it and watch as it popped right out. Which brought Mongia's personal tally of muffed chances for the game to three, and India's collective tally to four.

In the very next over, Srinath again produced a beauty, this time a vicious breakback that took Ranatunga by surprise, beat him for pace and movement, took the inner edge onto thigh pad for Rahul Dravid at short square leg to fling himself forward on his belly and pull off a beaut. To everyone's surprise, umpire Venkatraghavan was unmoved by the appeal -- the first of two horrible blunders that blotted his normally impeccable copybook today.

That kind of thing, right at the outset, can blunt the edge of any bowling side. But as it happened, neither batsman profitted from his life, unlike the centurion of yesterday. And the reason was, again, Srinath. Having bothered both left-handers with his round the wicket line and a stream of breakbacks and off cutters, he suddenly went back to over the wicket and Ranatunga, who has a habit of trying to nudge balls outside off down to third man, was beaten for pace playing that glide once too often, the ball taking the edge and flying low to third slip where Chauhan held a catch as good as the one he too yesterday to get rid of Jayasuriya. 301/5 at that stage.

Lanka D'Silva is a competent batsman, defintely more so than his predecessor Romesh Kaluwitharana. On the day, though, he seemed a shade unsure where the next ball was going to go, and a torrid over from Srinath had him hopping about and going further and further onto his back foot. Abey Kuruvilla at the other end must have come as some relief, for the batsman waved at his first ball, only to find out too late that it was the leg cutter. In the event, the ball narrowly missed the outer edge and reinforced the doubt in the mind of the batsman. So the next ball, he played with bat away from his body, looking for the ball to leave him -- as it turned out, this was a straight ball from Kuruvilla, and it took the inner edge to crash into off stump. Another wicket to Mr Perseverance, another batsman playing on to him, and Sri Lanka 307/6.

Tillekeratne is a class act and, in fact, figures in Wisden's top twenty batsmen. But on the day, he looked totally unsure of himself, his footwork was indecisive from the get-go, and having express deliveries from Srinath rap him once in the groin, once in the belly and once on the chest didn't exactly help him regain his composure. Kumble, coming on for the first time today, ended his tortured existence with a regulation flipper that Tillekeratne pushed forward to rather hesitantly, for Dravid at short square to hold a regulation bat-pad, and reduce Sri Lanka to 307/7.

Chaminda Vaas is reputed a good lower order batsman and, in fact, was mentioned as one of his two bowling all rounders by skipper Arjuna Ranatunga. He looked in good touch and, with Dharmasena, was just settling down to stem the fall of wickets (at that stage, three had fallen for just 27 runs) when he hung his bat out at a straight ball outside off from Kuruvilla, and became batsman number three to get out dragging the bowler onto the stumps, the ball again crashing into off stump off the inner edge, and Sri Lanka finding themselves 313/8.

Srinath, meanwhile, had gone off the attack at the end of the first hour, and was resting in the outfield. Consensus among the TV commentators -- and frankly, I agree -- was that this was the perfect time to bring him back for one burst to knock over the remnants of the tail. But in the event, the Indians dickered around with Kuruvilla and Chauhan and Kumble alternating, and Muthiah Muralitharan swung a few lusty blows that fetched him 10 runs off 11 balls and, more importantly, took the score along to 333 before he swung once too often at a shortish ball from Kuruvilla, for the ball to balloon off the top edge to Srinath at mid on. 333/9.

Followed more dithering around, as Sajeewa D'Silva -- who before this had got all of 14 runs from in his Test career -- was allowed to hang around, take singles, get out of the firing line and let the assured Dharmasena cope with the Indian bowling. Which the latter did with all the composure of a veteran, playing authentic cricketing shots to take the score along to 369 before Srinath, brought back only to bowl a rather mediocre first over, did what he does best -- first put doubt in the batsman's mind with a nasty lifter off a length, then fire in a fast inswinging yorker. Sajeewa D'Silva, rattled by the lifter, was backing away outside leg stump as Srinath delivered, and the yorker sneaked under the flailing bat and made a mess of the stumps to end the innings, leaving Dharmasena unbeaten on a very good 37 off 58 deliveries that, in the Lankan scheme of things, was absolutely invaluable.

Mohanty (three overs) and Chauhan bowled too little on the day for their performance to deserve any kind of comment. Kumble for his part kept sending down his flippers with unfailing regularity, but the most worrying factor for the Indians will be that his layoff has not helped him check that drift down the leg side. Every so often, there went the ball down leg, making it easy for batsmen to score runs without working up a sweat. The problem with this is that Kumble, earlier, used to get wickets by virtue of his being almost impossible to score off. Batsman after batsman, thus, would succumb to the sheer irritation of Kumble's length and line, and make fatal mistakes. Now, they appear to have worked out that if they play patiently to the deliveries on line, they will sure enough get a gimme-ball to clip down the legside for runs, and for Kumble, that is tantamount to releasing the pressure he builds up.

Kuruvilla did nothing remarkable by way of movement. But he did succeed where Kumble failed, by maintaining a nagging length and line and literally irritating batsmen into error -- which, given that he is always on or just around the stumps, proves fatal 'cause there really is no margin for error. Check out the dismissals of Aravinda D'Silva, Lanka D'Silva and Chaminda Vaas, all of whom fell to straight deliveries that carromed off the inner edge onto the stumps, and you'll see what I mean.

Srinath, meanwhile, will have cause to rejoice. Eight months away from the game and four good wickets on his comeback -- and, what is more, he troubled every batsman he bowled to with his pace and variations. The performance should have done wonders for his confidence, it will be interesting to see how he bowls from here on. Interestingly, I notice that when he throws in from the deep, he has been flicking it in with his wrist, or if there is time, lobbing the ball back to the keeper. In other words, no flat hard over the shoulder throws, indicating that he is not ready to really risk putting needless pressure on the injured area just yet. However, his speed and control appear unaffected, which will be about all that Tendulkar and Gaikwad are really concerned about.

To restrict the Sri Lankans to 369 -- keeping in mind that the last time the two sides met each other in Tests, they came within a toucher of breaking the 1000 run barrier -- looked good. More so when you take into account the fact that top scorer Atapattu and Mahanama both benefitted from lives, besides those given to Ranatunga (courtesy Venkat) and Tillekeratne (courtesy Mongia) this morning. But when you put a team in after winning the toss, you are looking to bowl it out for a lot less than that, and if India failed to do so, the blame rests squarely on the fielding which, barring Sidhu, was nothing to write home about on day one.

India thus began its reply shortly after lunch, with Sidhu and Mongia. And in the very first over, Venkatraghavan produced another shocking decision. The third ball from Chaminda Vaas was a real beauty, starting from a line of off stump, swinging in to middle stump. Mongia was neither forward nor back, the ball hit the pad about three inches above the boot, so there was no possible doubt for the batsman to benefit from. Yet Umpire Venkat kept his hands firmly at his sides, and Vaas with commendable self control refrained from protesting with anything more than a wry grin.

I know that umpires are human and, like the rest of us, entitled to their off days. But when we talk of top class umpires -- and universal consensus puts Venkat in that category -- one expects that on their worst days, they might get a marginal decision or two wrong. The two that went down today, though, were absolutely clear cut, and that is what I found very surprising.

This may not be the right time to begin -- or is it renew? -- the debate, but isn't it about time the ICC paid serious thought to a point? That, given that cricket matches have become increasingly high pressure, high stakes affairs, shouldn't the third umpire be given veto powers -- the right to overrule on-field decisions -- to further cut down the risk of human error like happened here?

The argument advanced against it is that it makes the umpire out in the middle look silly. But frankly, nothing could look sillier than the kind of decisions handed down today, and I bet any cricketer sweating his guts out to take a wicket would prefer a silly-looking umpire to one who undoes all his hard work through sheer, if hopefully momentary, myopia. Look at it this way -- Ranatunga did not benefit from his life, but what if he had gone on to score a century? Again, Mongia is batting 41, and there is a world of difference to the bowling side between a scoreboard reading zero for one, and one that reads 91 for nought.

The need to discuss this issue was further underlined in the very next over when Sajeewa D'Silva pitched one on middle stump, straightened it on middle and leg, struck Sidhu on the pad and appealed -- only for Steve Bucknor this time to say no.

Again, nine umpires out of ten would have given that out, since it fell within all the requisite criteria needed to get a positive decision. The ball was pitched in line with the stumps, it was headed straight for timber when the pad got in the way. The fact that it was the front pad means nothing -- the decision is Leg Before Wicket, not Back Leg Before Wicket. And it is the fact that such decisions were handed down by umpires like Venkat and Bucknor, normally reliable types, that underlines the need for an urgent review of the third umpire's function.

Sidhu, at the crease, looked comfortable. He knows the Mohali pitch like his own backyard -- in cricketing terms, it is his backyard -- and he opted for the ploy of coming well onto the front foot to counter the seam bowlers. Good thinking, and relatively easy to implement considering that the Lankan new ball bowlers are medium pace, rather than real fast.

Mongia was, well, Mongia. Good and compact when the ball was on the stumps, quick to take advantage when it came anywhere near his pads, and totally uncertain when it was angled across him. His main trouble is that he tends to play the ball outside off with bat away from his body. Surprisingly, Ranatunga was in defensive mode right from ball one, with just two slips in place where I would have expected, from a captain backed by 369 on the board, at least one more plus gully -- so the edges that Mongia did get fell in vacant turf, rather than in safely cupped palms.

Collectively, there is only one way to describe the way the two played on the day -- long periods of somnolence punctuated by brief bursts of activity. Thus, the advent of Muralitharan in the over before tea saw Navjot Sidhu dance down to the very first ball and blaze a straight drive that almost took umpire Bucknor's head off en route to the fence, and then a repeat tango down the wicket to the next ball to cart it over the field to the long on boundary. But if those two hits prompted one to believe that he was ready to go after the spinners, Sidhu negated that thought by resorting, for most of the remainder of the day, to poking his pad at the ball while his bat stayed hidden well behind it.

The same was the case with Mongia. Pace or spin, the keeper-batsman played defensive prods when the ball was on the stumps, or left it well alone when it was outside the line of the stumps. And then suddenly, out of the blue, swung Muralitharan over the long on boundary for a huge six, then repeated the stroke a shade finer to get four over wide midwicket.

Fine enough, as it goes. But surprisingly, neither batsman seemed inclined to keep working the singles, which are the lifebloods of a Test innings. The way they batted, it was either fours, or dead defensive bats. With the result that the Lankan bowlers, who on the day never, ever (with the exception of Vaas in his first three overs) looked like getting a wicket, ended up with highly flattering figures.

To understand why 91 off 53 overs is unacceptable, step back and consider the match in terms of the distance still left to run. When Sri Lanka ended its first innings, the game still had 323 overs still to run (90 a day for days three, four and five, and 53 left to bowl on day two).

At this point, it needs mentioning that once the rule of 90 overs a day came into force, thinking needed to change from days left to play, to overs still to be bowled.

Okay, in the space of 323 overs, India has to first get 369 runs, then add a further 150, 200 to that if it wants to put pressure on the Lankans batting third on a wicket that should crack increasingly by the end of day three. And still leave enough overs in hand to either bowl the Lankans out under their first innings score (they needed 125.2 overs on a fresh, fastish track), or failing that, more overs to get whatever runs they need to in the second innings, to win the game.

At the rate of less than two an over, which is India's current rate of progress, getting say 450 on the board takes 275 overs at two runs per over, which is faster than India is scoring now! Says it all, right there?

The counter argument could be that India needed to conserve wickets so that it can go in to day three and really go for broke. But as we know, that is not how it works. In the first hour of tomorrow's play, the emphasis will be to play safe and prevent quick wickets going down. Then, the last half hour before lunch will see a return to defensive mode, because convention is to prevent a fall of wickets before the break. Then you come in from lunch and more time is lost while settling down. And so on.

All of which is why the good teams consistently keep looking for singles, from the very first ball of the innings, while using every opportunity to go after tiring bowlers -- and bowlers and fielders get more tired when they are scurrying around trying to check a flow of singles, than when they are standing around going through the motions while the batsman pushes defensively, ad infinitum.

Oh well, like the saying goes, sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof, now to see what gameplan the coach and skipper have in mind for tomorrow.

Meanwhile, a postscript on l'affaire Venkatesh Prasad. The media was informed by the coach and captain that it was the decision of the selectors, four of whom are present at Mohali, to rest Prasad and play Kuruvilla and Mohanty instead.

The selectors' reasoning, apparently, is that it is too risky to have two bowlers, both coming back from injury, playing together in the same game.

That logic is debatable -- if only because Srinath's injury was a rotator cuff tear, Prasad's merely an inflammation caused by a fall.

But leaving that aside, I am curious to know just when selectors were given the power to decide the composition of playing sides. As I always understood it, the job of the selection committee was to pick the squad -- mostly for a series, though this lot picks from Test to Test -- and leave it to the captain and the coach to decide who, out of the 14, should comprise the playing eleven.

Where then do the selectors get off deciding the playing side? And where does this end? Do they, next, decide the batting order? And who should bowl first?

The situation is unacceptable for one simple reason -- it is the captain and coach who are accountable for results. Thus, a decision as crucial as which bowler should play and which should not in a particular game has to be taken by them -- not by a third party and one that is, what is more, not accountable for results.

One last thought -- just when will Sachin Tendulkar learn to put his foot down, rather than take such things with ridiculous meekness?

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