da dobrowin： Can the hill country folk of Kandy have ever been so richlyentertained
Charlie Austin24-Aug-2001Can the hill country folk of Kandy have ever been so richlyentertained? For the first half of the day the Indian fast bowlersscythed through the Sri Lankan batting and in the afternoon, hometownhero Muttiah Muralitharan thrashed a comical half-century that put hisside firmly in the box seat at the end of the third day of this secondTest.It was an astonishing day. Zaheer Khan and Venkatesh Prasad bowledtheir hearts out, taking nine wickets between them, as Sri Lankaslumped from 52 for one to 124 at lunch and then lost four wickets in33 balls in a postprandial slumber to leave them on 157 for nine, witha lead of just 199.In 76 crazy minutes, however, Muralitharan and last man Ruchira Pereraswung the game emphatically back towards Sri Lanka with a 64-runpartnership for the last wicket, which was a record for the wicketagainst India and the equal highest of the game. Sterile statistics,though, do not tell the real tale.It was the manner in which Muralitharan scored his first ever firstclass fifty, 67 runs off 65 balls, which included three sixes and fourfours, that brought the crowd, which swelled to nearly 8000 as news ofMuralitharan’s heroics spread through the town, to hysterics andIndia’s players to their knees in frustration.He strutted to the wicket to a standing ovation and then taunted thetourists like a chief clown. His strokeplay mixed outlandish heaves,full-blooded pulls and exaggerated defense he even padded up toGanguly eight yards down the pitch, much to the bowlers verbaldisgust. In between balls he rehearsed a startling array of innovativestrokes and in between overs he exercised his novel right to requestrefreshment and a rub down from the 12th man.When Ruchira Perera walked in to bat, Muralitharan was only on 11, buthe took firm command of the situation as Ganguly bizarrely pushedeight fieldsmen back onto the fence, surely the first time that theLankan spin ace has been handed such respect while he was batting.Psychologically and tactically the plan backfired as Muralitharancleverly farmed the strike. He refused to take ones until the finaltwo balls of the over, but managed to scramble the odd two and belt anoccasional boundary. When he was finally caught on the long offboundary India needed 264 runs for victory.It is a testing target. England only limped home by three wickets whenasked to chase 160 in Kandy last March and Sri Lanka lost to SouthAfrica by seven runs when they were bowled out for 169 here last year.This pitch has not crumbled like those two surfaces, however, whichshould give India hope.India’s openers survived the new-ball by the skin of their teeth,especially Shiv Sunder Das (19), who looked fortunate not to beadjudged leg-before wicket by Chaminda Vaas on two occasions before hehad scored. He was also bowled off a no ball of Vaas, who bowledsuperbly in his seven over burst (7-5-6-0).Das and Sadogoppan Ramesh (13*) had added 31 for the first wicketbefore Sanath Jayasuriya threw the ball to Muralitharan. Das pullswept him to the mid-wicket boundary, but the off spinner deceived theright-hander with his straighter delivery in his third over to leaveIndia on 42 for one.They lost no further wickets before bad light stopped play at 6.05pmwith India on 55 for one with 209 still required, but Muralitharancreated enough problems to suggest that he holds the key to this matchtomorrow.Were it not for top scorer Muralitharan then Sri Lanka would in allprobability have been heading towards their third successive defeat inKandy, as the Sri Lankan top order crumbled under the pressure exertedby Zaheer Khan in the morning and Prasad in the early afternoon.Khan struck with his third delivery of the day, which brushed theoutside edge of Kumar Sangakkara’s (13) bat and was neatly taken bywicket keeper Sameer Dighe.Mahela Jayawardene and Marvan Atapattu, who scored 45 from 88 balls,added 32 runs for the third wicket, before Prasad had Atappatu caughtbehind to leave Sri Lanka on 84 for four.Ganguly bowled a short two over spell without success, but quicklycalled back Khan who then dismissed first Test centurion MahelaJayawardene (25) in the slips and trapped Russel Arnold (4) leg-beforewicket with a ball that nipped back off the seam.Hashan Tillakaratne (16) and Suresh Perera (15), both of whom arefighting for their places after an unsuccessful series thus far, alsoput up some resistance for 50 minutes either side of lunch, adding 21further runs.Venkatesh Prasad then took over the mantle from Khan. Swinging theball away from the right handed Perera he caught the edge of Perera’sflashing blade and Hemang Badani redeemed himself for an earlier misswith a sharp left handed catch at second slip.Tillakaratne had been shuffling across his stumps throughout hisinnings and had survived several close leg-before appeals beforePrasad trapped finally trapped him in front with an inswinger. Prasadthen quickly followed up with the wickets of Dilhara Fernando andChaminda Vaas to secure his seventh five-wicket haul in his 32nd Testand set the stage for Muralitharan’s theatrical performance.