July 26, 2008
The deadly spin combination of Muttiah
Muralitharan and Ajantha Mendis was too difficult to handle
for the famed Indian batting order for the second time in two
days. The spin wizards took a combined 14 wickets as India got
bowled out twice in the same day! The Test match got wrapped
up with more than an hour to go for the end of the fourth day.
India sunk to an embarrassing innings and 239-run defeat.
Muralitharan was the Man of the Match as he finished with 11
wickets while getting complemented by debutant Ajantha Mendis,
who got 8 wickets in the match!
The fourth day started with India already in a
huge mess at 159 for 6. With the review system in place, there
was escape whatsoever for a batsman to escape any tiny bat
pads. India were bowled out with the addition of just another
64 runs just inside lunch. VVS Laxman was quite helpless
watching his partners getting sent back to the pavilion in a
hurry. He was the last man to fall after getting foxed by a
googly from Ajantha Mendis that spun past his bat pad gap to
hit timber. Laxman had got 56 (from 118 balls with 6 fours)
and had slightly delayed the inevitable through an impressive
18-over partnership with no. 11 Ishant Sharma, who had
survived 54 balls. Mendis had taken three of the four
remaining wickets that India had in their second innings to
finish with 27.5-5-72-4. Murali got his 65th five wicket haul
with ease. The Indians were obviously asked to follow on as
the Sri Lankan bowlers were not too tired having bowled just
under 73 overs.
Sehwag's jinx with second innings continued
as he fell cheaply, however through a controversial lbw
decision. A review was asked by the Sri Lankan team after Mark
Benson gave Sehwag not out when he padded up to a delivery
that just managed to pitch on the leg stump line. It was a
straighter one from Murali from round the sticks which would
have had very less chances of hitting the legstump. But the
decision that followed the review was no way a sensible one at
all with the ball-tracking device recording only the second
impact of the ball with the back pad. The ball was seen to be
heading towards the middle stump according to the Virtual Eye,
but in reality that was only after a deviation from the front
pad to the back pad! Sehwag was eventually given out lbw and
India went to lunch at 25 for 1 in 6.4 overs.
 VVS
Laxman, got a promotion at no.3 in the follow on innings as
expected. The right hander played some lovely drives as the
scoreboard kept moving with an equally aggressive Gambhir at
the other end. But there was bound to be the wicket taking
deliveries almost each over once Ajantha Mendis got introduced
in the 10th over itself. And he struck gold with a two-finger
googly that forced Laxman to shift his weight from the
frontfoot to the backfoot. That delivery from Ajantha skidded
through and struck VVS dead in front of the stumps on the pad!
India got reduced to 53 for 2 with Laxman getting 21 (from 26
balls with 3 fours). Wickets kept on tumbling once Mendis and
Murali bowled in tandem. Tendulkar (12 from 30 with a four)
fell next as he got hit on his glove and the back of the bat
in an attempted sweep to be caught at leg slip. Murali for the
second time got rid of Tendulkar with a doosra. Sachin, who
wasn't convinced about getting a bat to that had asked for a
review which got negated. Within minutes, Murali bowled a
teasing off break which dragged Gambhir (43 from 90 balls with
4 fours) out of his crease in his unsuccessful cover drive
leaving a quick stumping for Prasanna Jayawardene.
The match was as good as over with India
having just Dravid and Ganguly. And both fell in the space of
two balls to make it a disastrous 103 for 6. First, it was
Ganguly (4 from 12 balls) not able to stop himself from edging
a sharp off break from Murali and then Dravid (10 from 30
balls) caught bat pad off Mendis. The final rites to the match
were completed after the Tea Break with hardly any resistance
coming Sri Lanka's way. Murali recored another 5-wicket haul
to finish with 11 for 110! This innings, he had dream figures
of 13-3-26-6 and Mendis had a match haul of 8 for 132. India
were bowled out in just 45 overs for a paltry 138 runs to
register their third worst defeat. With this huge win, Sri
Lanka can easily sustain the momentum in the remaining two
Tests as well with the second Test at Galle starting in just
another 5 days.
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