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The script couldn’t have been written better! In fact I wonder whether a game could have had such a fairy tale ending! The first test at Galle was the dreamers delight as everything which could have been imagined from a Sri Lankan perspective did come right. Muralitharan claiming the final wicket in the Indian second innings and with it his 800th! A perfect ending if there was one!
Besides all that, the game had its moments and the most amusing one was to witness the large crowd at the ground watching proceedings on the 5th day breaking out with loud cheers and applause when the Indian batsmen survived an appeal or a third umpire’s decision when the bowler was somebody other than Murali. I don’t think in the history of cricket involving Sri Lanka, any game played in this country would have attracted so much of support for the opposing batsmen! The reason was simple. Everybody present wanted Muralitharan to scalp the 800th wicket.
Murali walks out opening the doors for youngsters |
The test itself exposed the inadequacies of the Indian bowling which suffered at the hands of the Lankan batting with Paranavithana and Sangakkara and then later on Herath and Malinga coming to the party. Barring just one spell from Ishant Sharma on the 3rd day when play resumed after rain, none of the bowlers were able to cope with the pitch or the Sri Lankan batting. The spin duo of Harbhajan and Ojha going wicket less bears testimony to the quality of Muralitharan who on a very similar pitch to the first two days had his 67th five wicket haul and then when the pitch was still good enough for runs got three more wickets. As far as Tharanga Paranavithana was concerned it was a case of coming of age for him. A batsman who has scored plenty of runs at domestic level and who values his wicket immensely the former St. Mary’s Kegalle school boy played an absolutely mature innings. In the company of his skipper, Paranavithana after surviving the new ball gradually took control and reached a well deserved maiden century, studded with crisp drives and cuts which would do his confidence a world of good.
However it was definitely “The Muralitharan” Test as the attention and interest surrounded him, though Lasith Malinga back in test cricket was surely the difference between the two sides. With the first ball Malinga was fast and furious and sometimes just unplayable. His deadly yorkers bowled at great speed with extreme control were the challenges the Indian batsmen found hard to over come.
His dismissal of Gambhir, Tendulkar and Dhoni in the game was due to the pressure he created through accuracy and length which was always in the area of good to yorker length. It was most refreshing to witness Malinga running in fast and letting his deliveries go at over 90mph though one wonders whether he limping off the field in the second innings is an indication of his fitness for the next two tests.
Besides the bowling of Malinga the other bonus was his batting along with Rangana Herath. The manner in which the pair set about pulverizing the Indian bowling was an indication of the quality of the pitch and of course the poor bowling of India, which was unfortunately exposed beyond embarrassment.
When India batted, its strong top order was found wanting with the exception of Sehwag in the first innings and Tendulkar and Laxman in the second innings. Having said that one should admire the resistance of the lower order in the second innings, when the Indians were fighting with their back to the wall. To my mind there were two major factors on day five that finally tilted the game in Sri Lanka’s favour. And that is the wicket of Dhoni to an absolutely super delivery by Malinga early on, and the running out of Laxman by Angelo Mathews! The manner the pitch behaved which was slow in nature convinced me that had Dhoni managed to stay in Sri Lanka would have struggled to dismiss India. This is confirmed by the way Mithun, Sharma and even Ojha batted on day five as the pitch had very little in it for the bowlers.
The final victory margin of ten wickets was salt in the Indian wound and Tillakaratne Dilshan just tucked in to the bowling enjoying himself at their expense. His shot making in the second innings was breath taking as the Indians had their entire field spread which had fielders on the boundary. His precision was of such high quality that he pierced the field on both sides of the pitch with his cutting, driving and hooking. The end was as dramatic as the way Murali got his 800th scalp, via a huge six over mid wicket, which signaled total dominance of Sri Lanka in the game, out playing India in Batting, Bowling and Fielding.
And also one must congratulate Sri Lanka Cricket for the grand send off afforded to Muttiah Muralitharan in his final test. The ground was decorated with cutouts of the legend making it colourful and the final awards presentation was simply fabulous with Tony Greig the well known commentator doing the honours. It was also a most thoughtful act to have a stage full of important people in Murali’s life. Besides his family it was a fitting gesture to have Sunil Fernando his first coach, who made the decision to convert Murali to a spinner form the medium pacer he was, which has proved to be possibly the greatest cricketing decision the world has seen and of course a representative from his old school St. Anthony’s college Kandy.
* Roshan Abeysinghe is a leading cricket promoter and an international cricket commentator |
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