Its monsoon in the subcontinent
and the new sporting season has just started. Every sport has just begun full-
fledged. So has cricket for India. After what you can call a short break, India
began with a short tour of Bangladesh. Though the hosts were defeated in Tests,
they spectacularly trounced the Indians in the ODI matches. After that came a
home series against Zimbabwe, which India obviously won. The next tour and
their first comparatively strong opponent was Sri Lanka. This was, or rather
is, Virat Kohli,s first full – fledged tour as captain of the Test team.
The first Test was held at
Galle. This iconic ground, always known to be a happy hunting ground for the
spinners, was no exception this time. The pitch was a beautiful turning track,
a paradise for spinners. So Ravichandran Ashwin, Harbhajan Singh and Amit
Mishra would be the trump cards for India.
India went into this tour with a
different interface, one that of aggressiveness. And abiding by this strategy,
the Indian team went into the first match with five bowlers (Four bowlers are
the generally preferred option).
Now let’s turn to the match. The
Sri Lankans, put to bat first on a damp wicket, surrendered meekly to the power
of Ashwin. R Ashwin recorded his best Test figures, 6- 46 and bundled out the
hosts for 183. Thereafter, the Indian batsmen also performed very well with
Shikhar Dhawan scoring 134, Virat Kohli scoring 103 and Wriddhiman Saha
supporting them ably with 60 runs. As a result of this, India scored a massive
total of 375 and amassed a lead of 192 runs. And after this, at the end of the
day, the Indian bowlers again showed their magic, reducing them to 5/2 at
stumps. An easy Indian victory seemed on the cards.
But as they say in cricket,
every match is played to the very last ball and no one knows what will happen
at the end of the match, what will turn in whose favour. And that exactly
happened in this match.
From where they could have
easily won, one will be astonished to see the Indians threw their own easy win.
After the hosts were reduced to 5/2, Dinesh Chandimal put on a valiant and
consequently match-winning knock of 162 with able support from Mubarak,
Thirimanne and Kumar Sangakkara, who is incidentally playing his last
Test. Here too, the bowlers displayed
some vigor, with Ashwin picking up four wickets once again to take ten wickets
in a Test match for the third time in his career, though he went for some runs.
The Sri Lankans put up a score of 367 and India needed 176 runs to win the
match.
But it was not to be. The factor
which had troubled the hosts in the first innings troubled the Indians in their
second innings, and that was spin. What Ashwin did for India in the first
innings, Rangana Herath did for Sri Lanka in the second. Picking up 7 wickets
for 47, he single – handedly gifted Kumar Sangakkara a dramatic win in his last
match.
Perhaps, the India was over-
confident after dominating the first 3 days of the match. Or perhaps it was Sri
Lanka’s grit and determination, which clung on to the one chance that they got
and sealed the match. Whatever it was, it was a humiliating defeat for India.
Moreover, they lost the match on the 69th Independence Day, which
must have been excruciatingly painful for Virat and Co. Sri Lanka, on the other
hand, might have won one of their most dramatic wins ever, and certainly their
best win in the past two or three years.
If India already one down, it
makes the second Test a do-or-die match as it is a three-match series.
Personally, I certainly hope
along with millions of Indian fans that India wins the next match as it
certainly has the potential of a match-winning unit.
