Related Links : 2nd Test Scorecard I India’s Tour of Sri Lanka 2008
The second Test at Galle is excitingly poised at the close of the second day’s play with both sides having their own advantages to force a win. Sri Lanka had the best part of the day’s play as they kept India down to just 329 despite Sehwag carrying his bat through with 201. The batsmen then flayed the bowling around before Harbhajan rediscovered himself to pick four wickets late in the day. Sri Lanka find themselves at 215 for 5 (in 61 overs) at stumps on the second day with their Skipper Mahela Jayawardene standing firm in the middle.
The second day’s play had absolutely everything to keep the spectators on the edge with as many as 11 wickets falling down. At the same time, there was some brilliant strokeplay coming from Sehwag, Warnapura and Sangakkara. Two bowlers – Ajantha Mendis and Harbhajan Singh kept their respective teams in the game with their wicket taking abilities. The two spinners took 8 out of the 11 wickets that fell down today. The morning started with India looking to add up a lot of runs through the unbroken 5th wicket stand between Sehwag and Laxman. Things were panning out perfectly well for India until Laxman miscued a pull shot in the hands of the mid wicket fielder. He got out to a skidding long hop from Ajantha Mendis that brought an end to what was a 100-run stand. Laxman had got 39 from 83 balls with 4 fours. That opening was enough for Ajantha and Murali to run through the Indian tail.
While there was Sehwag trying his best to get some quick runs before the inevitable happened, Mendis with a couple of leg cutters and Murali with a couple of doosras did enough damage. Dinesh Karthik had a third failure in the series as he misread the away going delivery from Ajantha to be lbw cheaply and then Skipper Kumble got dragged of his crease getting beaten by a Murali doosra. India were losing it in a hurry and Sehwag unfortunately not finding enough strike to get to his 5th score of 200 plus. Towards the end, no. 11 Ishant Sharma was off strike for just enough time to help Sehwag get his landmark. In the 82nd over, Mendis got Ishant Sharma out lbw to wrap up the visitors to just 329. Mendis claimed his first five-wicket haul and ended up with a superb 6-117 in 28 overs. Murali could take just the two wickets. For India, it was a real shame in not utilizing the superman efforts from Sehwag (201* from 231 balls with 22 fours and 4 sixes). Sehwag with this innings became the second Indian to carry his bat through an innings after Sunil Gavaskar.
Zaheer Khan gave a bad start sending a full toss to Vandort in the first ball of the SL innings which was put away as it was supposed to be. The left armer got his act right quickly in the 3rd delivery to get one to move away slightly to catch the edge off Vandort and a neat low catch was held by Dravid in the slips. India got pumped up with the first breakthrough coming in just the first over. Their joy was shortlived though as Sangakkara joined the inform Malinda Warnapura to counter attack the bowling. The Indian bowling fell flat, including the two spinners – Harbhajan and Kumble and the rest of the afternoon session belonged to SL as they went to Tea at 126 for 1 in 28 overs. Both Warnapura and Sangakkara crashed their way to half centuries by then! For the Indian wicket keeper Dinesh Karthik, it was a big struggle in that session as he fumbled some straight forward collections and along with making a mess of a big stumping opportunity from Sangakkara off Harbhajan Singh.
India needed a desperate turn around in the final session or SL would just run away with the match. The first things to do was to put a lid on the scoring rate with improved bowling and some innovative field settings. The Indians executed both things and soon got rewarded with the wickets of the two half centurions in quick time. First, Warnapura fell in the trap set by Kumble, that of driving Harbhajan uppishly into the hands of Gambhir at short cover point. The opener departed having made a confident 66 with 10 fours and a six in 97 balls. Sangakkara had a soft dismissal as he was caught in two minds of whether to play a flick or just block with a straight bat to a well tossed up full delivery from Harbhajan. The result was a simple overhead catch for the off spinner as SL slipped to 144 for 3. Sangakkara made 68 with 9 fours in 120 balls. Along with Warnapura, he had made batting look so simple with some booming drives on the rise.
India made those two dismissals count and the new batsmen were finding it difficult to keep the scoreboard ticking. The ball was also turning sharply and bouncing after biting the surface to make Harbhajan near deadly. Harbhajan went onto strike twice again getting rid of Thilan Samaraweera (lbw to a delivery that straightened from round the sticks) and Dilshan (forced to get a bat pad off a top spinner) in the space of two deliveries! Sri Lanka were pushed back to 192 for 5 leaving some anxious moments in the last few overs of the day. Skipper Mahela Jayawardene himself had some problems against Harbhajan as the pitch started to play its tricks. But he along with Prasanna Jayawardene survived the rest of the final session to take their team 115 runs short of India’s 329.
Mahela Jayawardene now holds the key for the Lankans and he has got to a decent start getting 46 with 5 fours in 82 balls while Prasanna Jayawardene is on 5 from 24 balls. For India, it is great news that Harbhajan is looking lethal on this fast deteriorating wicket. One notable thing in the day’s play was that Rudi Koertzen, one of the two ground umpires couldn’t officiate because of a stomach bug. His place was taken by Mark Benson, who was the third umpire looking after the reviews. Now his place was in turn taken by the fourth umpire – AG Dissanayake, the Sri Lankan local kept in the box seat for a couple of close decisions. Dissanayake came good in those couple of close calls – one for an lbw review off Mahela Jayawardene and before that a touch-and-go run out situation.