The Test Series between India and Sri Lanka got off to a rain-affected beginning at the Sinhalese Sports Club ground in Colombo yesterday.
Sri Lanka won the toss and elected to bat on a dry wicket, which was expected to take turn earlier than usual. The persistent rain in Colombo has meant that the wicket has been under wraps since Sunday, and may not in fact have been watered since then.
This will suit Sri Lanka, who have the weaker pace attack, but arguably the stronger spin attack.
Mutthaih Muralitharan remains unrivalled as a spin bowler in Sri Lanka (451 Test wickets in 68 home Tests over 16 years—a bradmanesque statistic), while the Sri Lankans have done better against Anil Kumble than almost any other side.
The day began with the in-experienced Sri Lankan pair of Warnapura and Vandort facing up to Zaheer Khan and Ishant Sharma. Vandort looked more solid than Warnapura initially, until he chased a wickedly rising delivery from Ishant and Dinesh Karthik completed an tricky catch. Sri Lanka were one down.
The Warnapura-Zaheer contest was an intriguing one, and it will be especially interesting to watch it play out Thursday. Warnapura is a typical sub-continental batsman—brutal off the frontfoot, with an almost pathological preference for it.
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He tended to commit himself to the frontfoot quite early, and Zaheer, having detected this in about 3-4 balls, seemed to sense an easy kill. At that point, Zaheer went berserk against Warnapura, subjecting the Sri Lankan southpaw to a barrage of short pitched bowling, which, if it had been perfectly directed, might have been lethal.
The wicket was not especially quick though, and once Warnapura became attuned to Zaheer's methods, he seemed to play him without too much trouble. Warnapura, in the end, proved to be a deceptively tough nut to crack.
Ishant Sharma toiled manfully on heartbreaking wicket for him and got the odd ball to rise sharply. Both Zaheer and Ishant, however, seemed intent on bowling to a plan rather than going flat out. Given that India are playing only two pacemen, this is a prudent ploy.
So far, in the brief period of play that we have seen, India have bowled reasonably well, although they have conceded about 20 runs more than they would have liked to concede.
Harbhajan Singh, in the solitary over that he bowled, was unable to hit a length. He has been in poor form for a while, and unless he can find new wind from somewhere, India's four-bowler ploy (with Bhajji as one of the four) may come back to haunt them.
Early wickets are an absolute must for India, especially given the lack of depth in their bowling line up.
Sanjay Manjrekar thinks India are the better team, but it will ultimately come down to the age-old question—Can India bowl out the opposition twice? In this, India have some convincing to do.
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