DHARAMSALA: Sunil Chauhan, curator at the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium, provided a track India have been longing for, to prepare for South Africa. In the first Test in Kolkata, conditions were close to what they wanted. Dharamsala presented a track that will be closer to what they get in January. Against plenty of seam and bounce, India were all at sea at 29/7, even before the umpires had called for the first drinks break.
Their lowest total of 54, Zimbabwe’s ODI lowest of 35, they were staring at a lot of dubious records. Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s association with the tail enabled them to avoid these embarrassments, but a total of 112 was always going to be hard to defend, on any pitch. Sri Lanka coasted to the target with 176 balls to spare and ended their 12-match losing streak to take a 1-0 lead in the three-match series.
Questions were aplenty regarding the sort of surface rolled out for a format where fans like to watch boundaries and sixes. But as Rohit Sharma said, “Not always do we get to play on such conditions and as a team we want to thrive in such conditions and come out on top.” It surprised the Sri Lankans when Rohit after losing the toss revealed he would have liked to bat. A batting line-up lacking experience in the middle barring Dhoni needed help from the openers, but the moment Angelo Mathews removed Shikhar Dhawan in the second over, things started going downhill for India.
Despite Sri Lanka’s struggles against India, Suranga Lakmal has often troubled them. After impressive outings in the first and third Tests, the lanky pacer ran through the top-order with movement from a nagging length in one straight spell to finish with 10-4-13-4. There was no other contender for the Man of the Match award.
In their defence, it can be said the Indian batsmen hardly played loose shots or were dismissed attempting those. What undid them was the bowlers’ relentless pursuit of landing the ball in the right areas. The batsmen had no option but to play. After Dhawan, Rohit’s faint edge opened the floodgates as Nuwan Pradeep too joined the fun. Dinesh Karthik, who laboured around for 18 deliveries, walked across the stumps to negate the swing and played all around to be out LBW.
Manish Pandey tried in ungainly fashion to see off the testing time, but couldn’t do more than poking at one to be caught at slips. Shreyas Iyer tried to cut the first loose ball that came his way and the inside-edge rearranged the woodwork. The top five were back for single-digit scores. At 16/5, Hardik Pandya tried to counterattack. But an apparent attempt to late-cut ended in a regulation catch. By the time Lakmal removed Bhuvneshwar Kumar, it was mostly about reducing the embarrassment.
The track did its bit, but as Dhoni showed during his 87-ball stay, none of the top-order played to the situation, which demanded one to counterattack or one to see off the early phase. None stood up and suddenly, India were left exposed to the seaming conditions.
“We knew conditions were going to be tough but sometimes when you are put in such situations, you have to bat the situation which means we got to respect the bowlers. I don’t think we played rash shots. They bowled the right channel, kept us guessing and batsmen were made to play all the time. We were trying to survive and not scoring at a good pace, which put us in even more trouble. We will learn from it,” Rohit said.
The only solace for India was that except for Dhawan (probably), few from this batting line-up would be in the Test XI at Cape Town.
Scoreboard
India: R Sharma c Dickwella b Lakmal 2, S Dhawan lbw b Mathews 0, S Iyer b Pradeep 9, D Karthik lbw b Lakmal 0, M Pandey c Mathews b Lakmal 2, MS Dhoni c Gunathilaka b Perera 65, H Pandya c Mathews b Pradeep 10, B Kumar c Dickwella b Lakmal 0, K Yadav st Dickwella b Dhananjaya 19, J Bumrah b Pathirana 0, Y Chahal not out 0. Extras (lb2, w3) 5. Total (all out, 38.2 ovs) 112. Fall of wickets: 1-0, 2-2, 3-8, 4-16, 5-16, 6-28, 7-29, 8-70, 9-87. Bowling: Lakmal 10-4-13-4, Mathews 5-2-8-1, Pradeep 10-4-37-2, Perera 4.2-0-29-1, Dhananjaya 5-2-7-1, Pathirana 4-1-16-1.
Sri Lanka: D Gunathilaka c Dhoni b Bumrah 1, U Tharanga c Dhawan b H Pandya 49, L Thirimanne b Bhuvneshwar 0, A Mathews n.o 25, N Dickwella n.o 26. Extras (lb1, w10, nb2) 13. Total (For 3 wkts, 20.4 ovs) 114. Fall of wickets: 1-7, 2-19, 3-65. Bowling: Bhuvneshwar 8.4-1-42-1, Bumrah 7- 1-32-1, Pandya 5-0-39-1.
venkatakrishna@newindianexpress.com