COLOMBO: On his hurried retreat to the pavilion, premature than he should have envisioned or the appreciative crowd would have craved for, Kumar Sangakkara acknowledged the standing ovation with a gentle wave of his bat. Almost reluctantly. Almost bound by obligation. Almost regretfully, having left the team midway through a draining struggle for survival on a turgid surface.
It was announced beforehand that it was his last match. But still he might have been overwhelmed by the emotion to enjoy, and even celebrate, his last moments as long as he can, and as contently as he can. The closer you get to that point of no return, the more your zest for life will be. Then if there’s a modern-day cricketer who can be immune to the emotional deluge around him and not react, that’s Sangakkara. He, among his species, is blessed with that rare and indefinable gift to stay aloof to the extent of being almost emotionless.
As did testify Kaushal Silva, his gritty understudy through a third-wicket alliance of 74-run alliance: “He was just his normal self. He gave the impression that it’s just another normal match, focused on how we can pull the team out of trouble and build a substantial first-innings total. It was an emotional moment for us also we kept that in the back of our mind,”said Kaushal.
About 110-minutes before Sangakkara’s penultimate innings ended in the palms of Ajinkya Rahane at first slip, Indians duly gave him a guard of honour, as he strode into the middle as early as the second over, after Umesh Yadav’s first-ball strike.
It was not a case of schadenfreude, but India’s pacemen made him feel uneasy. Yadav flung in an inswinging yorker first up. If Sangakkara was overrun by emotion and his mind wavered, this was a rude wake-up call to reality.
Two balls further, he flirted at a wide delivery—that fundamental urge to get bat on ball, irrespective of your experience and expertise—before he was beaten on the forward prod. In the next over, Yadav roughed him up with a sharp bouncer.
Fellow conspirator Ishant Sharma hurled another bouncer, closer to the body and at an awkward height, for Sangakkara to arch sideways. The ball after, he was induced to play, only for the ball to shape away after the pitching, beating his outside edge by a whisker.
Then much in the fashion as he had blunted the Indian attack through that no-frills 144 in the series decider in 2008, he went about blunting them. Occasionally, he indulged the crowd with his exquisite driving — the standout being the on-the-knee cover drive off Yadav. He then carved Ravichandran Ashwin behind point.
Even the sporting gods seemed to contrive with the crowd, as he was endowed a life on 24, the usually vigilant Rahane responding late to a miscued cut. Ashwin has been his tormentor in the series, something of a pantomime villain for the spectators, as in both innings in Galle he was his executioner. But as if to prove his toes can still twinkle, he hopped down the track to loft Ashwin over mid-off. The expectancy of the crowd would have buoyed. Then like a smirking nemesis came Ashwin to wrap off Sangakkara 232nd Test innings.
Impending, though, was a wicket, though it seemed likelier to be that of the streaky Silva. Like the Indian lower order, he edgily survived, and was lucky the ball he managed a nick to the keeper was a no ball, prolonging Stuart Binny’s wait for his maiden Test wicket. But unaffected, Binny continued to torment Silva.
Generally, he kept them on a leash, conceding only 2.18 in 11 overs.
So were Yadav and Ishant in their first spell. The former showed he has added discipline to his oeuvre, and fully justified his selection with a fiery spell, wherein he bowled with pace, accuracy and control. Ishant sustained his efficiency from the Galle test, leaving bowling coach B Arun a satisfied man. They were unlucky to have not purchased more wickets, but forcing Sri Lanka to score at less than three an over was a job tidily executed.