For the fifth time in the last year and a half, India had their opponents five down for less than 100 only to let the lower order off the hook
Sharda Ugra at the SSC30-Aug-20152:12
‘Enjoy bowling with new ball’ – Ishant
For all those who love cricket numerology, a special treat. Explain the correlation between these figures: 108, 586; 123, 272; 154.A clue, then: these numbers belong to Wellington, Galle and Colombo. These numbers are from February 2014 onwards. In case you are interested, there are more of their kind going back several years, but this is the most recent lot.These happen to be the number of runs that India have conceded to their opposition’s last five pairs, having had them five down for less than 100. The ESPNcricinfo stats team produced this pearl when Kusal Perera and Rangana Herath were tearing up the Indian bowling after they had reduced Sri Lanka to 47 for 6 and sent Dhammika Prasad back to his dressing room, one ball later, with an injured finger. Prasad was to return later and bat like an axe-murderer.Every opposition will do its damnedest to build partnerships. To concede 150 to the last five when the top five are found searching for collective touch, though, is wasteful.India have ended day three at the SSC with a bowling performance of two halves. The efficient, smooth and ruthless first session and the freeze of the second when faced with Perera and Herath’s in-your-face response. It has meant that what promised to be a juicy lead was pared down to 111; sizeable on a wicket of this tempestuous nature, but by no means safe. The end of day reflected the teetering-tottering Test match in the fact that India have lost three wickets and have their last specialist pair at the crease with the the lead stretched to only 132.At the end of the day’s play Ishant Sharma, who had a bristling, edgy five-for to show for his efforts, was asked what made up a good score to defend. He said that the team was not thinking of targets yet and would only make calls according to what the situation demanded. Then he spoke hopefully, like a bowler, “Maybe you can say whatever we scored in the first innings, maybe 300.” In the light of the game, where wickets have fallen today in a steady Sri Lankan drizzle, a target of 300 is a dream-on kind of number, but maybe Amit Mishra has other ambitions.In the wider context of the team’s performances, India’s allowing lower-order runs to leak should worry the management that has backed playing five specialist batsmen and enough bowlers. In the narrower context of the series, this is the second time this has happened to India; they were blindsided by a Dinesh Chandimal dazzler in Galle, while on Sunday they were dealing with a debutant wicket keeper and a specialist bowler. Mind you, Kusal Perera is now famous in the wider world as the first triple-centurion in Sri Lankan domestic cricket, batting at No. 4. He has also endeared himself to the scatter of a Sunday crowd by taking the Indian bowling to the cleaners in the one way he thought had the best chance of working, aka long handle.In Galle, Sri Lanka had the benefit of two decisions going in their favour; here at the SSC, India had two wickets with decisions that were, at the very least, debatable. What the Indians were presented in Galle was a street-smart, innovative batsman. At the SSC, what they had was a debutant – whom they dropped on 9 – along with a street-smart lower order batsman, but with the experience of Galle and the options available to them.Like turning to Amit Mishra earlier in the piece if only to give Perera a different bowler to deal with after he had heaped his affections on Umesh Yadav. If only to give yourself a chance of re-building pressure after it had been released with some adventurous hitting. Like trying the yorker as an option other than the short balls when they were going to the fence off both edges. Or going for the stumps at the sight of the batsman making room to play.After the day’s play Ishant offered this explanation, saying Perera had nothing to lose. “He was just going after the bowling. If you see, he was hitting the ball even when we were hitting the length. You can’t really do anything about that. What we can do is just keep on – on a wicket like this, you just need to keep on hitting that length and keep on believing that you will get an edge.”He said that Perera got out in exactly the same way, “still slogging the ball. So still you can’t say anything about it, you can’t do anything about it.” In situations like this he said, “what you need to do is like set a field, set a plan and bowl according to that plan so that captain doesn’t look like a fool in the ground. So even if you set a plan like tail is coming, if you are bowling bouncers, keep on bowling bouncers. If you are tired, just tell the captain that you are tired, you can’t bowl anymore. You need to keep things very simple so it will be easy for the captain as well.”The “nothing to lose” argument was made, it must be remembered, for Chandimal too. India’s bowling lines may have been exceptional in the first session in parts, particularly Umesh and his penetration and accuracy, but in the second their equanimity had been unsettled. Early on, Herath and Ishant went into an eyeball-for-eyeball discussion, separated by very little except about 12 inches in height and Ajinkya Rahane’s intervention. After Perera was dimissed following a 79-run stand with Herath, Kohli kicked the ball, swore under his breath (unfortunately, not out of the sight of TV cameras), with the departing batsman and Ishant having words. The general order of the series was eventually restored with Ishant and Herath having a shorter and far more fruitful peace talk than India-Pakistan diplomats can manage these days. Kohli patted Herath on the back when he was the ninth batsman out. The scoreboard said the last three wickets made 74 between them. A day like this leaves a possibility in the air that word may get out that the best way to throw India off any kind of hard-worked and hard-earned disciplined lines or momentum is to go madcap on them.This has been a terrific Test match, though – two completed innings in just over six sessions of play, with a pitch that allows seamers to dictate the course of play and snatches of excellent Test match batting too. The SSC may still have a little bit of madcap left in it.