India crawl to 55 for one at stumps on Day Three

Kandy, August 24: Fear is the key to Indian cricket. Fear of losing, and in at least one case, fear of losing more than just the match and the series. Panic is only below the surface with Sourav Ganguly nowadays, and it was evident when Muttiah Muralitharan played what may be a series-winning innings for Sri Lanka at the Asgiriya Stadium here on Friday.

At stumps, India were 55 for one, still needing 209 runs to win, with nine wickets in hand. The chase is on, but with India's panic button so handy, anything could happen.

The fluttering Indian hearts did not slow down while batting either. Shiv Sundar Das should have been back to the pavilion right at the beginning of the innings, once getting largesse from Tyronne Wijewardena when plumb in front to Chaminda Vaas, and then shouldering arms and losing his bails in the same over, off a no-ball that raced to the fence.

He never really settled down, and ultimately lost his off-stump to the hero of the day, Muralitharan.

Sadagoppan Ramesh and Rahul Dravid also lived out some anxious moments before the umpires decided it that the light was bad enough to call off play.

Earlier, the Indian bowlers, especially Venkatesh Prasad and Zaheer Khan, did a superb job of keeping their side in the series when they knocked off the Sri Lankan top and middle order. Prasad rattled up his seventh five-wicket haul in his 32nd Test, taking his wickets tally to 93.

Having the rivals at 157 for nine, which would have given Indian a chase of 200 to win, the Indians had done extremely well. Then the wheels fell off.

Muralitharan obviously came in with an intention to collect as many as he could while he was in. He started swinging the willow at anything that came his way and met with instant success, pulling the first one from Prasad to the fence.

He continued in the same vein, with a top-edged six off Prasad and then another fairly authentic one over square leg.

Ganguly lost it at that stage. Bowling to a No. 9 with everyone apart from the bowler and wicketkeeper on the fence is surely not the best way to finish the innings. Muralitharan went across the line almost always, so keeping an orthodox field and inducing the drive would have been ideal.

But then, that works when the team and leader are mentally in shape to tackle a crisis. With just 200 to chase and nine wickets down, the skipper smelled victory, but as runs began piling up, he became desperate to stop them. As a result, he managed neither till a wee bit too late.

Muralitharan is not much of a man for technique, but his reading of the game was impeccable. He realised that Sri Lanka needed runs, and tried from the beginning to get them. And then, when he realised that he might have come across a good thing, he grabbed it. He shielded last man Ruchira Perera admirably, almost invariably getting the single when he needed it.

The Indians had no answers. Even when they did get Perera for the entire over, nothing was straight or fast enough to go through his defences.

Muralitharan overtook his previous best of 39, needless to say, against India in 1997, at a gallop and reached his maiden half-century off just 44 balls in 57 minutes with the aid of two sixes and four boundaries.

He did not lose focus after that either, and kept scoring wherever runs were available, and there were plenty, with the fielders all guarding the ropes. What would have been only a single on a regulation field was always a two for the fleet-footed duo.

At the same time, when Muralitharan skied the ball, which he did frequently, ironically the fielders were found back-pedalling. Zaheer let one go over his head for six, while Harbhajan Singh saw one sail over for four.

By the time Muralitharan fell after a sensational 64-run last-wicket stand, India were looking at 264 runs to win. The off-spinner got a standing ovation as he walked back to the dressing room with his signature smile. The Indians, needless to say, were not smiling.