One one things

Back in town after a fantastic ten days in Kathmandu, and back to the chaos that is SAARC. Being in Sri Lanka we never really appreciate the wonder that is SAARC - I guess bc there’s not much of a wonder. But up in Nepal they really do take SAARC seriously - at every third corner I got some concession bc I had brown skin and wasn’t Nepalese. Anyway, more about that later. I’m back, and back in time for test cricket.

As i’ve undoubtedly said 18 times before, few things give me more pleasure than a weekend at the SSC watching SL inevitably whip the opposition. That is of course unless the opposition is Australia or drugged up Pakistan. I knew that Mohammad Asif was on something to make the ball swing in such a psychadelical manner on our benign pitchers. Damn stoner. But yes, some SSC inevitables do stand - A Mahela Jayawardena century, something similar, if less graceful, by our man Sam and of course bucketfulls for Murali. However there were some pleasing changes - Murali didn’t have to bowl 76% of the overs and opposition batsman couldn’t relax at one end. Over at King Cricket they put things nicely. “The batsman now have a choice, get out to Murali or get out to Mendis?” Damn straight.

Despite oversleeping a tad, we managed to get to SSC around 9.45 and while queueing to get tickets through the tiny hole in the wall, a mini-huge cheer erupted from the ground. The guy in front of me grunted and vented his frustrations at the hole - “mun out wenna issella ticket eka denna oy!” I mumbled something in agreement and soon we were in the brilliant HSBC stand settling down with 4 other local chaps and a random white guy to watch what I expected to be an indian middle order fightback following their first innings surrender. But first we’d have to see through the first innings tail. As expected they didn’t have much answer to the new spin duo except for the overly tall Ishanth Sharma who used all of his 20 foot reach to take everything on the half volley. In the process he delayed the inevitable by an hour or so. The bastard. He really ought to take a leaf out of the Dinesh Karthik manual of how to get out when your team needs you. Fortunately Mendis sorted Laxman out with a peach through the gap. Before long the openers were back in action and inevitably there was spin before lunch and Murali nailed Sehwag - Benson didn’t give it and Mahela immediately asked for a referral. The lack of a TV at the top tier at HSBC is the one flaw in the stand so the cheer had to wait for a text from bro in S’pore which read “dead and buried.” Satisfied with 5 wickets in the morning session, we trooped off to get some mustard lamb and fried rice from the members’. Yum.

The afternoon session was spectacular. After a couple of token overs of seam, Mendis nailed Laxman for the second time in a couple of hours. In walked the big fish Sachin bhai and before long there was a flurry of activity - Murali tweaking, Sachin sweeping and Dilshan leaping through it all to pull off a blinder that was again referred. Before the umpire’s decision there was a yelp from the Sri Lankan players followed by high 5s as they got the signal from the dressing room that they got their man. From then on it was a capitulation. Ghambir was done in by a piece of Murali magic of old. Ever since Murali developed the doosra he seems to be relying less on flight and guile and more on beating the batsman off the pitch. I was recently watching a youtube clip of him take 16 wickets at the Brit Oval in 1998, and it’s so different to how he has been bowling of late. But this weekend was a bit different. The flight was back and watching at the ground it was wonderful to take in the nuances of this great bowler’s armoury. When he tossed it up to Ghambir I could feel myself being lured on to the front foot to take it on the half volley, and I imagined Ghambir panic as he saw the ball drop earlier than expected, pitch and turn passed that fumbling outside edge for Prasanna Jayawardena to pull off a wonderful stumping. It was like slow motion. We broke from a trance of Murali magic to shout in celebration along with the rest of the stand that had now swelled to near capacity.

Ganguly was done in by a quicker one and Dravid again struggled to tackle the young Mendis. Before we knew it the innings had folded. 14 wickets in a day, 9 wickets in about 3 hours. I was thrilled to have seen Mendis’ debut - I had my doubts about him in test cricket since I expected India’s batsman to play him with more certainty than they managed in the crash boom bang ODIs. Unfortunately for them the mystery continues, and I suspect it will continue in Galle. Whatever happens, I’ll be there to see it unfold. Good luck boys.