Tendulkar, Gambhir, dead pitch frustrate SL
Saturday, 21 November 2009
AHMEDABAD, Nov 20 (Cricinfo): Sachin Tendulkar, Gautam Gambhir, and a dead Ahmedabad pitch (21 wickets and seven centuries in five days) put paid to Sri Lanka's dream of a first Test win in India. Gambhir played out 110 deliveries for 40 runs, and Tendulkar 211 for 100 runs; both of them looked entirely at home in the role of saving a Test, not letting dot balls affect their minds.
By the time the final session of the match arrived, the only question left unanswered was whether Tendulkar would get to his 88th international century. Kumar Sangakkara didn't seem pleased with being kept on the field in the mandatory overs while Tendulkar moved towards the ton. The bowlers started bowling way outside off stump, and Tendulkar retorted in his own inimitable manner. He walked across to a delivery so wide it would have been called in an ODI, and flicked it to the square-leg boundary to get into the 90s. He had to work similarly hard for the rest of the runs too. As soon as he got there, the captains agreed to call off the match with six overs still to go.
Sri Lanka started the day 144 ahead, and needed eight Indian wickets to force a result, but met a docile pitch and determined batting. The only break in concentration came in the second session when Gambhir stepped out to launch Rangana Herath out of the ground, and ended up losing his wicket. That was not before he had reached his seventh century: four of them, including his last three, have come in the second innings, two of them in match-saving scenarios. He now averages 59.55 in the second innings, against 54.22 overall.
Sri Lanka were not helped by the hamstring injury to Dammika Prasad, who didn't bowl in the first session, and Muttiah Muralitharan's ineffectiveness: he didn't take a wicket in 38 second-innings overs. Previously Murali had gone wicketless in the second innings of a match only six times; the most he had bowled in such scenarios was 17 overs. Their problems on the unhelpful pitch were summed up by how Amit Mishra, nightwatchman from yesterday, got to his personal best score and frustrated them for 26 deliveries on the fifth morning.
Gambhir, at the other end, was in his Napier-like mode from earlier this year, when he batted 643 minutes for 137 runs to save the Test. Even today, he was not interested in scoring, or in other words he didn't let being stuck at one end bother him much. Angelo Mathews bowled well in Prasad's absence, hitting good lengths consistently, getting some of them to stay low and getting the odd one to seam away off the rare crack on the pitch. But Gambhir took most of the strike to him, playing 30 consecutive balls from Mathews for no run in the first hour, certain in his judgement outside off, and coming forward to straighter deliveries to negate the odd shooter.
India 426 (Dravid 177, Dhoni 110, Welegedara 4-87) and 341 for 4 (Gambhir 114, Tendulkar 100*) drew with Sri Lanka 760 for 7 decl. (Jayawardene 275, Prasanna 154*, Dilshan 112).
By the time the final session of the match arrived, the only question left unanswered was whether Tendulkar would get to his 88th international century. Kumar Sangakkara didn't seem pleased with being kept on the field in the mandatory overs while Tendulkar moved towards the ton. The bowlers started bowling way outside off stump, and Tendulkar retorted in his own inimitable manner. He walked across to a delivery so wide it would have been called in an ODI, and flicked it to the square-leg boundary to get into the 90s. He had to work similarly hard for the rest of the runs too. As soon as he got there, the captains agreed to call off the match with six overs still to go.
Sri Lanka started the day 144 ahead, and needed eight Indian wickets to force a result, but met a docile pitch and determined batting. The only break in concentration came in the second session when Gambhir stepped out to launch Rangana Herath out of the ground, and ended up losing his wicket. That was not before he had reached his seventh century: four of them, including his last three, have come in the second innings, two of them in match-saving scenarios. He now averages 59.55 in the second innings, against 54.22 overall.
Sri Lanka were not helped by the hamstring injury to Dammika Prasad, who didn't bowl in the first session, and Muttiah Muralitharan's ineffectiveness: he didn't take a wicket in 38 second-innings overs. Previously Murali had gone wicketless in the second innings of a match only six times; the most he had bowled in such scenarios was 17 overs. Their problems on the unhelpful pitch were summed up by how Amit Mishra, nightwatchman from yesterday, got to his personal best score and frustrated them for 26 deliveries on the fifth morning.
Gambhir, at the other end, was in his Napier-like mode from earlier this year, when he batted 643 minutes for 137 runs to save the Test. Even today, he was not interested in scoring, or in other words he didn't let being stuck at one end bother him much. Angelo Mathews bowled well in Prasad's absence, hitting good lengths consistently, getting some of them to stay low and getting the odd one to seam away off the rare crack on the pitch. But Gambhir took most of the strike to him, playing 30 consecutive balls from Mathews for no run in the first hour, certain in his judgement outside off, and coming forward to straighter deliveries to negate the odd shooter.
India 426 (Dravid 177, Dhoni 110, Welegedara 4-87) and 341 for 4 (Gambhir 114, Tendulkar 100*) drew with Sri Lanka 760 for 7 decl. (Jayawardene 275, Prasanna 154*, Dilshan 112).