Gautam Gambhir, Sachin Tendulkar and a dead Ahmedabad pitch took Sri Lanka’s dream of a first Test win in India to within a session – perhaps half – of its death. Gambhir played out 110 deliveries for 40 runs, and Tendulkar 145 for 55 runs; both of them looked entirely at home in the role of saving a Test, going through score-less spells, and not letting it affect their minds.
The only break in concentration came when in the second session 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 – and all of 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, as opposed to a 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 is yet to take a wicket in 32 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. The only time when he looked like getting out was when a low, dying offering from him was dropped by Tillakaratne Dilshan at second slip. Nine overs later, when Mishra did get out, it was to a freak catch by Dilshan off a proper flick shot, low to his right, at leg gully.
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, good in his judgement outside off, and coming forward to straighter deliveries to negate the odd shooter.
Against spinners, Gambhir preferred to stay back, or jump out of the track and get close enough to the delivery. He did pull out the big hits in the 90s, as he is used to doing because he prefers to get the 90s done with quickly. He took 61 deliveries to move from overnight 74 to 90, but then hit three boundaries in six balls to reach his century quickly. And then scored two runs in 25 deliveries. The approach in the 90s was similar to that in Napier, when he stepped out and lofted Daniel Vettori and Jeetan Patel for fours in consecutive overs.
Post lunch, when Gambhir played his only rash, he left the saunter towards safety in Tendulkar’s hand. He had started off fluently, driving Murali against the spin for two boundaries, and punching Mathews for one, and once he got comfortable in the middle he too opted to play for time. Between them Gambhir and Tendulkar played out 24 overs. The latter had reached 32 off 75 deliveries, and slowed down furthermore.
Sri Lanka threw one of the last dices, taking new ball, getting Prasad to bowl despite the injury. But neither Prasad nor Chanaka Welegedara could find enough from the pitch to disturb Tendulkar or VVS Laxman. For a while Tendulkar shut shop completely, scoring three runs in the next 26 deliveries. By that time he had reached 30,000 international runs, and it seemed torturous to make the fast bowlers keep bowling on this pitch.
The spinners came back on, the match started moving towards a slow draw again. By tea Tendulkar had crossed 50 and looked good for a 88th international century, India had erased the deficit, and Tendulkar and Laxman had played out another 24 overs.
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