This morning, the sturdy ramparts of the Galle Fort were bedecked withred flags in preparation for a radical political rally this evening
Charlie Austin17-Aug-2001This morning, the sturdy ramparts of the Galle Fort were bedecked withred flags in preparation for a radical political rally this evening.However, the organisers of the rally surely picked the wrong day towhip up the local residents into an angry frenzy, for they will bejoyfully celebrating an emphatic Test victory.With the ground bathed in hot sunshine, the result of this match was aforegone conclusion. Sri Lanka duly won by ten wickets after theybowled out India for 180 in their second innings, their lowest everscore against their sub-continental neighbours - the second lowest wastheir 187 in the first innings.Rahul Dravid and Venkatesh Prasad showed up their partners for theirspineless exhibition on Friday evening when they batted studiously for51 minutes this morning to avoid an innings defeat. Muralitharan,however, finally trapped Prasad lbw to claim his 25th five-wicket haulin Test cricket.Muralitharan, in fact, had a frustrating morning when numerous legbefore shouts were turned down, as the Indian batsmen tucked theirbats behind their pads. The Sri Lankans believe that the off spinneris getting a raw deal and Sanath Jayasuriya admitted that Muralitharanwas “frustrated.” Nevertheless, he finished with eight wickets in thegame.Fittingly, man of the match Sanath Jayasuriya, who had done so much towin the game with a rollicking hundred on the second day, then strodeto the crease and finished the match with a trademark slash to thepoint boundary. Sri Lanka had beaten India for only the second time intheir 21-Test history, the last time being way back in 1985 whenDuleep Mendis’s side won 16 years ago in Colombo to record Sri Lanka’sfirst ever Test victory.Indian coach John Wright admitted his side had been “outplayed in alldepartments of the game.” He pinpointed Dilhara Fernando’s two-wicketburst at the end of the first day as the key moment in the match. “Theturning point was the two late wickets on Tuesday evening,” he said.”We had started well and I thought that a first innings score of 250plus might be competitive. In the event it wouldn’t have been becausewe bowled so poorly and kept feeding the best square cutter in theworld.”Ganguly looked disconsolate afterwards: “You can’t win Test matches ifyou score 187 in the first innings. We made a good start, but failedto capitalise on it.”He admitted that they needed to think hard as to how best to playMuralitharan: “A lot of the guys are playing Muralitharan for thefirst time, so it’s going to take time. The players that have scoredruns off him have been stroke players, so we need to look at that.”India now have four days to prepare for the second Test in Kandy. Aproposed rest on the beach has been cancelled and they leave for thehill country on Saturday. Wright said: “There are two more Tests andthe players simply have to pick themselves up and play with both prideand commitment.”The Sri Lankans were naturally delighted, but both captain and coachpointed to their recent failures in Kandy where they have squanderedopportunities to clinch series wins against both South Africa andEngland during the past 12 months. Sanath Jayasuriya simply said, “Wehave to change that sequence.”Sri Lanka coach praised the efforts of his side, but pointed out:”This was only one game. We are still at an infancy stage as far asthe reconstruction of the side is concerned. When we are through wewill ensure that we can win at home and abroad. It’s important that wedon’t get carried away.”The second Test now starts on Wednesday in Kandy, the antithesis ofGalle for Sri Lanka. They have now won four out of the six Testsplayed in Galle by thumping margins. In Kandy, however, they have losttheir last two games. That, at least, should provide India with somehope, even though their performance in Galle doesn’t even justifywishful thinking.