India fight back on day three

Lanka all out 221; India set 264 to win

You sometimes wonder if we really appreciate the unsung heroes we do have.

Take Zaheer Khan, for example -- it is now just under a month since the guy first complained of a shin problem. He was in fact slated to fly down to Madras for a checkup midway through the triangular one day series -- but opted to stay on because the team was in trouble and needed him.

The ODIs are over, the Test series is halfway through, and he is still here, he is still bowling his heart out, and if he winces occasionally after landing that front foot of his, well, who's watching?

This morning, again, he looked the most lethal of the bowlers -- a fiery, don't mess with me bouncer, deliveries on a length and going either way at will. One such opened Sangakaara up in the very first over of the morning, had him pushing away from his body, found the edge, and had Dighe diving to hold well, without Lanka having added to its overnight score.

Venkatesh Prasad's job was to button one end up, but he provided a bonus when a leg cutter had the solid Marvan Atapattu (45 off 88) forget the basics and push away from his body -- again, Dighe behind the sticks dived headlong to snaffle a superb catch, reducing Lanka to 84/3, ahead by 126 runs on the second innings.

Zaheer, continuing his long spell, managed meanwhile to maintain his intensity, and the pressure was on the Lankan batsmen. Jayawardene (25 off 55 balls), in a bid to break the hold, attempted to force a late moving away-seamer through the off side, but managed only to get the thick edge through to Badani at second slip. Lanka at that stage were 108/4, ahead by 150.

8 runs later, it was -- again -- Zaheer. Quick ball, bang on line of off and middle catching Russel Arnold (4 off 8) on the back foot, beating him for pace and hitting the pad before the bat could come down in defense to reduce Lanka to 116/5 (158 ahead).

Hashan Tillekeratne on 14 (36 balls) and Suresh Perera on 4 (11 balls) took Lanka to lunch on 124/5 -- a lead of 166.

Zaheer Khan was easily the hero, bowling unchanged through the morning and troubling every single batsman he came up against. His figures, after the first session, read 17-3-60-4 -- one wicket shy of what could be his first five-wicket haul in Tests.

The struggle continued after the lunch break, and India lost a great chance of taking a greater hold on the game when Suresh Perera, with the score on 125/5, slashed hard at Ganguly and Hemang Badani at second slip got his hands to, but dropped, the sharp chance. As in the morning, the Indians have tightened their game remarkably, giving nothing away in a superb display of controlled aggression -- 15 minutes, and 4 overs after lunch, producing just the one run, off the dropped catch.

Shortly thereafter, Badani made amends. This time, Venkatesh Prasad was the bowler holding that tight line just outside off, Perera attempted to hit his way out of difficulty, the ball flew off the edge and Badani dived to take a blinder, millimeters away from the turf at second slip. Lanka 137/6, 179 ahead on the second innings.

Hashan Tillekeratne, in his comeback after two and a half years in the cold, did nothing to inspire confidence during his 60-plus-deliveries tenure. The pressure was obviously getting to him, the ball refused to leave the square, and Prasad took him out with a delivery of full length, bending in the air to beat the defensive prod and take him on the pad bang in front of off and middle, reducing Lanka to 140/7, 182 ahead.

Once he got his length right, Prasad held to it, and the results were immediately apparent. Chaminda Vaas, when on 4, attempted to play around his pads. The ball was bending in through the air on the slant, it hit line of off and middle, it straightened, it took the pad. Vaas should know all about it -- on this tour, he has had a handful of Indian batsmen out to similar deliveries. Lanka 153/8, leading 195.

In his next over, Prasad pipped Zaheer to the five-wicket post when he again bowled the full length, to go under Dilhara Fernando's (4 off 5 balls) flailing bat and make a meal of the stumps. Lanka 157/9, leading 199.

Muthiah Muralitharan -- 26 off 16 deliveries -- used the long handle to good effect, and to an extent the Indian bowlers played into his hands by an overdose of short-pitched stuff, forgetting perhaps that the full length on the stumps is always the best weapon against the hard-hitting tailender.

With the score on 172/9, a sharp shower halted play. You had to wonder if Ganguly-baiters were watching -- throughout this series, television commentators have been od-ing on superlatives about the speed with which Lankan groundsmen bring out the covers. For once, they were tawdry, they dawdled -- and Ganguly reacted with heat and anger, pointing out to the umpires that the covers needed to get on faster. He then grabbed a corner of the covers and helped drag it onto the pitch.

The Indian captain was concerned about rain getting on the pitch, with India needing to chase last to win this game. And his reaction -- heated as it was -- could be seen in one of two ways. One way is to call him the temperamental, flighty personality who is unfit to lead a side. The other is to argue that his fire and passion comes because he truly cares, because when on the ground, he puts the Indian cause ahead of everything else -- including his personal reputation.

With the drizzle persisting, tea is being taken early, with Lanka leading India by 214 with one wicket left-standing, and one session and two full days of play to follow.

When play resumed after tea, it was all Muthiah Muralitharan -- who, for Sri Lanka, reprised Harbhajan Singh's heroics in the Indian first innings. Contemptuously swinging his bat, Murali rattled the Indians with shots to all parts of the ground, cannily taking singles off the last ball of an over to shield his number 11 partner. When the offie got to his 50 -- off just 47 balls -- the stadium went up. But the happiest man -- judging by his reaction -- was Lankan coach Dav Whatmore.

And the coach's delighted expression was the clearest indication you will get, that the burgeoning last wicket partnership, and Murali's personal heroics, could just have given Sri Lanka back the edge its earlier batsmen had lost. Lanka at this point, are 203/9 -- ahead by 245 and the last wicket partnership now has 46 off 69 balls to its credit.

Murali was in fact incandescent -- as much for the quality of batsmanship that got him his first Test 50, but for the sheer spirit he showed in chasing the runs his team needed to get into a dominant position. There was heart there, and bravery, and skill -- and a combination such as that can often convert potential defeats into winning situations.

When Harbhajan finally got Murali to hole out (67 off 65 balls), Lanka had gone from a shaky 157/9 to a far more comfortable 221 all out.

That has set India a formidable 264 to get, in the fourth innings, to win. The chase will begin shortly.

Chaminda Vaas was brilliant in his opening overs, especially against Shiv Sundar Das. Who, for his part, was rendered strokeless by a combination of his own innate defensiveness, the pressure of the situation, and some magnificient seam bowling with the ball bending back in to the right hander at will.

With the score on 10/0, Das was clearly lucky to survive an LBW shout -- the home umpire gave the decision in the batsman's favour, and compensated to some extent for his error in the first innings. And later in the same over, a dream delivery angling across, hitting line of off and straightening to hit the stump saw Das reprieved again -- this time, the umpire had his arm held sideways to signal the no ball.

Das however settled down and shrugged off those early alarms. And with Ramesh again showing his new-found determination to settle down and not indulge in too much flash too early, India saw off the new ball blitz and seemed to be consolidating, when Muralitharan took out the right-handed opener.

The ball was on off and going through straight. Das (19 off 61 balls) played for turn, and kept his bat inside the line -- the ball however straightened and went through straight to clip the off stump, and reduce India to 42/1.

Dravid, as in the first innings, got off the blocks in a hurry with a superbly on-driven four off Murali, and in tandem with Ramesh, played out the overs till the umpires offered the light.

India ended up with 55/1 off 23 overs, with Dravid going back on 11 off 13 deliveries, and Ramesh on a patient 15 off 66 deliveries, needing another 209 runs to win.

The batting conditions remain reasonable -- barring the fact that overnight showers could produce some early juice for the Lankan seamers. And on balance, the game on day four is wide open -- the key will be the first hour and if India survives that period without loss, you would need to back them to take this one home.

And if they do it, it will be the second time in recent memory that they've fought back in a three-Test series after being outplayed for all of one Test and two days of the second.

Detailed Scorecards:

India 2nd Innings
SL 2nd Innings
SL 1st Innings
India 1st Innings