Mendis, Karunaratne 'sweep' Sri Lanka out of imminent crisis
Sri Lanka were able to kick start a revival with perfect execution of just one shot. © AFP
If Charles Dickens had opted to write on the third day's play between Sri Lanka and India in Colombo, rather than write the Tale of Two Cities, his famous first lines would still have been accurate.
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way.
And it was that way for both teams on a delightful day of cricket, something that the series was crying out for. India were world-class in the first half, but Sri Lanka hit their high notes in the second. And by the end of it, it could only leave you wanting for more. It's also apt that Day 3 at the SSC, Colombo was the half way mark of the series. The first half spelt only India, now the second half can be Sri Lanka's.
It was heartening to see Sri Lanka finally put up a fight. In Galle and until Saturday in Colombo, Sri Lanka looked like a team that was only there to make up the numbers. India recorded another 600-run score on their way to a 304-run win. By Lunch on the third day of the second Test, every thing pointed to another such thumping for the hosts.
But how things change. And what a 'sweeping' change it was, too.
Sri Lanka, since the series began, have spoken a lot about countering the Indian threat by playing the sweep and reverse-sweep. They had the players who liked playing the shot, and were confident in their plans. But over the course of the previous seven days of cricket, Sri Lanka's plans had fallen flat. Their only silver linings with the bat had come from Dilruwan Perera's all-out-attack approach, and Dimuth Karunaratne's more textbook approach. But on Day 3, Niroshan Dickwella, in an otherwise horrendous innings for Sri Lanka, sparked some hope for the sweep. He showed there was some value in the plan, and that it could be used to negate R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja.
The Indians had shown that using the feet to the spinners, more than the sweep, was the better option. And Sri Lanka's resurrection started with a lesson they borrowed from their opponents. They had got themselves in a tangle by skipping down at every opportunity in Galle, and had succumbed quickly. Here, they used a more judicious approach. Both Karunaratne and Kusal Mendis, used their feet and the crease superbly to play India's spinners.
They ensured they put the Indians off their lenghts, and when the bowlers did do that, Sri Lanka fell back on Plan A - the sweep. Ashwin acknowledged how some of the big hits, helped Sri Lanka put India's bowling plans under question marks.
"He could have put some good balls away for fours and hence the bowlers over-compensated and bowled a few short balls," he said about Mendis, who cracked a sublime century to keep Sri Lanka afloat.
Then, with the sweep shot becoming a safer option for the hosts, Mendis, who enjoys playing the shot, and Karunaratne honed in. They defended most balls on the stumps, but the moment the ball went wider, they used the sweep. It was a plan they had discussed at Lunch.
"We were training hard on sweeps and reverse sweeps. Hashan Tillakaratne and other coaches are specifically speaking about the sweep shots and encouraging us to do that. We are improved with the sweeps. The coaches are different. When it comes to a spinning wicket we have to play the sweep and that's an option. Always we are practicing the sweep," Dickwella said at the end of day's play.
"We weren't good in the first session. We has plans before the second innings started. How to handle spin and how to handle pressure. How to play the new ball. It was a long meeting during the lunch break and we executed those plans very well. We didn't handle the situation properly. We should have settled down a bit, but we didn't. We could have settled down like in the evening session. We were more positive after lunch."
It isn't a plan without risks, but most plans are laced with risks. And the higher the risks, the rewards are that much faster and sweeter. Sweet it was for Sri Lanka. They were not only able to hold India off when they held all the aces, they proved to themselves that the series was no longer a foregone conclusion.
It showed in how the crowd started to cheer for the Lankans as well. As the Mendis-Karunaratne stand grew stronger, so did the people at the ground and their voices. Soon, there were cheers for every boundary, every DRS review that went Sri Lanka's way, every appeal that did not go Sri Lanka's way and even the misfields. India suddenly found themselves under a little pressure.
Sri Lanka were able to kick start a revival with perfect execution of just one shot. Imagine what they could do if they could get the rest in order.
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