Dhawan, Rahul make hay in sunshine

Kolkata, November 20
The Shikhar Dhawan-KL Rahul opening partnership in the second innings of the first Test today was 166 in 37.1 overs; this compared rather favourably with their grand stand of 0 in the first innings, coming off 1 ball.
It was that sort of wicket today, it was that sort of day — the change in the numbers tells the story of the conditions, the match. It’s a happier story for India now. They’ve easily wiped out the 122-run lead Sri Lanka had taken. India are now 49 ahead and have nine second-innings wickets in hand. Danger loomed over the hosts after Sri Lanka took a big lead — the first time Lanka got the first-innings advantage over India since the retirement of the great Muttiah Muralitharan in 2010.
It’s very likely that even Muralitharan wouldn’t have been a huge factor in these conditions. Consider this: Of the 182.4 overs bowled so far in the game, the spinners have bowled only 31, ie 17 per cent. The spinners have taken only two of the 21 wickets that have fallen. The great Rangana Herath has bowled only five overs so far; R Ashwin bowled only eight in the Sri Lanka innings, and India’s pacers took all 10 wickets — for the first time since 1983.
It’s that sort of wicket.
Fighting openers
India’s openers fought back today. The two had been helpless on the first day. Rahul had received an unplayable ball; Dhawan had attempted an atrocious shot far from his body. Today such atrocities could be committed on the bowlers, for it was a different wicket. Dhawan hit several cavalier shots in his 116-ball 94; Rahul raced to 54 off 66 balls with eight fours before slowing down and hitting no four off the next 47 balls he faced. At stumps he was unbeaten on 73 off 113 balls.
The pace with which the two openers scored, 166 runs at close to 4.5 an over, was just what Virat Kohli might have been praying for, even fantasising about.
The pace of the scoring, the size of the stand, turned the game. Sri Lanka were deflated, India uplifted. That’s exactly what batting coach Sanjay Bangar said on the first day — Dhawan is a player who can turn the match, especially if the pace of the wicket is to his liking, and the ball isn’t moving in the air or off the surface. The pitch was quicker today, the spongy bounce caused by the dampness on the surface was gone, replaced by pacier bounce; the pacier bounce was the reason Bhuvneshwar Kumar could hit Suranga Lakmal on the grille of his helmet with a ball that was 71 overs old.
Feeling good
Dhawan liked the pace, too, for it allowed him to go through with his strokes. “Today the pace was nice off the pitch and we used it well,” he said, and added about the two sixers he hit off Herath: “I knew it wasn’t spinning and he would bowl up to me, so I backed myself and went after it. Once I hit him on the flighted deliveries, I knew he would push it flat and I had to stay back. I enjoyed it. I knew I wouldn’t get easy runs at the other end with the fast bowlers.”
Herath, in fact, had been much more effective with the bat, top-scoring with 67 priceless runs. He’s got little to show by the way of technique, but he’s a gritty nudger, swinger, puller, pusher, driver, and it was he who took Sri Lanka from 201/7 to 294.
Around 15,000 spectators turned up to see the action today.
What chances of a sporting declaration?
Can we get a result tomorrow? For that to happen, one team must collapse suddenly, because there’s no time left for a slowish, grinding, attritional removal of batsmen. Then there’s the small matter of the darkness that falls early in Kolkata. Today was a perfect day for cricket. Play began at 9.15am and ended at 4.30pm, yet only 78 overs were bowled. Expect a similar number of overs tomorrow. What are the chances Kohli will make a sporting declaration, setting a challenging but gettable target for Sri Lanka? That will depend on the pace of run-scoring by India in the first hour. Kohli loves to go for results, so expect some fireworks tomorrow —especially now that the water and dampness are gone and ammunition is dry.

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