MADRAS, 6 December 2005 — India recovered to 90 for two against Sri Lanka after Chaminda Vaas’ twin strikes had pushed them back in their first innings on the fourth day of the first Test yesterday.
Captain Rahul Dravid (30) and Sachin Tendulkar (11) shared an undefeated third wicket stand of 45 on a two-paced pitch after Vaas dismissed openers Gautam Gambhir (0) and Virender Sehwag (36) with the team’s total at 45. The hosts won the toss and opted to bat in the afternoon after the first three days were washed out. Only 32.3 overs could be bowled, with bad light further curtailing play.
Vaas bowled Gambhir in the third over of the innings with a delivery that skidded through the gap between the left-hander’s bat and pad. The loss of an early wicket and the conditions of the pitch, however, did not curb Sehwag’s natural instincts.
The Delhi batsman lashed Dilhara Fernando for five boundaries, forcing the bowler to be taken off the attack.
The wily Vaas forced the batsman to play and miss on a few occasions. Sehwag did play a few shots against the left-armer, but Vaas deceived him with clever change of pace, forcing him to drive uppishly for skipper Marvan Atapattu to hold a spectacular catch at short-cover.
Off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan derived considerable turn and bounce and soon operated with four catchers around the bat.
Dravid and Tendulkar took 13 and 12 deliveries respectively to get off their marks. Muralitharan beat Dravid on a few occasions, but the Indian captain showed his mastery over the conditions in his 122-minute vigil, defending dourly while at the same time playing some authoritative drives.
Tendulkar, who is a step away from become the highest test century maker, did not score a boundary in his 90-minute stay in the middle. Caution had been the need of the hour, and he did just that.
Injured Vaughan in Doubt for One-Dayers
In London, England captain Michael Vaughan’s chances of playing in the one-day series against Pakistan are in the balance, chairman of selectors David Graveney said yesterday.
Vaughan, who flew home for the birth of his second child, has been consulting specialists about the knee injury that kept him out of the first Test that Pakistan won by 22 runs.
“Michael is due to see a specialist later about how bad his knee is and I’ll touch base with him once he’s had that and we’ll go from there,” Graveney said in a statement.
“His availability is very much in the balance.
“You would like to be optimistic because the last thing you need is to lose your captain, but we’ll follow whatever medical advice is recommended.
“Michael missed the first test and was understandably pretty down about that but he then made a remarkable recovery from the early prediction so we’ll try to be as optimistic as possible.” England’s stand-in skipper Marcus Trescothick said in Lahore: “I have not prepared for the captaincy and have not started thinking about it. But we will know in next few days and judge from the situation.” England have kept batsman Ian Bell on stand-by if Vaughan is not available.
Better news for England was confirmation earlier in the day that batsman Andrew Strauss would rejoin the squad in Pakistan for the five-match one-day series after returning home for the birth of his son.
Strauss, the left-handed opener, missed the third Test in Lahore which Pakistan won by an innings and 100 runs to take the Test series 2-0. In the two Tests he played, Strauss scored nine, 23, 12 and a duck, averaging just 11 runs.
