At Galle India played the near-perfect Test, only to see their efforts come to naught with a late stumble. At the P Sara Oval, they went all the way in some style
Sharda Ugra in Colombo24-Aug-2015In Galle, India came excruciatingly close to the perfect Test: it began with their bowlers, was followed through by their batsmen in the first innings, and then they were as good as home with half the Sri Lankan line-up dismantled by the third afternoon. Then, however, they were hit by a dangerous cocktail: a batting performance out of an action comic, inexperience, and a brain and feet freeze in chase of 176. The match left the Indians clutching empty air, trying to work out answer a complex algebraic equation – how did seven sessions to India and three to Sri Lanka end up with three growing larger than seven?Within the space of five days, though, India found their moorings again and were able to restart and go on to efficiently finish what they had set out to do in Galle: play the perfect five-day game; win their hyperactive, energised, fellow “bro” of a captain his first Test as leader. If defeat in Galle was “heartbreaking”, as R Ashwin called it, victory at the P Sara Oval was sweet relief. This is India’s first win after the stunner at Lords in 2014, and will reconfirm their belief in what they think of as their “brand” of cricket – five bowlers, 20 wickets, aggression, intent, fearlessness.The five bowlers and 20 wickets part of the equation was never considered a problem in Galle, either by Kohli or team director Ravi Shastri, because from where they saw it, despite Dinesh Chandimal’s innings, their bowlers had given them the 20 wickets. It was for the batsmen to run with their side of the bargain. At the P Sara Oval, the roles were reversed: it was up to the batsmen to give the bowlers some numbers to bowl against and they did so, both times. Kohli said the victory was “satisfying especially knowing we came pretty close twice before – in Adelaide and Galle. We’ve spoken about that, if you win six sessions in a game, you expect your side to win the game. I think Galle hurt us in that way.” He complimented his side for being able “to get yourself together, put yourself in and play the same way again”.Play the same way again. This meant not wiping clean the memories of Galle, but two other things: finding a way to reduce the emotional bruising from that game, and performing a forensic analysis of the defeat and identifying the most useful clues as to how that particular cricketing accident occurred.One problem area from Galle identified and addressed by the batsmen in Colombo was their ability to keep the game moving along without risk or reservation. Moving forward and ahead, using their feet to scuttle length, and turning the forward defensive into singles. KL Rahul’s century in the first innings, in which he took on the Sri Lankan spinners, was one example, that too from a batsman who had scores of 7 and 5 in the first match. With reference to the bowlers, it was two things: drying up runs by holding their “shape” when it came to lines, and tackling a counterattacks by switching tactics quickly if Plan A wasn’t working. At one point on day two at the P Sara, there were no boundaries to be had off the Indian bowling across 113 balls – more than 18 overs.Also key to their strategy of being able to play five bowlers (or in this case, four and a half, as Ravi Shastri put it) alongside only six specialist batsmen, was the lower order contributing with the bat. At the P Sara, led by legspinner Amit Mishra, this was done. In the first innings, the final four Indian wickets added 74; in the second innings, when pushing for quick runs to enlarge the target, the lower five aggregated 63.There was another element in play at the P Sara. Kohli said he wanted to use the collective intelligence of his team and have his team-mates do the same. And this is what was behind the constant chatter between Kohli and his team, whether it was M Vijay stepping in with suggestions to the bowler or Rohit Sharma offering Kohli his opinions. “I want guys to be more expressive and I want guys to share their ideas with me. I want them to speak their mind because they are intelligent cricketers.” The single cause was, he said, winning: “By speaking their mind, some ideas strike me. I might not be able to think about them because there is so much going on. We want to make the guys feel more responsible and more involved in the game throughout. They are thinking about the game every over, which is a good thing for the team.”One of the most memorable parts of P Sara Test, though, was not about how quickly the Indians were able to claim the last eight Sri Lankan wickets – in the course of a session and a bit. It was about what they did afterwards. When the final wicket fell, the team’s celebrations were joyful but not overblown. A set of hugs and handshakes among each other, stumps collected as souvenirs, and the rapid realisation that their victory would mean a very painful defeat for the home side in Kumar Sangakkara’s final Test.Once they had acknowledged each other, as if the switch had been flipped, Kohli and his men retreated into the shadows. The Sri Lankans gave Sangakkara the farewell they wanted to and the Indians gave the occasion the respect it deserved. They stood to one side during his farewell function, Kohli presented Sangakkara with his shirt signed by the team. They returned to their dressing room and let him soak in his last few hours as a Sri Lankan player. No loud noise or wild celebrations there. Some of the players left for their hotel, others stayed back and played a few hours of badminton.The series-levelling victory will continue to give strength to the structure that Kohli wants his team to take, in terms of team composition and the choice of personnel. He has virtually announced that Cheteshwar Pujara will be drafted in as an opener for the third Test, and that the batting order will be shuffled. Kohli’s captaincy is minus any euphemisms about revival or rebuilding. He understands cricket in its simplest language. Runs and wickets, winning over losing.
