Kandy Test, Day 1, Close
Wednesday, August 22, 2001

You have to acknowledge the effort by the Indians in the field today, especially when you consider the dismal performance in Galle a week ago. Having said that, it was disappointing to see the way things drifted after the tea break. You got the impression that Venkatesh Prasad and Harvinder Singh just weren't trying hard enough to take wickets - both men were strangely reluctant to use deliveries that they normally bowl really well.

Prasad has an exceptional slower ball but he rarely used it. In Harvinder's case, it was the yorker that he didn't try often enough. Considering that India needed wickets desperately at that stage, these were strange tactics. Zaheer Khan and Ganguly himself were easily the pick of the bowlers. The support at times left much to be desired. Harbhajan Singh had only seven overs as Ganguly seemed convinced that the pitch was tailor-made for the seamers, and from the little we saw of Harbhajan, you would have to say the captain was right.

Mahela Jayawardene showed again today why he is such a class act. Sometimes I get the feeling that the biggest battle for him is to keep his concentration and not gift his wicket away. Certainly at no stage was he intimidated or even challenged by the bowling.

Is the Sri Lankan total going to be good enough? It depends on how well their fast bowlers adapt to this surface. If they find more in the track than their Indian counterparts, a total in the region of 300 could be enough.

Sanjay Manjrekar, a regular in the Indian side of the 1990s, was talking to Dileep Premachandran. He will be commenting Session by Session for the remainder of the series.

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