That was as fine a 30 I have ever seen. Tendulkar's 30 runs may not be too many and he may have fell to an old indiscretion outside the offstump. But it summed up his class, potential and the boundless skill he stands for.
Batting was made quintessentially easy against the same bowlers who made India dance to their tunes. No, the Lankans were not bowling badly. It was just that Tendulkar had the attack by its scruff. A skip down the track and casual loft above long on was the stand out stroke. Especially because Mendis had seen the move and had bowled the off spinner trying to cramp the batsman for room, but Tendulkar adjusted beautifully and did not try to overhit the ball. A mature stroke that.
Earlier Gambhir was patience and steadiness personified as he seemed to be edging ever closer to a Test century. But that was not to be. Mendis was again Gambhir's villain. A brute of a delivery, drifting down the legside, hitting the pitch, turning topsy turvy and bisecting Gambhir's outstretched leg and hidden bat and gloves to disturb the bails. That was a true magic delivery and Gambhir can consider himself most unlucky. The stand out stroke for Gambhir was a sweep shot from not quite a sweep-able ball. Murali had actually fooled Gambhir in the flight and had him committed to the sweep quite early. The ball was very full on middle stump. A lesser batsman would have continued with the sweep shot normally and would not have made contact to be declared dead LBW. But Gambhir, extremely intelligently, cut down the arc on the sweep shot by not freezing his arms and keeping his elbows loose. That meant that he could get his bat to hit closer to his pads and not extend forward. Special shot that.
Next we come to Dravid. A lot of nonsense has been written about him. A lot of people have written him off. And to be frank, he has not exactly inspired confidence in the crease against the newcomer Mendis. But people always somehow forget what they say about form and class. And here class shone through in spades.
Dravid did indeed start off Mendis awkwardly. Very awkwardly. He again did not seem to have the measure of that leg cutter/carrom ball that Mendis bowls with so much control. To be honest, one of those leg cutters was a devilish delivery which pitched on middle and carried on almost to the 6th stump causing trouble to even the keeper. Dravid could not have touched it even if he had made the most determined attempt to. In fact that ball resembled an outswinger more than a simple leg spinner. And then there was another ball in the same over which was bowled with the same action but did not spin at all.
Somehow Dravid weathered that initial onslaught and also made sure that the bad balls were promptly punished. Backfoot cuts and off drives were on display and when Dravid pulls out that ever so graceful backfoot cover drive of his you know things are well with the world. Gradually he grew so much in confidence that he charged down the pitch to Mendis and deposited him to the long on boundary. And just when he seemed to be going very well in partnership with Tendulkar, the latter fell to an indiscretion outside off stump. Vaas had bowled the fastish off cutter and Tendulkar fell for the obvious ploy. Jayawardene had a slip and a gully waiting for exactly that. One cant but appreciate Jayawardene's captaincy nous and his ability to gauge opposition batsmen perfectly. But it was a silly end to Tendulkar's knock that promised much more.
However, as has been the case so often in this series, technology butted in to dislodge Dravid. Chalk one more down for technology. That guy is not doing too badly with the wickets tally in this series, actually. What a pity that many of those wickets did not deserve to be given out at all.
Murali bowls around the wicket to Dravid and the batsman stretches forward to smother the spin and sweep the ball to midwicket. The ball pitched just outside the offstump (which is not what Hawkeye thought) and was hitting the batsman in line. But the ball still had a couple more metres to travel and in all probability would have passed above the stumps - at least to most umpires' eyes. In fact not out was the call from the main umpire. And after a humongous delay, Gamini Silva declared the batsman out.
Another horrible decision. How Gamini Silva gave Samaraweera not out on that run out call is beyond me. Similarly how Sehwag was given out LBW in the first innings and Dravid this time are all puzzles for us to decipher.
Few words to Dave Richardson of the ICC - it is not apparently clear who is making the decision - the main umpire, the 3rd umpire or Hawkeye itself!!!
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I know I was among the group that thought that the reviews would work well for the game. At the same time I remember many also thought that 24 appeals was a whole lot more than what should be right.
Now, I am convinced more than ever that this referral nonsense should be ditched. Yes, it does throw light on the occassional tough chance - especially bat and pad. But it is very limited and what is more, it is inaccurate in terms of leg before referrals.
Today we saw three mistakes. Earlier on in the morning, there was an appeal against Sehwag. The ball pitched on middle was hitting leg - in real time and in slow motion replays. According to Hawkeye the ball pitched on leg and was hitting off and middle. Nonsense.
Next, there was this leg before appeal against Jaywardene to a perfect off break from Harbhajan. It was pitching on off and middle and was crashing into leg - even according to Hawkeye. But well, the umpires would not give that out - most mysteriously.
Next, Samaraweera was runout off a direct hit by Zaheer Khan from midon. His bat was on the line when the bails were disturbed. But well, the 3rd umpire Gamini Silva just did not find it in him to call for the red light. Now, I do not know whether that was a partisan act or not. All I can think of was that it was an inaccurate decision. And Kumble and Harbhajan were even contemplating asking for a review of that decision - which of course was not possible
So much for technology. I must hasten to emphasize that it is not technology as such which is the culprit here but how we chose to use it and who ends up using it. Technology ultimately only provides with the information required to make the decision. Sometimes, there is precise information and sometimes there is not. Ultimately though technology cannot be allowed to take decisions on its own. It is a factor, but it is by no means the only factor - especially considering the fact that it is not 100% accurate.
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