The Great Game Called Cricket...

It is becoming all too repetitive now. India's opening combination changed but the assault that Virender Sehwag and M Vijay launched on the Sri Lankan bowlers bordered on the sadistic and the speed with which the runs came put India near a position where they could think of not having to bat again. Gautam Gambhir wasn't missed at all, the runs flowed like the nearby sea at high tide and the field seemed to have more holes than Swiss cheese. Twenty-six fours and six sixes were hit off only 39.1 overs in the 221-run opening stand, which a special carrom ball from Rangana Herath to break.

Nothing, though, told the story like Muttiah Muralitharan's plight. He was the last of the specialist bowlers tried, in the last over before lunch. By that time Sehwag had already reached his fifty and India had scored 85 in 17 overs. He bowled the first ball with a long-on in place and never looked like creating any opportunity in 10 succeeding overs and his success, or lack of it, summed up Sri Lanka's fortunes.

When Murali started his ninth over, Sehwag had reached 110 off 107 deliveries, Vijay 83 off 111, and India 198 in 36 overs. Murali bowled a doosra, Sehwag took his front foot out of the line, and lofted it over extra cover. The next ball Murali shortened the length, Sehwag read the doosra again, went back into the crease and presented the deadest of defences. Murali dropped his wrists in exasperation and went back to brood over figures of 9-0-56-0, which would only become worse. He has now bowled 48 overs without a maiden.

If Sehwag was his natural innovative, aggressive self, Vijay, playing his second Test - both because of an absent Gautam Gambhir - came close to matching him stroke for stroke at times. He didn't try the outlandish, rather went to playing second-fiddle - at a strike-rate of 72. His flick off the pad was the standout shot, right from the first over when he deposited an inswinger from Chanaka Welegedara to square-leg boundary. The cover-drives, rather just pushes, were elegant, and the lofted six to get to fifty just seemed a response to Sehwag's straight six a couple of overs ago.

The flick shot, which got him a majority of his runs, was the only real mistake either of the openers made during that stand. But the aerial shot was dropped by Ranganna Herath at mid-on. Vijay was 69 then, and India 160.

Herath could have done without that drop; his day had been bad enough already. Brought on ahead of Murali, he was hit for a six in his first over by Sehwag, then for a four in his second by Vijay, and then for a six later in his first spell. Sehwag took 45 off the 29 balls he faced from Herath, hitting him for four sixes and, when he went over the wicket, reverse-sweeping him for four right away. Sehwag went on to correct the anomaly from the previous Test when he got out for a score between 100 and 150 - a rare occasion - by marching along to 150 despite a back problem towards the end of the middle session. His last 50 runs took just 30 balls and edges were a non-entity.

Herath's redemption - if it can be termed so - came when he denied Vijay a maiden century with a full carrom ball that caught the batsman dead in front. Vijay was not the only batsman denied a maiden century. Angelo Mathews, resuming on an overnight 86, raced from 86 to 98 in no time but, having endured anxious moments on that score, he ran himself out when coming back for the second run that would have got him a maiden hundred.