Lankans spun out - India win by an innings and 106 runs

By A. C. De Silva

CRICKET:India prepared a turner and it did work wonders for the home team in Nagpur in the Test against Sri Lanka. Maninder Singh, often condemned for his lack of strike power in early Tests, came up with his finest Test performance so did Yadav in the first innings. The duo was enough to beat Sri Lanka by a mile. The two spinners somewhat ran through the Sri Lankan batting.

The match was played from December 27, 28, 30 and 31 India won by an innings and 106 runs.

The Indian spinners combined well together and had Sri Lanka on the defensive. Had Sri Lanka's approach been a little more positive and more trust had been placed in their bowlers rather than in somewhat negative tactics, the Lankans would well have put up a much stiffer fight than they did in going under by an innings and more on the fourth day of the match in which nearly a whole day's play had been lost.

Sri Lanka made 204 in the first innings and folded up for 141 in their second turn, following on. India made 451 for six wickets declared in their first turn.

Kapil lost toss but worked well

Though Indian skipper Kapil Dev lost the toss, it also came as his fortune in the match as the only Lankan batsman to offer some resistance was skipper Arjuna Ranatunga. He was one player capable of putting his head down and playing with cool competence against the Indian spinners. The failure of the other Sri Lankan batsmen lay in their technique and the Lankans failed.

Arjuna Ranatunga scored 59 while Aravinda de Silva made 33 and lower down Ravi Ratnayake was unbeaten with 32 and Sri Lanka were all out for 204 in their first turn.

Yadav had the fine figures of 5 for 76 in 19.1 overs while Maninder had 3 for 56.

India ran up the majestic score of 451 for 6 wickets at which stage they closed their innings. Mohinder Amarnath made 131 and Dilip Vengsarkar 153 and their third wicket partnership realised 173 runs which laid the foundation for big things to follow.

Besides these two stalwarts, their was Sunil Gavaskar (74) and earlier Raman Lamba made 53 and India ran up the majestic looking total of 451 for 6 wickets and then closed their innings.

Lankan bowlers failed

The Sri Lankan bowlers failed to strike it rich and there was only spinner Asoka de Silva was the only bowler who was able to somewhat trouble the Indian batsmen.

Besides the two century makers, there was Sunil Gavaskar had mastered the art of batting and he played well to make 74 and India went on to get to that sizeable score. It was a big score that the Indians got and the Sri Lankans were going to find things difficult to cope with.

So, India held on to a worthwhile first innings lead of 247 runs and this score looked quite a sizeable one as the Lankans didn't seem to get the hang of the Indian bowling in the first innings.

Came the second innings and the Lankans with the exception of opener Ravi Ratnayake who made a splendid effort to calm the Indian bowlers down and he had some assistance from Duleep Mendis who made 38 and besides this pair the others just could not cope with the Indian bowling and Sri Lanka were out for 141 runs in their second turn.

Maninder who took 3 for 56 in the first innings, had the handsome reward of 7 for 51 in the second innings and it piloted Indians to an easy win.

		SCOREBOARD
		
SRI LANKA - 1ST INNINGS
S. Wettimuny c Amarnath b Chetan Sharma	  		06
Ravi Ratnayake c Shastri b Kapil Dev	 		17
Asanka Gurusinha c Amarnath b Yadev 	 		29
Roy Dias b Mininder	  				06
Aravinda de Silva lbw b Yadev	 			33
Arjuna Ranatunga c Amarnath b Yadav	 		59
Duleep Mendis c Srikanth b Maninder	  		01
R. Jurangpathy b Maninder	  			00
Guy de Alwis c Vengsarkar b Yadav	  		01
Rumesh Ratnayake not out 	 			32
Asoka de Silva c Shastri b Yadav	 		16
Extras: b-2, lb-1, nb-1)	  			04
TOTAL: 						       204

Fall of Wickets: 1-7, 2-38, 3-52, 4-66, 5-105, 6-110, 7-110
		 8-129, 9-160
Bowling: Kapil Dev 10-3-29-1
	 Chetan Sharma 5-0-26-1
	 Maninder 20-6-56-3
	 Yadav 19.1-4-76-5
	 Ravi Shastri 5-2-13-0

INDIA - 1ST INNINGS
K. Srikanth c De Alwis b Rumesh Ratnayake 	  	04
Raman Lamba c Jurangpathy b Asoka de Silva	 	53
Mohinder Amarnath c Sub (Mahanama) b Jurangpathy       131
D.B.Vengsarkar c Jurangpathy b Rumesh Ratnayake	       153
S.M. Gavaskar c Asoka de Silva b Gurusinha	 	74
Kapil Dev not out 	 				11
R.J. Shastri c Sub (Mahanama) b Gurusinha	 	12
Extras:  (lb-4, w-1, nb-8)	 			13
TOTAL: (for 6 wkts dec.)			       451

Fall of Wickets: 1-5, 2-131, 3-304, 4-420, 5-428, 6-451
Bowling: Rumesh Ratnayake 35-3-139-2
	 Ravi Ratnayake 28-4-89-0
	 Arjuna Ranatunga 6-1-34-0
	 Asoka de Silva 38-5-91-1
	 Roshan Jurangpathy 21-3-69-1
	 Asanka Gurusinha 1.5-0-16-2

SRI LANKA - 2ND INNINGS
S. Wettimuny c Srikanth b Kapil Dev	  		06
Ravi Ratnayake c Gavaskar b Maninder	 		54
Asanka Gurusinha c and b Yadav	 			15
Roy Dias b Maninder	  				02
Aravinda de Silva c Sub (Arunlal) b Maninder	  	06
Arjuna Ranatunga b Maninder	  			05
Duleep Mandid b Maninder	 			38
R. Jurangpathy b Yadav	  				00
Guy de Alwis c More b Maninder	  			00
Rumesh Ratnayake not out	  			04
Asoka de Silva b Maninder 	  			00
Extras: (b-4, lb-5, nb-2)	 			11
TOTAL: 						       141

Fall of Wickets: 1-15, 2-42, 3-47, 4-57, 5-122, 6-132, 7-137
		 8-137, 9-141
Bowling: Kapil Dev 6-1-16-1
	 Chetan Sharma 5-0-14-0
	 Maninder 17.4-4-51-7
	 Yadav 14-6-21-2
	 Shastri 6-0-28-0