Sanath and Sachin should draw the crowds

By A.C. de Silva

Two of the greatest batsmen in contemporary cricket - Sachin Tendulkar, the former Indian captain and Sanath Jayasuriya also a former captain, should surely be the draw when the Champions Trophy cricket tourney proper starts today in Jaipur, India with the game between India and England.

Sri Lanka were to play the last qualifying game against West Indies, yesterday, but both teams have already qualified to play in the final round and will seen in action against the other teams. Australia will also have top stars, while England, Pakistan, South Africa too have stars to go for victory.

So, the big stars will be on show and one hopes they will come off with flying colours to delight the cricket fans.

For Sri Lanka’s former captain Sanath Jayasuriya, the big occasion has more often than not done him good. He was in the record-breaking Sri Lanka team that knocked-up a world record score of 952 for 6 wickets in the drawn Test against India at the Premadasa Stadium in August 1997.

Though the matches in the Champions Trophy will be confined to 50-over affairs, the will to do well on the big occasion has stood him in good stead and he will be itching to get on the field and wave his bat to good effect.

It was Jayasuriya and Roshan Mahanama who hit Sri Lanka to achieve record scores at the Premadasa Stadium with Jayasuriya making 340 and Mahanama 225 and the pair put on 576 runs. Jayasuriya and Mahanama who started their partnership on the third morning of the Test, batted through two successive days, providing only the second instance in Test cricket forcing similar occasion.

Earlier, the West Indian pair of Gary Sobers and Frank Worrell were the only pair before to bat through two consecutive days in their Test against England at Bridgetown in 1959-60.

Jayasuriya and Mahanama re-wrote record books on the way with the surpassing the highest stand for any wicket in Test cricket then - 467 for third wicket by New Zealand pair of Andrew Jones and Martin Crowe against Sri Lanka in Wellington in the 1990-91 series.

Jayasuriya completed his triple century in 723 minutes and 518 balls.

Sachin Tendulkar was captaining India in that Test and it appeared that the Indian skipper had somewhat given up hope early, after his team had also made a big score of 537 for 8 wickets declared. To the Indian score, there were three centurions - skipper Tendulkar 143, M. Azharuddin 126 and N Sidhu 111, while present skipper Rahul Dravid made 69.

The bowlers somewhat took a beating against the terrific batting, but before he came on to bat, Jayasuriya was seen with the ball and he had the best bowling figures of 3 for 45 off 18 overs with 3 maidens. Muralitharan took 2 for 174 off 65 overs with 9 maidens and Pushpakumara had 2 for 97 off 19.3 overs with 2 maidens.

So, it was a big score to bat against - that’s 537 by India, but the Lankans were equal to the task of making runs. The majestic partnership of 576 runs between Sanath Jayasuriya and Roshan Mahanama for the second wicket led the way for the other batsmen to show their prowess and Aravinda de Silva took the cue with a knock of 126, then there was skipper Arjuna Ranatunga who made 86 before being run out, while present skipper Mahela Jayawardena made 66. The wicket was too good for a result to be got and Sri Lanka had to be satisfied with a draw even though they hit up that majestic score of 952 for 6 wickets.
 

INDIA - 1ST INNINGS
N. Mongia c Jayawardena b Pushpakumara			  7
N. Sidhu c Kaluwitharana b Vaas 			111
R. Dravid c and b Jayasuriya 				 69
Sachin Tendulkar c Jayawardena    b Muralitharan 	143
Mohammad Azhuruddin c and    b Muralitharan 		126
S. Ganguly c Mahanama b Jayasuriya 			  0	
A. Kumble not out 					 27
C. Chauhan c Vaas b Jayasuriya 				 23
A. Kuruvilla c Atapattu b Pushpakumara 			  9
EXTRAS (B-10, NB-12)					 22
TOTAL: (8 wkts dec. off 167.3 overs, 675 mts) 		537
FALL OF WICKETS: 1-36, 2-183, 3-230, 4-451, 5-451, 6-469, 7-516, 8-537.
Did not bat: V. Prasad, N. Kulkarni.
BOWLING: C. Vaas 23-4-80-1, R. Pushpakumara 19.3-2-97-2, 
Jayawardena 2-0-6-0, M. Muralitharan 65-9-174-2, 
Silva 39-3-122-0 (NB - 7), Sanath Jayasuriya 18-3-45-3 (NB 5), Atapattu 1-0-3-0.

SRI LANKA - 1ST INNINGS
S. Jayasuriya c Ganguly b Chauhan 		340
M. Atapattu c Mongia b Kulkarni 		 26
R. S. Mahanama lbw b Kumble			225
P. A. de Silva c Prasad b Ganguly 		126
A. Ranatunga run out				 86
D. P. M. Jayawardena c Kulkarni   b Ganguly 	 66
R. S. Kaluwitharana not out			 14
C. Vaas not out					 11
EXTRAS: (B-27, LB-10, W-7, NB-14)		 58
TOTAL (for 6 wkts at stumps off  271 overs)	952
FALL OF WICKETS: 1-39, 2-615, 3-615, 4-790, 5-921, 6-924
BOWLING: Prasad 24-1-88-0 (W4), Kuruville 14-2-74-0 (NB4), 
Chauhan 78-8-276-1 (W3, NB5), A. Kumble 72-7-223-1 (NB5), 
Kulkarni 70-10-195-1, Ganguly 9-0-53-2, Tendulkar 2-1-2-0, Dravid 2-0-4-0.