Virender Sehwag nearly got a century in the first session of the Test.
Lunch India 151 for 0 (Sehwag 91*, Gambhir 50*) v Sri Lanka
Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir put behind them not only the debacle at the SSC, but also thoughts of how they played and missed early here, and how the ball misbehaved when it hit the cracks populating one end of the pitch. As a result India got off to a flying start, taking the first steps towards exorcising the ghosts of the first Test. Sehwag came close - for the second time in his career - to getting a hundred in the first session of a Test.
What made the run-rate of 5.21 in the first session incredible was that both batsmen were troubled amply by the bowling. Nuwan Kulasekara was the most testing and the most unfortunate of the bowlers, getting the ball to move both off the seam and off the cracks. In his first over he got a leading edge from Gambhir; in his second, Sehwag played at and missed one that held its line. In his third, he almost squeezed one through onto the pads, but an inside edge saved Sehwag. Kulasekara followed it with one that hit a crack and cleared even the keeper, and then with a perfect outswinger that Sehwag played at and missed.
Gambhir was the first one to counter the cracks: he stood outside the crease, and then walked down the pitch as the bowler ran in, almost like Matthew Hayden. The lbw was ruled out, and a game of tip-and-run got underway, with the batsmen taking singles almost intuitively.
Soon Sehwag shook off the early jitters and shifted gears. No bowler was spared: only a soggy outfield saved Ajantha Mendis from being hit for a four in his first over. Muttiah Muralitharan was hit for a four off the first ball he bowled. Mendis was hit for a six for the first time in Tests.
Kulasekara had employed a similar field for Sehwag as at the SSC - two fielders in the deep on the leg side. Here he bowled a head-high bouncer again, and Sehwag went for the pull again, but this time he got on top and hit it to cow corner. This was a batsman who reached a triple-century with a six, after he had tried and failed to get to a double the same way.
The 21st over best illustrated Sehwag's approach. Mendis started by beating Sehwag with a carrom ball, which he didn't read. Then a straight one that beat him again. And he was almost caught and bowled off the fourth ball. Two balls later, reading the regulation offbreak correctly, Sehwag opened his arms and bludgeoned it through the covers for a four. The plan was simple for both the batsmen: hit whatever you read, and rely on short-term memory loss if you are beaten. It worked in the first session.
When Sehwag cover-drove Kulasekara for a four in the 16th over, it became India's largest opening partnership in Galle. When he cut Murali in the 18th over, he reached his half-century off the 50th ball he faced. Gambhir got to his half-century in the last over before lunch.
The batsmen had their share of luck: Gambhir was dropped off Kulasekara, when he was on 13 by Kumar Sangakkara, who was distracted by Prasanna Jayawardene lunging in front of him. Vaas came back to hit Gambhir on the pads just before lunch, but umpire Rudi Koertzen didn't think it was out, and Sri Lanka didn't go for the review. In the penultimate over before lunch, Mahela Jayawardene couldn't latch on to a Sehwag edge off Murali.
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