India began the final day needing four wickets, but with the SSC pitch not deteriorating as much, they took only three, none of them lbw or bowled
With only four lbws and two bowled dismissals to the spinners in the entire Test, India felt handicapped as they raced against time and weather to try to register a 2-0 clean sweep in Sri Lanka. They had to eventually live with a 1-0 series win even after they risked enforcing a follow-on, a decision India’s captain Shubman Gill doesn’t regret because when they did make the call, they had no idea they would get uninterrupted play on the final day of a series that has been consistently affected by rain.
India ended up bowling 243.4 overs in a row in a desperate push for a result that could keep them well in contention for making the World Test Championship final. However, the SSC pitch didn’t deteriorate as much as expected.
The spinners didn’t get to work with uneven bounce, and when the ball turned and bounced, it did too much to threaten the stumps. If batters applied themselves and didn’t look to score runs, they could keep playing the straight line and let the ones that turn miss their edge. India began the final day only 16 behind and needing four wickets to get cracking with the chase, but when the teams shook hands with only 17 overs unbowled, India had added only three wickets to their tally, none of them lbw or bowled.
“They played quite well,” Gill said. “Generally on days four and five, it doesn’t happen that lbw and bowled are completely out of the game. The balls that turned, they turned slowly and bounced quite high. So if batters are playing defensively, there is only mode of dismissal left: catches around the wicket.
“In such a situation, we attacked a lot, but we were also under a little bit of pressure. Then we had to pull them back a little. But I think the pitch just kept getting slower. It is not as though the ball didn’t turn, but the wickets were not in play at all. As a batter when you know these two mode of dismissals are not in play, batting gets a little easier especially when you are not looking to score runs.
“We tried our best. They also played really well. It is not as though the pitch was totally flat. So they deserve the credit for playing really well. On day four we created chances and momentum; if we could have got one or more wickets then maybe the result would have been different.”
This is the second time that Gill has enforced a follow-on in his short captaincy career. The first one was against West Indies in Delhi when they were under no threat from the weather. There they ended up bowling 119 overs in the second innings, and had to come back on the final day to chase down 121 runs. When asked if the “backfiring” of both the follow-on calls will make him circumspect the next time he has the opportunity, Gill said this call hasn’t backfired. He didn’t say anything about Delhi.
“I wouldn’t say it has backfired here,” Gill said. “We lost about 70 overs on the first four days so we had to keep that in mind. We didn’t know how much cricket there would be on days four and five. And we wanted to take that chance. The question was, should we wait for one-and-a-half sessions on day four and set them about 400 or should we make them follow on and chase down 100 or so if needed? We felt more comfortable in chasing down because then you can do it according to the time left.
“If we hadn’t enforced the follow-on and if it had rained, you would have asked again why we didn’t enforce the follow-on when you know how much rain has been around. All this is hindsight. You have to take the best decision possible at that time in that situation. I don’t think it backfired. They played really well. Some things didn’t go our way.”
“We have got a pretty good chance to qualify for the WTC. If you play the New Zealand series well, and then hopefully, by the time Australia series comes and we just have to win the series, if you’re in a situation where we just have to win the series, I think we’ll be in a good position to qualify for the final.”
In the days before the WTC, the follow-on wouldn’t even have been on the table. A side leading 1-0 would have been content to not play for the weather and sit on the lead, but in the WTC every match matters and India are anyway stuck in the middle of the table. This win leaves them disappointed, especially after they had scored over 500 and had Sri Lanka 8 for 2 at stumps on day two, but Gill said they were still hopeful of making the final. India’s two remaining series are against New Zealand in New Zealand and against Australia at home.
“I still think we have got a pretty good chance to qualify for the WTC,” Gill said. “If you play the New Zealand series well, and then hopefully, by the time Australia series comes and we just have to win the series, if you’re in a situation where we just have to win the series, I think we’ll be in a good position to qualify for the final.”
Sidharth Monga is a senior writer at Cricinfo
