Finally, There's Play

After three frustrating rain-ruined days, the firstTest between India and Sri Lanka finally got underway on the fourth afternoonwhich saw the hosts make a cautious start in difficult batting conditions.

With the match left with only academic interest, theSri Lankans provided an early spark to the proceedings by sending back theIndian openers to the pavilion by the ninth over after Indian skipper RahulDravid had won the toss and elected to bat.

Reduced to 45 for two, Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar thendug in and played out the day without any more setbacks to help India finish theday on 90 for two in 32.3 overs.

Dravid was batting on 30 while Tendulkar wasagonisingly slow in collecting 11 runs off 69 deliveries when umpires offeredbad light and the players promptly accepted it.

The Indian captain took 95 balls to make his runs withthe help of three fours.

With the first three days being completely washed outwithout a ball being bowled, there was respite all around when the sun came outand umpires decided to go for the toss at 2:30 pm.

But India were in for some nasty time on a wicketrendered spongy by continuous rains over the past few days.

The ball kept treacherously low and Gautam Gambhir wasthe first casualty, the left-handed opener being clean bowled spectacularly byChamina Vaas for a duck.

His opening partner Virender Sehwag, however,entertained the motley crowd which thronged the Chidambaram Stadium to someaction after the disappointment of the first three days.

The cavalier Delhi batsman unleashed a barrage of strokes on either side of thewicket, showing little concern for either the bowler or the ball. Sehwag hitseven fours, each one a searing sizzler, but his belligerence, as is becoming ahabit, proved short-lived.

The right-hander was lured into the fielding trap laidby Marvan Atapattu, the rival skipper himself taking a good overhead catch atshort-cover off Vaas who impressed immensely with the new ball. Sehwag made 36off 28 balls.

But Dravid and Tendulkar, who is just one century shortof a world record tally of 35 tons, ensured they did not give anything away tothe islanders, seeking their first ever Test win on Indian soil.

The Lankans, coming in to the three-Test series on theback of a humiliating 1-6 drubbing in the recent one-day series, also tried tomake most of the situation and bowled with purpose.

Earlier, with bright sunshine since morning, it wasdecided to have 150 minutes of play with a minimum of 38 overs.

Thanks to the massive and untiring efforts by theground staff, the pitch and the outfield were made playable, though the boundarywas made shorter by about ten yards to 60 to avoid the worst affected areatowards the edge of the ground.

Gambhir faced the first over from Vaas without muchproblem, middling the ball nicely while Sehwag wasted no time and got into hisusual aggressive mood from the very first ball he faced, despatching DilharaFernando to the point fence and following it up with a cover boundary. In fact,the over cost Fernando 13 runs.

However, in the third over of the day, Gambhir was beaten by an incoming Vaasdelivery that kissed his pads before knocking off the bails. But the fall of theearly wicket did not affect Sehwag who was particularly harsh on Fernando, evenas Dravid settled down for his characteristic anchor role.

Sehwag raced to his 25 in no time scoring threeconsecutive fours, including two in the third man region, off Fernando.

The onslaught by Sehwag forced Attapattu to introducehis trump card Muttiah Muralitharan in place of Fernando whose first spell read3-0-29-0.

However, the off-spinner went wicketless in his tenovers on the trot.

But it was Vaas again who provided the breakthrough inthe ninth over by sending back the aggressive Sehwag. Trying to clear the coverregion, Sehwag mistimed his shot and ended up giving an easy catch to Attapattuat short cover, a field placing which the Sri Lankan captain persisted with formost part of the day.

With the uneven bounce due to moisture in the pitchbecoming more pronounced, Tendulkar remained a good ally to Dravid. Though theyinitially faced a few problems as they played and missed on some occasions,India's 50 was up in the 12th over.

Tendulkar looked composed but could open his accountonly after facing 12 balls with a brace to the leg side.

PTI