Sri Lanka 85 for 2 - rain

Elmo RODRIGOPULLE

In a rain shortened first day of the First of Three Tests, Sri Lanka were 85 for 2 against India in 22 overs when bad light stopped play at the SSC ground, yesterday.

With the wicket being covered for long, it was apparent that there would be moisture on it, and it would help the pacemen in the early overs. Zaheer Khan and Ishant Sharma were able to obtain bounce and the movement that the new ball provides and the batsmen were not all that comfortable.

After putting on seven runs, Sharma forced Vandort to hang his bat out to a delivery that rose and moved off a good length and the resulting touch was well grabbed by wicket keeper Dinesh Karthik. Vandort made three.

Kumar Sangakkara joined Warnapura and with some correct batting put on 50 runs for the second wicket before Zaheer Khan moved a ball away and Sangakkara only managed in nicking it to Rahul Dravid at second slip.Sangakkara made 12.

The wicket held no errors and Warnapura reached his third fifty in Test cricket with 6 fours.It was a nicely compiled 50.When played was called off for bad light in 22 overs had been bowled and the unbeaten batsmen were Jayawardena was 16 and Warnapura 50

With the clouds that were hovering rolling by, the umpires who had a closer look decided to bring the teams out at 3.30 p.m. and 42 overs to be bowled, the announcement was welcome relief after 195 minutes was lost for rain.

Skipper Mahela Jayawardena who has the knack of losing more tosses than winning, beat Anil Kumble the Indian captain to the toss and had no hesitation in batting first.

In the Lankan team announced Tillekeratne Dilshan edged out Chamara Silva who had a good outing against the Indians in the practice game with twin fifties and also saw the inclusion of medium pacer Nuwan Kulasekera to Thilana Thusara.

India had Dinesh Karthik behind the stumps in place of Mahendra Singh Dhoni who pulled out of the Test series giving as an excuse fatigue.

Heavy overnight rain and early in the morning left some parts of the outfield soft and umpires Billy Doctrove and Mark Benson took a walk around the ground and decided to have the first inspection at 1 p.m.

Several times the ground staff removed the covers hoping for play to start. But with the clouds hovering, it was a removing, replacing situation of the covers, while it was a frustrating wait in the press box and for the millions who were glued to Ten Sports waiting for the umpires to make an announcement as to when the frustrating wait would be over and the umpires would call play.

With the outfield still not conducive for play the umpires announced another inspection at 2.30 p.m. Although the ground was kept covered water seemed to have seeped through in certain sections of the playing area and sadly although the sun came out at times, it was not strong enough to dry the affected areas quickly.

It would have been more than frustrating for Sri Lanka ‘s mystery spinner Ajantha Mendis who was eagerly waiting to make his Test debut. Having shown his capabilities in the-one day fun game, those who did not have the fortune of watching his magic with the ball. would have been keen to see how he goes in the longer version of the game, which game is what cricket is all about.

SRI LANKA 1ST INNINGS

Michael Vandort c Karthik b Sharma	3
Malinda Warnapura not out		50
Kumar Sangakkara c Dravid b Khan	12
Mahela Jayawardene not out		16
EXTRAS: (1lb, 3nb)			4
TOTAL: (for two wickets)		85

FALL OF WICKETS: 1-7, 2-57.
Still to bat: Thilan Samaraweera, Tillekeratne Dilshan, 
Prasanna Jayawardene, Chaminda Vaas, Muttiah Muralitharan, 
Nuwan Kulasekara, Ajantha Mendis.
BOWLING: Zaheer Khan 9-0-42-1 (3nb), Ishant Sharma 7-2-21-1, 
Sourav Ganguly 5-1-14-0, Harbhajan Singh 1-0-7-0.