Half an hour into the second session, the man with the most runs in international cricket — 30,065 as you’re reading this — was at the crease; all straight lines, head still, bat steady. Jogging in to bowl at him, eyebrows arched high over his unblinking eyes, arms weaving invisible patterns in the air, was the man with the most number of wickets in international cricket — 1,309 in all forms of the game.

The words you’d normally associate with a Sachin Tendulkar versus Muttiah Muralitharan battle on Day Five of a Test match in the sub-continent would range from exciting (if Sachin was winning) to intriguing (if Murali was on top). Friday afternoon’s contest seemed strangely non-engaging, irrelevant even.

The Lankans had, by then, thrown everything they had at India (including one mildly amusing over of off-spinning full-tosses by opener Tharanga Paranavithana right after lunch). The ray of hope they had when play began had shrunk to a glimmer after the first session, and was fast melting into a barely visible dot.

Only two wickets fell all day — Amit Mishra to a brilliant catch and Gautam Gambhir to a silly shot. At 4.20 pm, the captains agreed that playing any further cricket on this Motera pitch was futile. A timeless Test would’ve struggled to find an ending here.

Hard work done

IF Sri Lanka needed to get anything out of this match, they needed to make the first hour on Friday count. Their fast bowlers had managed to make the old ball move around a bit on Thursday evening, and if only they could get Gambhir early...

... contd.