Surprised how India folded - Jayawardene

	Mahela Jayawardene: "The way we managed to bowl them out in two sessions was a surprising factor. But the credit should go to Murali and Mendis because they bowled really well in tandem" © AFP

Sri Lanka won the first Test in a little over three days and Mahela Jayawardene said he was surprised by the way India folded up. Muttiah Muralitharan and Ajantha Mendis shared 19 wickets between them as India slumped to an innings-and-239-run defeat.

"When you see that [Indian] batting line-up you think these guys have a lot of experience, that they will buckle down and really give you a fight," Jayawardene said. "We were prepared for that. The way we managed to bowl them out in two sessions was a surprising factor. But the credit should go to Murali and Mendis because they bowled really well in tandem. We put a lot of pressure on their batsmen and kept asking questions all the time."

Sixteen wickets fell on day four as India collapsed to their third-heaviest defeat in Tests. At the start of the day, India were struggling to avoid the follow-on - at 159 for 6 in reply to Sri Lanka's 600 - and Jayawardene said his side was focussed on taking the four wickets early. "There was a little bit of resistance because [VVS] Laxman batted well. We had to be very patient. Once we enforced the follow-on we knew we had to be patient again because the wicket wasn't doing that much. We were a bit lucky with a couple of early wickets after that Murali bowled brilliantly and Mendis kept the pressure going and picked up a few wickets at the other end."

Jayawardene said that with Mendis. who picked up best figures - 8 for 132 - for a Sri Lankan debutant - maintaining pressure at one end, Murali was free to attack the Indians. "He [Murali] doesn't have to really control the runs as well as attack but now he can focus on just attacking and picking up wickets which we want. We kept the pressure on and blocked a few run-scoring opportunities. Credit should go to both these guys for it is not an easy batting line up to bowl at. They did a very good job."

Murali praised Mendis's efforts and said the younger bowler had more variation than he had when he started out. "[Chaminda] Vaas was a wonderful bowler," said Murali. "He did the same thing like what Mendis did today by keeping the runs down and taking wickets. We both have taken more than 1000 wickets in Test cricket and more than 900 wickets in ODIs. I think Mendis will be another bowler who will strengthen the bowling. He is not just another ordinary bowler."

Mendis said he hadn't been nervous before his Test debut. "I got from the senior players and having Murali bowling from the other end and giving me good advice," Mendis said. "I got a lot of support from my captain. He was not afraid to toss the ball to me. If the captain had so much of confidence in me how can I feel nervous? Of course I didn't expect to end up with such a haul of wickets in my first Test. There weren't any particular batsmen who struggled against my bowling everybody played well against me. I think I was rewarded because I bowled in the right places. Taking [Rahul] Dravid's wicket in the first innings gave me a lot of pleasure," he said.

Partners in guile

	Instead of placing his middle finger behind the ball, as he does for the googly, Mendis positions it at the lower edge of the seam on the right side for the doosra © AFP

Not since Michael Clarke's first match has a Test debut been so anticipated and turned out to be so spectacular. Like Clarke against India in Bangalore in 2004, Ajantha Mendis has burst onto the five-day scene in style, becoming the first Sri Lankan to take eight wickets on Test debut. Muttiah Muralitharan, who took 11 wickets at the SSC, pointed out two things after Sri Lanka handed India their third largest defeat; one, that Mendis is far more talented than he was when he debuted and two, that Mendis will take the pressure off him and perhaps extend Murali's Test career.

There is plenty of evidence supporting his first claim. Offspinners (Mendis falls under that category, believe it or not) don't usually bowl googlies. Yet there was Mendis, slipping it in silently between top spinners and various cutters. Mendis's googly is rather unconventional, when you analyse it through the slow-motion replays. He releases the ball from the back of his wrist with the seam up, and he flicks the middle finger to spin the ball.

Nothing summarised the impact Mendis has had on this Test more than the over in which he brought India's first innings to a sad close. The whole over was magnificent as Mendis set up VVS Laxman with two legcutters and then finished him off with a googly.

Laxman, who had batted supremely for a stand-alone half-century, pushed the first ball to cover but waved back the single. The second ball cut away and beat Laxman, who pushed the bat forward hoping of defend. He was beaten yet again off the third as he played down middle stump. The fourth was an orthodox offbreak and Laxman turned it to forward short leg. And the fifth was just absurd.

It was Mendis's googly, two-fingered and bowled with the wrist-spinner's action. The ball looped up outside off stump and dragged Laxman forward on the defensive. It then spun in sharply past bat and pad and crashed into the stumps. Laxman held his shot in bewilderment for a few seconds and then tucked his bat and walked off. Later the googly also accounted for Rahul Dravid, Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan Singh.

Watching highlights of Mendis run rings around India during the final of the Asia Cup recently was stunning, but to see him live, in cream, on a Test field, explains a few things. He is a rare breed, like Jack Iverson and John Gleeson, and should thrive in Test cricket. His 'flicker' ball - let's settle on that, because that's precisely what it is - could be to cricket what the knuckleball is to baseball: the erratic, unpredictable delivery that stymies big bats with its killer efficiency. It bamboozled Dravid yesterday, and that wicket set into motion a most stunning surrender to a lethal spin duo.

	Previously when teams played Murali in Sri Lanka they had the option of playing him out and making runs at the other end. That is not possible any more. In tandem, Murali and Mendis gave India's batsmen no room to breathe. It was like a pressure cooker, Murali bounding in, wide-eyed, and Mendis harrying in, arm flailing. India simply choked

Murali's second remark could also be true for Mendis compliments his senior partner well. With all the attention focused on Mendis's every move, Murali quietly chipped away from either wide of the stumps in his 23rd Test at the SSC. Never in Murali's career has he had a spin partner who bowls so well in tandem with him. Murali and Mendis are different because of their range of variation. Mendis is quick and wicket-to-wicket while Murali is slow through the air, relying on flight and turn to flummox the batsmen.

Sample the differences in the dismissals of Laxman and Gautam Gambhir in the second innings. This time it was the length that got Laxman. Two deliveries in to his post-lunch spell, Mendis skidded one in - as opposed to turning it loopily - and Laxman was struck flush on the back pad. It was a quick delivery. Murali later dismissed Gambhir with lovely flight, drifting it in, luring him out of his crease, only to be deftly stumped.

Murali reinvented spin bowling and created a new genre. Last year he started bowling more around the stumps and that new tactic has worked for him. Here he towered over India's batsmen, bounding in and taunting them with offbreaks and doosras that were near unplayable. Dinesh Karthik perished to a doosra; quick offbreaks took care of Sourav Ganguly and Kumble. His slowness and guile meshed easily with Mendis's line and assortment.

India had a tough time picking Mendis's doosra because they didn't have much time to decide what to play. This is something Gary Kirsten, India's coach, identified yesterday. Like for his googly, Mendis uses a flick of the middle finger for his doosra. But instead of placing his finger behind the ball, as he does for the googly, Mendis positions it at the lower edge of the seam on the right side. If he develops his offbreaks with the same action, he will be tougher to handle. Another feature of his bowling is his wicket-to-wicket method; if the ball misses the bat, chances are you're lbw or stumped. On television, Mendis's cluster of deliveries is stunning, making you wonder how he can be so accurate with that bag of tricks and varying hand and wrist movements.

	Never in Murali's career has he had a spin partner who bowls so well in tandem with him © AFP

Previously when teams played Murali in Sri Lanka they had the option of playing him out and making runs at the other end. That is not possible any more. In tandem, Murali and Mendis gave India's batsmen no room to breathe. It was like a pressure cooker, Murali bounding in, wide-eyed, and Mendis harrying in, arm flailing. India simply choked.

But the two spinners are undoubtedly aided by intelligent field placing. Mahela Jayawardene is in a different league as captain compared to Kumble, and there was something almost uncanny in his decisions. All through the first innings he had the placements spot on - there was one waiting for the hook from Virender Sehwag, while short cover, deep square leg watched for mistimed sweeps. Today he employed a forward short leg and leg slip when Murali bowled to Sachin Tendulkar and Tillakaratne Dilshan's excellent timing worked a charm.

World-class spinners have always had a hold on certain batsmen and teams - just ask the English how much they worry about getting dominated by blonde wrist spinners and unorthodox doosras, especially those pitched on leg stump. Ask India about Mendis after this series and see what they have to say.

Underdone India humiliated

	The deadly duo: Ajantha Mendis and Muttiah Muralitharan shared 19 wickets between them © AFP

When England were eviscerated in the Ashes series of 1974-75, it gave rise to the following refrain: "Ashes to ashes, dust to dust, if Lillee doesn't get you, Thommo must". After the events of the past two days at the Sinhalese Sports Club Ground, Sri Lanka's cricket followers could be forgiven for adapting that chant, with the names Murali and Mendis replacing those of the Australian pace legends.

This wasn't a defeat, it was annihilation, the utter humiliation of a batting side that came into this match boasting of 106 Test hundreds. It's not as though India haven't lost heavily in recent times, but seldom have they been so embarrassed by slow bowlers. Whether it was Nagpur in 2004, where Jason Gillespie took 9 for 80, or Karachi in 2006, when the now-disgraced Mohammad Asif seamed his way through the line-up, India's biggest reverses have tended to be against pace.

Here, Sri Lanka played with perhaps the slowest new-ball combination of the modern era. Both Chaminda Vaas and Nuwan Kulasekara usually clock between 120 and 125 kph, and it was no surprise that they bowled only 30 overs between them. They did little more than take the shine off the ball, the task entrusted to Abid Ali and Eknath Solkar back in the days when India used to boast of the finest spinners in the game.

Those days are long gone. Anil Kumble bowled himself into the ground against Pakistan and Australia, and the law of diminishing returns appears to have caught up with him. Since Perth, he has just five wickets in four Tests. As for Harbhajan Singh, he was the worst bowler on view in Australia, and apart from a seven-wicket haul on a grossly under-prepared pitch in Kanpur, he has done next to nothing in recent times to influence the result of a match. "We just weren't good enough," said Kumble at the end of it all, though he also pointed out the poor catching that allowed Sri Lanka to post such a formidable total.

In comparison, backed up by attacking fields from Mahela Jayawardene and superb catching, Murali and Mendis sowed seeds of doubt with every ball they bowled. They varied flight and pace beautifully, and attacked even when coming round the wicket. Apart from Sachin Tendulkar, who played Mendis with a degree of conviction, and VVS Laxman to a lesser extent, most of the batsmen were clueless against the so-called carrom ball. One version zips away from the batsman like a leg-cutter, while the slower, loopier one is the legspinner's googly.

	Often in the past, teams have managed to survive in Sri Lanka by playing out Murali and scoring freely at the other end. That get-out-of-jail card is now gone, with Mendis such an impressive foil for the master

Just as crucial as the variations was the impressive control he showed on debut. Mystery spinners of the past like John Gleeson weren't known for their accuracy, but Mendis's ability to make the batsman play every ball makes him a vastly different proposition. No batsman managed to come close to hitting him out of the attack, and with so much energy concentrated on how to demystify him, Murali had a field day at the other end. Often in the past, teams have managed to survive in Sri Lanka by playing out Murali and scoring freely at the other end. That get-out-of-jail card is now gone, with Mendis such an impressive foil for the master.

It's easy to be critical of the Indian batsmen but the reality is that any line-up would have been under intolerable pressure chasing 600. Murali said as much at the post-match press conference, and it also didn't help that India's frontline batsmen hadn't played any serious cricket since South Africa left the country three months ago. With India fielding a new-look one-day side and the IPL being nothing more than hit-and-giggle cricket, the likes of Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly just didn't appear to be Test-match ready. In the first innings, there were a rash of impetuous strokes, and the diffident footwork and heaves across the line were frankly embarrassing coming from those with such distinguished records.

It had been nearly five years since India had to follow on in a Test match. On that occasion, when Mohali hosted one of the most boring games in history, two splendid innings from Laxman gave India an escape route against New Zealand. There was no such reprise here, with Mendis conjuring up magnificent deliveries in both innings to breach Laxman's defences. A man of few words (in Sinhala), he admitted later though that the wicket of Dravid, bowled by the carrom ball in the first innings, had given him greatest pleasure.

To put things into historical perspective, it's been more than two decades since India were defeated by two spinners bowling so effectively in tandem. On that occasion, at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore, Iqbal Qasim and Tauseef Ahmed made use of advice from Bishan Singh Bedi to thwart an Indian victory bid led by the redoubtable Sunil Gavaskar. The two picked up nine wickets apiece as Pakistan won the match, and series, by 16 runs.

Only three duos - O'Reilly (11 wickets) and Grimmett (8) at Trent Bridge in 1934, Lock (11) and Laker (8) in Headingley in 1958 and Prasanna (11) and Chandrasekhar (8) in Auckland in 1976 - have wreaked such havoc in the Test arena. But the more apt comparison in this case may be with Alf Valentine and Sonny Ramadhin, who combined for 18 wickets as West Indies routed England at Lord's in 1950.

Both men had played just two first-class games before embarking on that tour, but their vastly different styles brooked no answers. Like Murali, Valentine could turn the ball viciously, while Ramadhin was similar to Mendis in that he could spin the ball both ways with little or no change in action. Their efforts were immortalised in the calypso 'Cricket, Lovely Cricket' ["With those two little pals of mine, Ramadhin and Valentine"] and it'll be no surprise if the tune-happy Sri Lankans come up with something similar. It certainly won't be music to Indian ears.

Too early to assess Mendis - Jenner

	Ajantha Mendis picked up 17 wickets in the Asia Cup last month © AFP

Terry Jenner, the former Australian legspinner who mentored Shane Warne, has said while Sri Lankan spinner Ajantha Mendis is an exciting prospect, it is too early to assess him.

Mendis, who picked up 17 wickets in the Asia Cup last month, including two five-wicket hauls, has had batsmen confounded by his mixture of googlies, offbreaks, top-spinners, flippers and legbreaks. But Jenner said it still had to be seen whether Mendis had the variation of pace to bowl in Tests.

"We don't know yet, but that's where [Anil] Kumble has been fantastic, particularly over the last five years," said Jenner, who was in Chennai for a coaching clinic for young spinners at the MAC Spin Foundation.

Jenner, also said that though the Indian Premier League was fantastic for a lot of reasons, it did not help in the development of young players. "It's a mature-age spinner's game, not a developing spinner's. When I watch Harbhajan [Singh] bowl yorkers at 100 kph, it's clever, but where's the development?"

Switching between formats, Jenner said, was very difficult. "From my experience, when a spinner starts pushing it through, he starts to lose the ability to spin it. Twenty20 serves a purpose with the entertainment, but it mustn't encroach on Test cricket."

Freak streak

Sri Lanka has produced some of the most effective unorthodox cricketers over the last 20 years

	Conventionally unconventional: Ajantha Mendis © AFP

Over the last few years Sri Lanka have had quite a few self-styled unorthodox cricketers coming through - Sanath Jayasuriya, Muttiah Muralitharan, Romesh Kaluwitharana, and now Lasith Malinga and Ajantha Mendis. It's wonderful to have this newness, this difference, because it opens up everyone's eyes, including fellow cricketers who might get something new from these guys to improve their game overall.

One of the reasons for so many unorthodox cricketers coming through in Sri Lanka could be, as in other parts of the subcontinent, the way kids learn to play cricket: they learn by watching, and then start playing in backyards or streets or wherever they can find space. It's possibly there that they develop these individual styles. Unless they have access to formal coaching, they tend to develop along their own lines, especially if they come late to proper leather-ball cricket.

Malinga, for example, naturally developed his action playing softball cricket. In that form of the game, the one way to bowl really fast is with a slingy action, which also gives a low trajectory to the ball, making it hard for the batsman to hit it. Malinga has applied that technique beautifully and effectively in international cricket.

When these unusual talents do arrive at club level or first-class level, it can be seen that they have developed in unique ways. And then it's just a case of tightening the few loose ends up, and seeing how they do.

In some instances, if they are discovered at a very young age, there arises a problem when coaches start trying to make them conform to orthodoxy. All the above mentioned cricketers, with the exception of Murali, were discovered quite late. Murali had the luxury of having an open-minded, liberal, forward-thinking coach in Sunil Fernando, who let him develop along his own lines and just tidied up what needed to be tidied up without changing what made him unique.

The fortunate ones among these players, once they are discovered, are brought into academies, where you have some of the most progressive coaches in the Sri Lankan coaching structure. They know that to get the best out of a bowler you have to try and maximise what the player already has. Still, it would be interesting to look at how many other bowlers might have been made to change to conform to conventional methods. Sometimes it can just be the luck of the draw.

A lot also depends on the national coaches, whose job it is to try and have the coaches at the lower levels thinking along the lines of getting people ready for the international stage. The national coach has an eye on who is coming through and what needs to be done to get him ready. The combined approach of these coaches is an important part of the mix that sometimes result in these freakish, unorthodox bowlers or batsmen. If you have grown in an environment that promotes unorthodoxy, as long as it is good for the individual or the team, the supply line can continue. There are a couple of other such unorthodox cricketers in the pipeline in Sri Lanka, but we need to just wait and see how it pans out for them.

	'Some bowlers have actions that look complicated, but biomechnically they're all right' © Getty Images

Among the bigger challenges for these cricketers is not getting discovered but staying ahead of the game and staying among the best bowlers or batsmen in cricket, be it domestic cricket or international.

In terms of technique, what might look unorthodox to others might just be the way to go for certain players. Some bowlers, like Jeff Thomson, who Malinga has been compared to, have actions that look complicated, but biomechnically they are all right. If his body can withstand it and if he is willing to do the physical strengthening work needed to sustain his action and bowling, it doesn't become a problem. Malinga has had an injury, so do conventional fast bowlers; it's a hazard of the job.

Similarly Mendis may look a completely unconventional bowler, but it's only at the delivery point that he is unique. He has a great base of confidence, control, and accuracy. His bowling mechanics are as conventional as they come. He doesn't run in in a different way, he doesn't place his feet in a different way, his bowling action until the point of delivery is conventional. He probably has one of the most conventional bowling techniques. And he knows how to use his unique delivery style; he knows that no matter how unorthodox he is, no matter how many variations he has, he still has to keep pitching the ball consistently on a good line and length. It's no use having the variations if you are not accurate and if you don't stick to the basics of bowling.

It is interesting to see how these bowlers have come through despite the increasing role of technology, which makes sure that more and more fine-tuned cricketers come out of the system. This is partly because, though we see a lot of technology applied at first-class level or national age-group levels, at school level and in the more remote parts of the country, the advancement in technology is limited.

Still, you can't really pinpoint any one reason for unorthodox talent coming through. It just happens. Mendis and Malinga are two such who slipped through.

Mendis' challenge begins now

July 6, 2008

	Video machines and laptops will start whirring, chewing up Ajantha Mendis' every step, his every variation, his every grip © AFP

Lord knows how they classify Ajantha Mendis in other areas of the world but round these parts, people of a certain vintage will most likely refer to him as a finger bowler.

These were types found mostly in Karachi in the 1970s, tennis ball in hand and an unresponsive tarmac road or cement pitch to bowl on, odds stacked against them. The ball was squeezed in the kind of grip Jack Iverson had, or for locals, similar to how you would strike the striker on a carrom board.

On pitching and regaining its original shape again the ball would shoot through, with sharp spin either way, predictably leaving batsmen none the wiser. Nadeem Moosa was a modest first-class left-arm spinner with the cricket ball in hand but a lethal finger champion with the tennis ball. His success on the local circuit, goes the urban legend, hastened the prevalence of the taped tennis ball: the logic being it was harder to squeeze and thus spin.

But if Mendis keeps bowling as he has done through the Asia Cup, through his brief career so far, eventually people will not much care how to typecast him. Mendis is what he is, for now at least.

His approach to the crease is less run-up and more the hurried walk-through of a harried financial executive. The grips are of the kind super slo-mo was really created for. The absence of a stock ball is the only other tangible conclusion from eight quality overs tonight and many more through the last two weeks. Some he turns one way, some the other, though the most profitable delivery here was the one that threatened much yet did nothing but fizz on straight. In this there were shades of early 1990s Anil Kumble, just wackier and less earnest.

And like Kumble, for tonight at least, he located not just the arrow-straight line but the length: too far forward, you look a fool, stay back and risk being trapped. Admittedly, some of his victims gave themselves up, though it can be argued that in playing for something that never came, the victory is also the bowler's. The legbreak to remove RP Singh should've been reserved for a more capable opponent. Even a hat-trick could've been his, but you suspect more opportunities might come his way against clueless tailenders.

	The mystery is now out in the open and every batsman is out to solve it. The real challenge for Mendis, of uncertain categorisation, to maintain that secrecy, begins now

His most remarkable achievement of the night, however, was that facing the great Muttiah Muralitharan appeared a doddle by comparison. Mahendra Singh Dhoni said later that he just couldn't be read at all. His men weren't alone; Mahela Jayawardene admitted he'd been bowled a couple of times facing Mendis and that Kumar Sangakkarra spent an hour a day in the nets before the tournament keeping to Mendis, trying to pick up his variations. It's one thing, Jayawardene said, to read him from the hand, another altogether to then play him off the pitch.

Jayawardene's ploy not to play him in the group game against India was less to rest him than to keep him cloaked in secrecy, though he coyly suggested otherwise later. There has been a growing curiosity around Mendis over the last few months, but this performance will propel him on to the big stage, right in to the glare. The secret is now out. Video machines and laptops will start whirring, chewing up his every step, his every variation, his every grip.

A mystery spinner he has been thus far. The mystery is now out in the open and every batsman is out to solve it. The real challenge for Mendis, of uncertain categorisation, to maintain that secrecy, begins now.