Ishant Sharma thrills

On the first day, the pitch looked flat, the bowling insipid and the Sri Lankan batsmen were queuing up to have a go at the Indians. Everything changed today. Yesterday's storms and overnight rains had left a damp and seaming pitch and the Indians were on song today. After a long time Ishant Sharma looked threatening as a bowler. It was that kind of a morning. Unexpected things happened. The ball talked. The Indians smiled. And Ishant roared.

Ishant, in particular, produced his finest spell in recent memory. He struck with his second delivery: It kicked up from short of length and tilted away from Tharanga Paranavitana who replied with a lame fatal poke. Next up was Thilan Samaraweera. Ishant struck him on his helmet with a bouncer on the first delivery and had him jabbing at the next couple of incutters. While Mithun picked up Samarawaeera, Ishant returned later to trouble Jayawardene with the new ball. The first over was a gem. He got the third delivery to leave Jayawardene late. It was a peach of a legcutter and you wondered whether he could maintain the pressure for a series of deliveries. The next one cut in and Jayawardene seemingly left it on the bounce. Or was he expecting it to go other way? You couldn't be really sure. The next delivery darted back in, cut Mahela into half and somehow missed the off stump. Jayawardene lunged forward desperately the next ball to take out the lbw out of the equation and was hit on the inner thigh by another incutter.

The over ended but the battle had just begun. Next over, Ishant got just one ball to bowl at Jayawardene. He hurled a legcutter and produced an edge but the ball ran past gully to the boundary. Next over, Ishant troubled Jayawardene with yet another legcutter which prompted an appeal from the men behind the stumps. The contest ended next delivery as Ishant seamed the ball back in to catch Jayawardene in front of the leg stump. It was a wicket well earned and a battle worth watching.