Hayden and Martyn set up a classic finish
On a day that rained water, wickets and runs, Australia muscled themselves into a strong position in the second Test at Cairns
Christian Ryan
11-Jul-2004
Australia 517 and 2 for 194 (Hayden 68*, Martyn 52*) lead Sri Lanka 455 (Samaraweera 70) by 256 runs
Scorecard
Scorecard
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Today, a day that rained water, wickets and runs, Australia muscled
themselves into a position whereby they might yet win a game that had looked
to be going nowhere. First they knocked over Sri Lanka's lower order, then
they knocked up a 256-run lead that should enable them to declare sometime
in the morning. Little of it was pretty, all of it was pretty effective. And
so the stage is set for a fairytale.
Tomorrow, an out-of-form legspin bowler will attempt to take five wickets to
win a Test match and set a new world record. He must do so against a deep
batting line-up on a featherbed pitch with rain in the offing. For anyone
else, it might seem impossible. For Shane Warne, the impossible is merely a
challenge. Fairytales, grim and golden, are what happen when he wakes up
most mornings.
It would be some kind of ending to what has been a funny kind of Test. Sixes
have been slugged and spectacular catches pouched. Three glorious hundreds
have been struck. And yet somehow this game - this series for that matter -
has failed to light up the imagination. It's been fun to watch, hard to
care.
Perhaps it's because, no matter what Cricket Australia tell us, our bodies
still tell us it's the footy season. Perhaps it's to do with the crowds, not
much bigger - though several thousand decibels more enthusiastic - than you
might find on a Pura Cup Sunday. Or maybe it's because we have spent most of
the past fortnight talking about a bloke who, for all his wickets and wiles
and gruff swagger, hasn't bowled particularly well.
Warne's ball that got rid of Upul Chandana was actually one of his
better ones. The batsman, seeking to swing him over the leg side, was
deceived by the flight and nearly lost his footing. Adam Gilchrist snapped
up the stumping and No. 523 was in the bag, four more than Courtney Walsh,
four fewer than Muttiah Muralitharan, one elusive five-wicket haul away from
immortality.
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Moments earlier, drift and bite and guile had looked non-existent; any spin
was so slow as to be almost incidental. Chandana, as if to emphasise the
point, leant forward on one knee and slog-swept the greatest legspinner the
world has ever seen over mid-on for six. Still, adversity and Warne are old
sparring partners. You'd be a fool not to keep at least one eye on the telly
tomorrow afternoon.
Apart from anything, record or no record, a titanic finish might yet be on
the cards. A late flurry in fading light, with Matthew Hayden and Damien
Martyn crashing 67 runs in the last nine overs, has afforded Ricky Ponting
the luxury of a possible declaration within an hour or so of tomorrow's
resumption. A couple of hours earlier things hadn't looked nearly so cosy.
The Australians began their second innings, 62 runs ahead, with an unfamiliar
note of caution. After Justin Langer departed early, nibbling at Nuwan
Zoysa, only eight runs were added in six overs after tea. Chaminda Vaas and
Thilan Samaraweera, the part-time spinner, kept a stifling line and length.
Ponting, in particular, found himself bogged down for long periods on his
way to 45.
It fell to Martyn, in pristine touch, to unfurl his second masterpiece of
timing and placement for the match, skating to his half-century in only 51
balls. Hayden eventually leapt into stride too. Not out on 68, he is on
track for his second hundred of the match, a feat he has previously achieved
against England in 2002-03 and which only seven men in Test history have
done twice. By the end, when Hayden and Martyn accepted the offer of bad
light with nine overs still up their sleeves, talk had turned to victory.
Victory seemed a purely hypothetical proposition this morning when heavy
showers delayed the start by more than two hours. Lunch was taken and play
reduced to two extended sessions of almost three hours each. The only early
moment of misadventure came when Romesh Kaluwitharana attempted to cut too close to his body, Warne juggling a high catch at slip off Glenn McGrath's bowling.
Otherwise the Sri Lankans meandered along at less than two runs an over, their
batting as grey as the sky overhead. Gradually the sun broke through and the
Australians followed suit, courtesy of some probing bowling and predatory
fielding. Ponting led by example at second slip, plucking Samaraweera (7 for
445) with a sharp diving catch to his left, then mirroring that effort with
an awkward catch to his right off Vaas (8 for 455). Samaraweera fell for 70,
the victim of a mean-fisted spell from Jason Gillespie, who had shaken him
up in the previous over with a steepling bouncer that followed his head and
almost grazed his gloves.
Chandana followed soon afterwards and Sri Lanka, resuming on 5 for 411, had
lost their last four for 10 when Lasith Malinga was run out for his third
duck in three Test innings. Slow to set off for an easy single, he succumbed
to an electric fielding cameo from Darren Lehmann. Not known for his
outfield agility, Lehmann picked up the ball at deepish mid-on and hurled
down the stumps at the faraway non-striker's end.
With the forecast uncertain and the pitch unyielding, a draw still looms as
the likeliest outcome. But if Lehmann is capable of doing that, the Sri
Lankans might well be thinking, anything is surely possible.
Tomorrow, Shane Warne may just prove it.
Christian Ryan is the editor of Wisden Cricinfo in Australia.