Sport | Cricket
Colombo to become 'Spin City' for Test showdown
Sri Lanka's capital should be rechristened 'Spin City' on Friday as India and the home team's finest battle it out for supremacy in the final and deciding Test.
- By Sarah Tregoning, Staff Reporter
- Published: 00:07 August 7, 2008
- Rod Marsh feels unorthodox Sri Lanka spinner Ajantha Mendis is a breath of fresh air in world cricket.
- Image Credit: Gulf News archive
Dubai: Sri Lanka's capital should be rechristened 'Spin City' on Friday as India and the home team's finest battle it out for supremacy in the final and deciding Test.
Sri Lanka debutant Ajantha Mendis now has a haul of 18 scalps from the first and second Test and is proving a perfect foil for established spin-sensation Muttiah Muralitharan.
Mendis's impressive first Test performance against India, a team that is no stranger to the spin attack, has prompted former Australia international, Rod Marsh, to speculate how many wickets the 23-year-old might have taken if he had been up against any other team.
"As far as I'm concerned he's a breath of fresh air," said the Director of Coaching at ICC Global Cricket Academy in Dubai Sports City and sometime cricket commentator.
"To see a spinner take 18 wickets in his first two Tests against India is astounding. I struggle to think how many he would have taken if he'd been playing against England, Australia, New Zealand or South Africa - he might have taken all 40; except that Murali would have had his say I suppose," joked Marsh.
Now the series is level on 1-1 after India shook off the disappointment of a thumping first Test defeat to hit back in Galle thanks largely to the efforts their spinner Harbhajan Singh, who finished with 10-153 and Virender Sehwag who notched only his third century in an India win.
But the teams, according to the record-breaking wicketkeeper, are too close to call for the third Test.
Turnaround
"How would you know who will win?" said Marsh. "After that turnaround in Galle, if I was a gambling man, which I suppose I have been known to be, I would say that whoever wins the toss is going to win the game."
While Sehwag and Gautam Ghambir have shone this series, the likes of Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar have been strangely quiet. But Marsh believes they could put in a strong display tomorrow.
"Dravid and Tendulkar haven't made many runs so they must be due and great players like them must never be written off," he said.
Alongside the drama of the spinners runs another story; can an admittedly out of sorts Tendulkar score 96 in Colombo to surpass Brian Lara's Test run record of 11,953? Marsh can't see why not.
"It's possible," he said. "We are talking about a genius almost. He probably hasn't made as many runs as he would have liked recently, although one thing about players like him is that you should never underestimate their capabilities of making runs when it counts."
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