Jayasuriya saves his best for India

Sanath Jayasuriya, the Sri Lanka captain, defies all conventions of batsmanship when he is at the crease and at times he has been more than a bowlers' nightmare. To say that Jayasuriya has more than a liking for the Indian bowling maybe an understatement. For he has not only dominated them but decimated them to the extent that bowlers like Manoj Prabhakar and Rajesh Chauhan have been knocked out of the game and, Venkatesh Prasad and Anil Kumble are still licking the wounds inflicted on them when India last toured here four years ago.

Sourav Ganguly , Rahul Dravid and Venkatesh Prasad (members of the present team) will vividly recall what Jayasuriya did to them at the R. Premadasa Stadium in August 1997 when he made the fourth highest score in Test cricket - 340, keeping them on the field for as long as 13 hours and 19 minutes.

After Nilesh Kulkarni became the first Indian bowler to take a wicket off his first ball in Test cricket, India had to wait 1,103 balls for the next wicket as Jayasuriya in liaison with Roshan Mahanama (225) shared Test cricket's highest (576) and longest (753 minutes) partnership. They became the first pair to bat throughout two uninterrputed days of Test cricket. Jayasuriya recalling that innings said that he ranked it along with the 199 he scored in the second Test of that series at the SSC, as the best of his seven Test centuries.

"I was middling the ball right from the beginning and I played with a lot of confidence," said Jayasuriya.

"There are times, when a batsman plays out the first few overs, he knows he is in good nick for a long innings. I had that feeling inside me that day," he said.

Three other Test knocks which Jayasuriya said he felt the same way when he made the runs, was the double century he scored against England at the Oval in 1998, the 146 he made at Galle and the 85 he scored at the SSC, both against South Africa last year.

What makes Jayasuriya a threat to opposing bowlers is that there is no set pattern in his approach to batting. He loses no time in taking the initiative whether he hits the first ball of the innings for a six off a square cut, a cover drive which lands in the stands or a flick off his legs which flashes past the square-leg umpire. There is nothing transparent about his batting.

He is a master at pacing out his innings. A cautious half-century could just be the platform for him to launch an all out assault on the bowling later in the innings. One of the strong points of Jayasuriya's batting is his power. It is not just the new ball which flies off his bat, but the old ball is also smashed with equal ease.

How much Jayasuriya relishes the Indian bowling can be guaged by the fact that he holds his country's highest individual score in Test cricket (340) and one-day internationals (189) against the same opposition.

The 189 made in the Coca Cola final at Sharjah in November last year he ranks as his best one-day innings largely because of the circumstances under which he made it. Sri Lanka had lost four of their top batters for 116 runs, and with only Russel Arnold as the last recognised batsman, Jayasuriya had to pace his innings out in such a manner that his side finished with a match-winning total.

"I batted under a lot of pressure. It was a difficult innings to play because I was not able to take the risks I normally would in any other circumstances. It restricted my stroke-play," said Jayasuriya.

Usually a batsman known to make most runs in the first 15 overs, Jayasuriya showed another facet to his approach to batting. That he can bat through the entire innings. He was captain and took the full responsibilities upon himself. Needless to say, Sri Lanka rattled up an imposing total of 299 for five wickets and bowled India out for a paltry 54 to win the final by a mile. Jayasuriya's other notable one-day knocks against India have been his unbeaten 151 in the Independence Cup tournament at Bombay and an unbeaten 120 at the R. Premadasa Stadium.

India has found Jayasuriya a major obstacle to them at all levels of cricket. He has been their tormentor for the past five years or so. Despite his high success rate against Indian bowlers, Jayasuriya has a lot of respect for them. "You have to respect the bowler if he is bowling well at you. It is not easy as it sounds when you are out in the middle there. You have only to make one mistake and it can be curtains," said Jayasuriya, who prepares himself for another Test series against India having given them a hint of his present form with a match-winning knock of 99 in the Coca Cola Cup tri-series final at the R. Premadasa Stadium last Sunday.

SANATH JAYASURIYA'S RECORD AGAINST INDIA

TESTS      T    I  NO   HS   Runs    Avg  100s 50s
Career    59  101   9  340   3604  39.17     7  16
v India    7   11   1  340    782  78.20     2   2