— Photo: S. Subramanium

VINTAGE SHOW: Irfan Pathan, who set up an emphatic victory for India, celebrates with Rahul Dravid the dismissal of Kumar Sangakkara.

Mohali: If at all any blasphemous thoughts about Sachin Tendulkar not being the man he once was lingered after Nagpur, they shrank in shame. After Sri Lanka's batsmen revealed a spine a toothpick would have dismissed contemptuously, the great man showed how it's done.

Ever a man for the big occasion, Tendulkar — in his 350th ODI — smashed his second successive fifty (67 not out, 69b, 11x4) after a six-month layoff to power India to an eight-wicket win over Sri Lanka in the Videocon Cup at the PCA Stadium here on Friday night. With the victory, the men in blue took a two-nil lead in the seven-match series.

The Sri Lankan innings was so brief, India got a hit 40 minutes before the break in between innings. Chasing 123, Virender Sehwag and Tendulkar began with the intention of wrapping things up before a pleasant meal. Eighty of the best ensued before Sehwag lost his concentration.

Nuwan Zoysa and Chaminda Vaas were banged around the dial as each opener matched the other's brutality. Sehwag's rapier diced chunks out of the off-side; Tendulkar drove and pummelled, cut and paddled. Muttiah Muralitharan's first delivery was met by a belligerent Tendulkar two steps down, a straight bat cocked. The battle had already been won.

Rodeo clown

Momentum is a strange beast. Three losses in the Indian Oil Cup tri-series in Sri Lanka earlier this year and India resembled the rodeo clown who found the bull's back a little less comfortable than the earth he was spitting out. Since then India has re-mounted the bucking beast and seems to have strapped in for the ride.

In Nagpur, India had batted Sri Lanka out of the match. As if to show it could choose its mode of execution, the home team opted to bowl first. A day after his twenty-first birthday, Irfan Pathan decided to treat himself to Sri Lankan batsmen, who obliged with poor shot selection. A swerver sliced off Sanath Jayasuriya's open blade to Virender Sehwag at third man. The left-hander's fifth duck against India robbed his team of the early edge it hoped to gain.

Except for the rare ball that headed wide of leg stump, Pathan's line was finely calibrated — adjusting for the swing he has rediscovered. Ajit Agarkar suckered Marvan Atapattu into driving at a full, wide floater for wicket-keeper M.S. Dhoni to roll in front of first slip. Sri Lanka's two most experienced batsmen were in the hut. The scorecard read thirteen.

Kumara Sangakkara, promoted to open, showed why he suffers little in comparison to Adam Gilchrist in a tussle of the world's best batsmen-wicketkeepers. Gilchrist's high-on-the-handle grip allows him to lever balls over and through the infield; Sangakkara prefers to wrap his wrists around deliveries. But an intemperate pull shot to a ball too wide and full for that stroke, cut the left-hander's innings short. A pretty 27 as far as twenty-sevens go but not enough.

On a hat-trick

Mahela Jayawardene couldn't keep a flick down, Tillakaratne Dilshan's pressed forward sans conviction and Pathan was on a hat-trick. Farveez Maharoof 's insolent flick prevented it. Harbhajan Singh and J.P. Yadav then began a passage of play that further constricted the Lankans. The Sardar has been reluctant in the past to explore his options from around the wicket. But the determination of coach and captain to break set patterns has led to the off-spinner varying his angle of attack more frequently.

Russel Arnold has stitched many a torn Sri Lankan innings together. The reedy left-hander hung on, poking and dabbing, using the pace to play behind square. Harbhajan twisted him around an off-break that dipped on a whim. Yadav was pesky and Sri Lanka scored five runs between overs 20 and 25. Maharoof forced his arms at a Yadav delivery and Zoysa missed a full one — another Indian bowler was on a hat-trick.

Muralitharan postponed the impending doom with merry slogs and rolled eyes. Trying to make room to cut an off-spinner — a `no-no' as per conventional cricketing wisdom — he perished. Upul Chandana, the Super Sub, was forced into play earlier than envisaged and remained unbeaten.

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