1st Test: Suranga Lakmal casts a 'spell' on batsmen

KOLKATA: Six overs, six maidens, no run conceded, three wickets! How often have you seen those figures in a Test match scoreboard?
The Eden Gardens witnessed such a rare spell. And the unlikely hero was Sri Lankan pacer Suranga Lakmal, a late bloomer, who reduced India to 17 for 3 on a heavily truncated Day I of the opening Test here on Thursday.
Lakmal showed early promise, but failed to live up to expectations for long.
He first caught the attention of Lankan fast-bowling coaches for his raw pace, when he was a student at Debarawewa Central School. He made his international debut at the age of 22, in an ODI against India. His Test breakthrough came a year later, against the West Indies.
Lakmal failed to make an immediate impact at the highest level. Injury problems didn't help and when chances did come his way, wayward spells didn't allow his career to take off.
However, Lakmal made good progress under Chaminda Vaas when after the Lankan pace-bowling great became their bowling coach. It prompted former skipper Mahela Jaywardene to mark him as a future match-winner for Sri Lanka.
Lakmal was one of Lanka's first-choice seamers in 2014, before the emergence of Dushmantha Chameera and re-emergence of Dhammika Prasad pushed him down the pecking order.
A change in action helped Lakmal return stronger.
"My arm had been coming round-arm a little earlier. I've worked on that and straightened it up now. The ball hits the seam more often now, and it can go either way from thereon," he explained.
The result was there for all to see at the Eden on Thursday. No wonder current bowling coach Rumesh Ratnayake described it as "one of the finest spells that I have seen for a long time."
India assistant coach Sanjay Bangar was also full of praise for Lakmal. "Credit to him for putting the ball in the right place and letting the pitch to do the rest," Bangar quipped.
Lakmal obviously loves the bounce, which the Eden track offered. He did well against the Proteas, too, picking up 12 wickets in the three-Test series when Lanka toured South Africa earlier this year.
The 30-year-old was also adjudged Sri Lanka's ODI bowler of the year recently. But as Ratnayake pointed out, the job is still not done and Lanka will look to Lakmal to continue in the same vein on Friday, as well as the rest of the three-Test series.