On a warm day in Karachi, when Test cricket returned to Pakistan after 16 months, the Sri Lankan top order indulged themselves to reach a strong position by the end of the opening day. Mahela Jayawardene presented a visual treat, Thilan Samaraweera and Kumar Sangakkara accumulated steadily, and Malinda Warnapura thrilled with a breezy knock as the visitors cashed in after winning the toss on a perfect batting pitch.
There is something extremely graceful about Jayawardene's batting. Perhaps, it's the economy of movement, his ease, and the languid flow of his bat's movement that catches the eye. There was a delicious straight drive on the up off Umar Gul today that captured his innings in a nutshell. The ball landed short of a length outside the off stump. Sachin Tendulkar, or even Sangakkara, imparts velocity to such deliveries with a fierce thump at the point of impact, whereas Virender Sehwag would rely on tremendous bat speed. Jayawardene seems to just caress his shots. Today, he waved his bat forward to meet the ball with the middle and it sped away. Just like that. And he did it repeatedly through his innings to compile his first Test hundred against Pakistan, the only country missing from his list of centuries.
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