Captains Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Kumar Sangakkara Praise VVS Laxman
Rival captains http://www.senore.com/Cricket/VVS-Laxman-c2772, who led his team to a series levelling win over the hosts in the third and final Test of the three-match series.
The http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Hyderabad-c792 born right-hander was the star of the show as the tourists hunted down a stiff 257 run target on the final day of the match at the P Sara Oval, Colombo with the help of a century by Laxman (103 not out), which was the 16th of an illustrious career.
He was dogged by a serious back problem in the latter half of his innings, yet was a determined individual who refused to let go of the opportunity of winning a crucial Test match of the series, after the visitors went into a deficit with their loss in the opening match at Galle by ten wickets.
Laxman was helped by the man of the series http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Virender-Sehwag-c95429, who came on to the field as his runner, helping him reach 103 (scored off 149 balls and studded with 12 fours).
The right-hander relied on two partners for his effort: the first one was Sachin Tendulkar, who scored a vital half century, besides the left-handed Suresh Raina, who played a big hand with Laxman adding the last 87 runs to take his team home.
At the post match press conference, the Indian captain M.S. Dhoni praised his trio of batsmen, Tendulkar, Laxman and Raina, with a special mention for the stylish Hyderabadi known for his elegant drives and flicks of his legs.
He said: "You know we all knew that once we can absorb the pressure of those initial few overs you know it will be relatively easy to score, but at the same time you know once you are one-down in the series and you are supposed to win the last game of the series to level up the series there is extra pressure on the batsmen. So I think Sachin and Laxman they batted really well and you know after Sachin got out you know Laxman was supported really well by Raina."
Dhoni had also a word for encouragement for his bowlers, who had brought them back into the game with a brilliant performance in the first session on the penultimate day, wiping out the top order for 87 runs.
"Well you know if we would have lost this series, it would have been because of our batting line-up not performing really well. If it was a drawn series, which meant you know that both the batsmen and bowlers, they did reasonably well and to win this series would have meant our bowlers have performed well over the par. So, I think after the first Test, batting could have done much better over there. But after that the batsmen really picked up, they practiced really well and I can't really complain about the bowlers because all the three Test matches we bowled first on fresh tracks," said the http://www.senore.com/Cricket/India-c750 captain.
The Sri Lankan captain Kumar Sangakkara also praised the efforts of the Indian batsmen led by VVS Laxman, adding that his bowlers Randiv and Lasith Malinga had bowled their hearts out but were unlucky not to break the Indian resistance on the final day on a wearing wicket that held better than what he had expected.
"The way they batted was excellent. They batted very positively, kept scoring runs and unfortunately, apart from Suraj and Lasith, we couldn't exert pressure from the other end either to take wickets or to cut down runs."
The left-hander, who scored two hundreds in the series, including a double hundred in the second Test match of the series at the Sinhalese Sports club ground, added that he was disappointed with the performance of his batsmen in the last Test, excluding the experienced Thilan Samaraweera, who scored a ton in the first followed by 87 run knock in the second as the rest of the batsmen crumbled around him.
"And I think the batting in the second innings from seven batsmen, except for Thilan, was probably the main cause of us getting only 250. Otherwise it would have been a situation where we could have batted out the day, probably put the heavy roll on today and then declared," said Sangakkara.
The two teams will now be involved in a triangular One-Day series also featuring http://www.senore.com/Cricket/New-Zealand-c754. The series is set to start on the 10th of this month.
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