Cricket Update: India vs. Sri Lanka- 3rd Test Match Day 2 review
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Virender-Sehwag-c95429 once again proved to be the lifters of India’s scorecard, aiding India solidify their position at the end of second days play at P Sara Oval, Colombo. The hard hitting right handed opener raised India’s hopes by playing an unbeaten innings of 97 and promises to continue the tremendous action tomorrow.
Sehwag batted in his natural style by giving every delivery outside the stumps, the treatment it deserved and throwing balls to boundaries at regular intervals. He made the scorers busy by punching balls sensibly and took chances against all Sri Lankan bowlers. Sehwag clambered the Sri Lanka’s bowlers making them pay for the bad deliveries. He took on charge at the fast bowler Welegedera, who dismissed him twice in the test match at Galle, several boundaries at point, mid-on and through the mid wicket region.
Wickets kept on falling for http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Rahul-c83321 Dravid also could not live up to the expectations of fans and fell soon after few flourishing cover drives. However, stylish Sehwag was well supported at the other end by the little master Sachin Tendulkar, who made the contribution in India’s total as always with a steady innings of 40 and is still at the crease. They both have added 88 runs for the third wicket partnership and aiming for many more.
Circumstances would be hard for the home team since there is no Muralitharan in the side, who could come at any time and gets as many wickets as the team needs. In his absence, Sri Lanka would be relying heavily on the high flying Lasith Malinga, whose short deliveries troubled Sehwag too much today and on the young leg spinner http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Ajantha-c42419 Mendis to get their early break through and get them back on track in the game.
Earlier in the day, after Sri Lanka’s middle order sailed comfortably the first day, things continued to go well for them on the second day too. The show-stopper for http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Sri-Lanka-c758 was Thilan Samaraweera, who confidently batted through the innings and helped them get to a challenging total of 425 just before tea break. Samaraweera played consistently in his innings and placed the balls perfectly over all corners of the ground. The veteran with the batting average well above 50 scored his 12th test century very calmly in a chanceless knock. As always, he timed the ball to perfection, playing late cuts and progressed smoothly against the seamers. Samaraweera being Sri Lanka’s specialist against spinners went down the trick twice to couple of Indian spinners with striking leg breaker Amit Mishra for four cracking boundaries and proving that he could be fatal too.
Samaraweera was well supported by the late middle order batsmen, with Angelo Mathews in particular, who made sensibly for his 45 before being trapped leg before wicket for 45. The duo put on 89 for the fifth wicket partnership and provided Sri Lanka a solid platform to get a solid lead against the strong Indian batting side. Indian bowlers however, failed yet again to make an impressive mark and did not ball according to the game plan. Fast bowlers, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Ishant-Sharma-c64566 and Mithun went for plenty and primarily struggled against the solid Sri Lankan batting line up. 22 year old Sharma managed to get two late consolation wickets and helped India dislodge the opponent’s tail quickly. The pick of the bowlers for India was the 23 years old left arm orthodox spinner Pragyan Ojha took a career best of 4 for 115 while disturbing Sri Lanka’s middle order.
India need to play sensibly tomorrow and take a big lead over the Lions and then get their opponents out earlier to gain a competitive advantage in the test match. They are eyeing for a win after losing their first test match by 10wickets and drawing the second last week.
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