Cricket Update: Indians struggle against the Sri Lanka board President's 11
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Sri-Lanka-c758 did not begin ideally and in the first tour match against the Sri Lanka Board President’s 11 Indian bowlers suffered heavily, the visitors played by the name of Indians and picked up only 5 wickets on the first day of the 3 day match.
SL Board President’s 11 won the toss and elected to bowl first on a flat track at Colts cricket club ground. Sri Lankan test opener Upul Tharanga opened the batting alongside Thirimanne. The 2 left hander’s settled in quickly and took the Indian bowling to task.
Ishant Sharma and Mithun opened the bowling for Indians but were not able to extract much swing from the placid surface.
Tharanga was quickly in his elements and started playing his strokes. The elegant left hander was timing the ball well right from the go and the flowing cover drives started coming early.
Thirimanne who was an unknown quantity for the Indians was a bit more subtle and took his time. http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Ishant-Sharma-c64566 in an effort to get some swing or seam off the pitch started pitching the ball up to the bat. Tharanga in particular made good use of the length and started driving him through the extra cover region. Mithun who does not have much experience on his back was not enjoying the lifeless pitch and kept spraying the ball around.
Once the shine of the ball was gone, life became even easier for the 2 openers, Amit Mishra the leg Spinner came on after 15 overs and Tharanga was quickly on the charge dispatching him for 2 big sixes.
From the other end, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Virender-Sehwag-c95429 tried his off spinners and got the same treatment from Thirimanne as he hit him for a six over long on.
The partnership was finally broken in the 34th over with the score at 188; Tharanga was caught at point by Laxman off the bowling of left arm spinner Ojha. Tharanga scored 110 runs from 116 balls with 20 fours and 2 sixes.
Thirimanne followed 4 overs later he was caught by Gambhir for Ojha’s 2nd wicket; Thirimanne scored 66 from 110 balls with 8 fours and a six.
However, it did not get any better for Indians in the 2nd session either, Kandamby and Samraweera put together another mammoth Partnership. The 2 players from Sri Lankan test team made good use of the left right combination and continued to pile on the runs.
Indian attack by then was looking tired in the heat and short of answers. Kandamby in particular was playing it like a limited over game with a strike rate of almost 100.
The left hander was very severe on the spinners and continuously used his feet to advance down the track. Ojha by far was the best Indian bowler left arm orthodox from http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Hyderabad-c792 Deccan used his flight and variation to keep the batsmen quite. Ojha also picked up the first 2 wickets.
Samaraweera who scored huge number of test runs in 2009 continued his good form. The classy right hander showed all the shots in his repertoire and dominated the Indian attack.
Samaraweera was the more moderate of the two in the partnership, but when Mishra came back for his 2nd spell, he slog swept him for 2 sixes over midwicket and also got to his hundred.
The long partnership was broken in the final session of play when Kandamby was stumped while going for another big one, his wicket was picked up by Amit Mishra. The left hander scored 101 runs from 105 balls with 13 fours and 1 six.
Samaraweera was dismissed after scoring a brilliant hundred; he scored 102 in total from 150 balls with 12 fours and 2 sixes.
Sri Lanka Board President’s 11 ended the day at 432 for 5 playing at almost 5 runs per over throughout the day.
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