India on the backfoot on first day at Galle
The first Test match between http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Muralidharan-c78036, who is playing his last Test series and also to improve their Test cricket ranking.
The Sri Lankan captain, Kumar Sangakkara won the toss and elected to bat first. The match started later than usual due to a wet outfield caused due to overnight rain. The Sri Lankan captain looked confident and said a little moisture was not going to be an issue considering that the match was going to last for five days. He hoped that a first innings total of around 300 would be sufficient as he would have spinners like Murlidharan and Rangana Herath to lead the bowling attack and Malinga, Welegedara and Mathews to support them.
The Indian captain http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Ishant-Sharma-c64566 in the pace bowling department, whereas Harbhajan Singh was to go into the game with Pragyan Ojha.
Apart from that, after his spectacular century in the warm up match against Sri Lanka Board President XI, Yuvraj Singh was slotted to come in at number six in the team. Munaf Patel was not included in the playing eleven for the first match.
Contrary to Dhoni’s expectations, the Sri Lankan opening batsmen Tillakaratne Dilshan and Tharanga Paranavitana were ruthless in their attack and Indian’s weak bowling line-up began to develop cracks from the early overs itself.
However, just when Dilshan was beginning to look dangerous, he was dismissed by Mithun at a score of 25 runs, caught behind off a short ball. This was the first international Test wicket for Mithun, even as captain Dhoni took the catch.
But Paranavitana continued the attack as he captain Sangakkara to support him at the other end. Both the batsmen played a heroic innings while the Indian bowlers looked defenceless. Centuries beckoned for both of them, and Sangakkara was finally dismissed at a score of 103 by part-time spinner Sehwag.
The duo had had a steady partnership of 180 runs. By this time, Sri Lanka had already put up a mammoth score of 236 runs at the loss of two wickets.
The absence of India’s key bowlers Zaheer Khan and Sreesanth was a big issue for the Indian side as Lanka ended the first day at 256/2. Except for Abhimanyu Mithun, none of the specialist bowlers managed to get a wicket. Ojha and Sharma gave a lot of width and were generally short, which allowed the batsmen to get away.
Although Harbhajan Singh managed to keep his economy rate down, he too failed to pick up any wicket.s
At the end of first day’s play, the Sri Lankans had taken huge strides towards a mammoth first innings total and unless the Indians can conjure up a miracle, the game seems to be already slipping away.
The Indians need to ensure that on the second day, the bowlers bowl to their field, and try and restrict the damage. And then, Dhoni will also hope that his own batting line-up, a much-vaunted one in their own right, will look at ensuring that the side does its bit in ensuring that the side does not go 0-1 down this early in the series.
Rain could be another saviour for the Indians given that the first day’s play ended early due to bad weather as well.
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