“India was unlucky in the first Test against Sri Lanka”: http://www.senore.com/Cricket/MS-Dhoni-c2028
India received a heavy defeat at the hands of Sri Lanka in the first Test in Galle. India almost failed in all departments of the game as the result showed an accurate picture of their performance. It comes as a complete disappointment for team India which boasts of being the number one team in ICC test rankings. http://www.senore.com/Cricket/India-c750 was entering the series with a weak bowling attack since some of their prime bowlers were ruled out of the series because of various injuries. India’s bowling department failed to impress against Sri Lanka but that was expected from a team which is going through an injury crises. What needed to be criticised was the failure of India’s star-studded batting line up as almost everyone failed to post big scores.
Sehwag scored 109 runs in first innings while master blaster Sachin Tendulkar scored 84 in the second innings. Moreover, Laxman looked good in the second innings as well but lost his wicket due to clumsy running between the wickets. India had an experienced batting department with big names like Sehwag, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Rahul-c83321 Dravid, Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh and M.S. Dhoni himself but no one performed in the middle. The pitch remained good throughout the match, an example of which was seen on the last day when Muralitharan had to work really hard to get his 800th wicket.
After the drubbing, Dhoni refused to admit that his batting failed and rather concentrated on giving Sri Lanka’s bowling all the credit. “Whenever we had some kind of a partnership going, the Sri Lankan bowlers came up with a beautiful delivery to get the batsmen out. Be it the first innings or the second. We had quite a few partnerships in the first innings, also in the second, but some of the deliveries they bowled were really difficult to keep out." Dhoni said.
Dhoni especially credited the superb bowling of speedster Lasith Malinga. Dhoni said that Malinga bowled his in-swingers and out-swingers with the same action which made him a difficult customer to handle. He also defended his opening batsmen by saying that Malinga is very effective with the new ball. "If you see Malinga, you can't really say he changes his action to let the ball come in or take it out," he said. "He bowls in the same areas with the new ball and at times it comes in, at times it goes away. It can be a bit difficult for the opening batsmen, especially when he is bowling the first couple of over’s, which he will do more often than not. It was one of those games where the ball fell at the right place."
On the other hand, Dhoni was not harsh on his bowling unit and experts believe that it was the right approach. The Indian skipper believed that the pitch suited the batsmen and it required a magical delivery from the bowler to get a batsman out. However, Dhoni did accept the fact that those magical deliveries were only created by Murali and Malinga since the duo took 15 wickets between each other. Dhoni claimed that a bit of luck in the bowling department would have helped India’s cause but that was not the case. A lot of edges fell short of the slip cordon for which Dhoni blamed luck as the main hurdle. "We were to some extent unlucky because quite a few edges didn't carry to slip or didn't go to slip fielders," he said. "If you see the boundary percentage, there were quite a few scored between the keeper and the point fielder. It is important to have luck on your side, which never was in this game."
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Muttiah-Muralitharan-c78157 bowed out of test cricket after bagging his 800th wicket. Murali was given a heroic farewell for his services to Sri Lankan cricket. The off-spinner entered the match with 792 test wickets and required 8 wickets to achieve a landmark that no one had achieved in cricketing history. The Jimi Hendrix of spin bowling picked up five wickets in the first innings and three wickets in the second. It was a site to watch when he picked up his 800th wicket. The crowd went crazy with cheers in favour of Murali and fireworks exploded while his teammates hoisting him on their shoulders. It was a perfect end to a perfect career.
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