Plays of the day: http://www.senore.com/Cricket/India-c750 v Sri Lanka, 3rd Test match, day three
The third day of the third Test match between India and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Sri-Lanka-c758 ended on an even keel, with the Indians battling hard for a 11-run lead that was overcome by the Sri Lankans by the time the day ended.
Soft Indian batting?
Despite the 11-run lead, one will have to fault the Indian batsmen for the manner in which they were pegged back and dismissed. At least five out of the eight wickets that fell today were due to the softening of the batsman by the bowler in the earlier overs or due to some unnecessary stroke-play.
Sachin Tendulkar had barely got his eye in and he swished at a wide ball. http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Ajantha-c42419 Mendis for one over, and off the next, he guided the ball to the slip, whereas Suresh Raina was out to the same bowler after having got to his half century.
However, the worst of the lot was the captain, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/MS-Dhoni-c2028, who was hit by Lasith Malinga on his fingers. Once hit, he tried to smack the next ball out of the ground, usually a clear indication of the fact that he had been rattled. The end result was an easy catch to the wicket-keeper.
Shocker from Tucker:
In the Sri Lankan innings on the first day, the umpire Rod Tucker had adjudged Mahela Jayawardene out, LBW. The Hawk-Eye technology showed that the ball was clearly going above the stumps and hence he was hard done by the decision. Today came a bigger shocker.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Ishant-Sharma-c64566 was the batsman, and Suraj Randiv, the bowler. The ball spun and hit Ishant on his pad, with the bat at least six inches away from the ball. The Lankans appealed and the umpire gave it not-out. The Lankans feigned like they couldn’t believe their luck and appealed again, and rather surprisingly, the umpire changed his decision and gave Ishant the marching orders.
How India will wishing they had chosen to go ahead with the Umpire Decision Review System for this series.
Shocker from http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Tucker-c94458 – Part II?
Mithun had scored 46 and he was looking good to get to his maiden half century, when he was declared out, caught. The bowler and the umpire combination was the same, Randiv-Tucker and the actual event was very similar. Randiv bowled it to Mithun, who seemed to have kept his bat away from his pads, and the ball hit the batsman on his pad and lobbed away to the leg-slip. While the bat and the pads were very close to each other this time, the replays showed that the bat had not been grazed. The umpire had given it out again.
Century and gone:
Sehwag was on 97 overnight, after having missed out on an earlier century. Today, he got to his century with a pull stroke but he could barely go on after that. Sehwag is usually known to convert his 100s into big hundreds, having made 13 scores of more than 150 out of his 20 centuries. However, today, he failed to latch on to his start and threw it away when he was on 109.
Where was Angelo Mathews?
On a hot and humid day like today, most captains would get the best out of all their bowlers, including the part-timers to ensure that the main bowlers do not tire out. And when, as a captain, you have an all-rounder like Angelo Mathews in your ranks, as the fifth bowler, you are expected to get the best out of him. Rather surprisingly, he did not bowl a single over today. He was in the field throughout the day and dropped a sitter in the slips, whilst doing nothing extraordinary in the field otherwise.
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