Sri Lanka Register Ten-Wicket Win Over India
The first Test match between India and Sri Lanka at Galle concluded with http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Sri-Lanka-c758 registering a whopping ten-wicket win over the world number one Test cricket team.
The hosts, who had dominated the game from the first day faced little resistance from Indians on final day as well. Sri Lanka overpowered http://www.senore.com/Cricket/India-c750 in all the departments of the game, batting, bowling and fielding. India’s only consolation on the final day was that they managed to avoid an innings defeat.
However, the spectators at Galle witnessed a historic event. The legendary cricketer http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Muttiah-Muralitharan-c78157 reached the 800 Test wickets mark in what was his final Test match. Muralitharan is the first cricketer in the world to achieve this milestone and given the fact that the number of Test matches is reducing over time, he could well be the last.
The match seemed to be more of a competition between Muralitharan and Lasith Malinga as to who will pick more Indian wickets. Both the Sri Lankan bowlers were simply at their best and Indian batting order succumbed in face of their bowling.
Although it was Muralitharan’s day today, Malinga’s performance left no-one in doubt that he was back from his injury.
Malinga was playing in a Test match after almost three years and made a remarkable comeback. He took seven wickets in the two innings and made 64 in the first innings, which is his highest score in a Test match. He was awarded with the Man-of-the-Match title for his all-round display.
India began the day at 181/5 and had added only five more runs to their total when captain http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Mahendra-Singh-Dhoni-c73820 was dismissed by Malinga. After Dhoni’s dismissal, Harbhajan Singh was caught plumb in front of the wickets by Muralitharan which gave him his 799th Test wicket. India were down to 197/7 and staring down the barrel.
However, India’s lower-order batsmen tried their best to delay inevitable and battled for next 23 overs, even as they scored 141 runs.
VVS Laxman kept his end up even as wickets kept falling at the other. He had a 49-run partnership with Abhimanyu Mithun and then another 68 runs partnership with http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Ishant-Sharma-c64566, to raise the Indian hopes, given the chances of rains.
Laxman scored 69 and had hardly looked troubled at the crease when he was run out by Angelo Matthews. At this stage, Muralitharan had had 799 scalps to his name, and with India having lost the nine wickets, he needed to take the last wicket to get to 800.
The last Indian pair battled on for 14 overs, before Muralitharan finally had his man. Ojha was caught by Mahela Jayawardene in the slips as Muralitharan got his eighth wicket of the game, but more importantly, his 800th of the career.
India put up a feeble target of 95 runs for Sri Lanka. The hosts hardly broke into a sweat as they managed to achieve the target in 14 overs without the loss of any wicket. Tillakaratne Dilshan registered the Sri Lankan victory in style by smashing a massive six off Harbhajan Singh.
The Indian captain expressed disappointment over the team’s performance, and said that the team missed its senior bowlers. However Dhoni seemed happy with http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Virender-Sehwag-c95429’s batting and Abhimanyu Mithun’s form in his first Test match.
Considering that around 120 overs were lost in this match due to rains, its truly commendable the way Sri Lanka still managed win the match so convincingly.
In the last two Test series India played in Sri Lanka they had lost the first match, won the second and again lost the third! Things have definitely begun on a similar note, but it remains to be seen whether the Indians have the bowling line-up to scalp 20 Sri Lankan wickets.
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