Sri Lanka Slam 600 On Flat SSC Wicket
Sri Lanka were in a commanding position at stumps on the second day of the second Test at the Sinhalese Sports Club in Colombo. They declared after scoring a mammoth first innings total of 642/4 and then saw India finish the day at 95 for no loss. Kumar Sangakkara got to his double century while Mahela Jayawardene scored a big hundred and Thilan Samaraweera remained unbeaten on 76.
It was another day of misery for the Indian bowlers, who were unable to do anything to stop the Sri Lankan batsmen from piling on the runs. The spinners had had an economy of under three on the first day, but they were attacked today as the emphasis was on scoring quick runs and declaring in order to give the bowlers enough time to bowl the Indians out twice.
Sangakkara continued from where he left off yesterday, looking in prime form. He smashed two fours off Abhimanyu Mithun in the first two balls of the day. In fact he had six fours in the first five overs of the day. Jayawardene, who had been a little circumspect on the first day, joined the act and the runs started to flow.
The pitch, once again, did not offer anything for the bowlers. The conditions too were unhelpful and the lack of any threat from the Indian bowling made it easy for the Sri Lankan batsmen. Sangakkara went past the 200 mark, when he square drove Harbhajan Singh. It was his seventh double century.
However, India did manage to get a breakthrough when Sangakkara edged a quicker delivery from Virendar Sehwag to http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Rahul-c83321 Dravid at first slip. Sri Lanka were in a great position by then and once again it was to be only a blip and any hopes of India making inroads in the Sri Lankan late order were soon extinguished. Samaraweeera looked comfortable from the outset getting four boundaries before he made 20. This was after he had had a terrible run in the previous three innings, scoring only a run in all.
Jayawardene who has an excellent record at the SSC managed to get to his tenth century at the ground by punching it through the covers for a double. The Indians, by this time had almost given up and were waiting for the inevitable declaration to come. But they had to go through more agony before they got to that point. Samaraweera got to his half century, Jayawardene went past 150 and the Sri Lankan total went past 600. The declaration came a little earlier than expected when Jayawardene, who looked on course for a double century, chipped it straight to midwicket, when he was on 174. It was Harbhajan Singh’s first wicket of the series.
The Indian openers, Sehwag and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Murali-Vijay-c78035 started just like the Sri Lankan openers had done on the first day. Sehwag smashed three fours in one over from Dammika Prasad, showing that he can do whatever the Sri Lankan batsmen had done. The Sri Lankans soon seemed to realize that they were in store for a long time on the field, a fate suffered by their Indian counterparts.
Sehwag looked in great nick, scoring boundaries almost at will. The wicket was easy paced and he was never troubled by the Sri Lankan spinners. http://www.senore.com/Cricket/India-c750’s scoring rate was more than five and Sehwag did the bulk of the scoring. Vijay looked to play the role that Tharanga Paranavitana had played to good effect on the first day. He rotated the strike and left the aggression to Sehwag.
India will look to build on this start tomorrow and will not want to repeat their mistakes from the first Test. http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Sri-Lanka-c758 are in a great position despite this wonderful start by the Indian openers. But the lack of any help from the track will be a problem for the bowlers. The other issue for Sri Lanka is that their pace bowler Dammika Prasad left the field with an injury and it remains to be seen how he shapes up.
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