http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Sri-Lanka-c758 Slam meagre Indian Bowling at SSC
The first day of the second Test between Sri Lanka and India was quite similar to the first day of the first Test between the two sides.
Then, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/India-c750 had managed to dismiss Tillakaratne Dilshan early in the first innings of the first Test. But there was to be no let-off today. Dilshan looked in fabulous touch and scored an excellent half-century before he got out hitting one straight to short cover.
After his dismissal, the two centurions from the first Test, Tharanga Paranavitana and Kumar Sangakkara, joined hands to frustrate the Indians and score hundreds again. Paranavitana was dismissed before stumps, immediately after his century, but Sangakkara remained unbeaten on 130 along with Mahela Jayawardene, who was on 13. Sri Lanka ended the day with more than 300 on the board.
Both teams made changes to their teams from the first Test. Sri Lanka replaced their entire bowling attack with Dilhara Fernando, Dammika Prasad, Suraj Randiv and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Gautam-Gambhir-c58623 and Yuvraj Singh. Sangakkara won the toss and had no hesitation in deciding to bat first. The pitch was flat, hard, and had dry grass, in short, a perfect batting track.
It looked like it was going to be a long, hard day in the office for the Indians and it was confirmed by Dilshan’s approach. He started off in his typical aggressive fashion, smashing four consecutive fours off http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Ishant-Sharma-c64566 in only the fourth over of the day. Each one of them was a beauty. He did not spare Abhimanyu Mithun either, smashing three fours off him in one over.
Dilshan got to his half century in only 39 balls and looked to be on course for an easy and well deserved hundred. But it was not to be and India got their breakthrough, against the run of play, when Dilshan hit it straight to http://www.senore.com/Cricket/VVS-Laxman-c2772 at short cover, off the bowling of Pragyan Ojha.
The wicket was the only blip and Sangakkara, who hit two boundaries in the same over that Dilshan got out, continued to torment the Indian bowlers. Sangakkara was aggressive and he tried to unsettle the Indian spinners by attacking them. There was more spin and bounce than in Galle, but both the batsmen were rarely tested. Paranavitana was cautious and circumspect and was happy to support his captain, like he had supported Dilshan.
In the second session, India managed to contain the run rate a bit and bring it down to below four. But this did not induce the batsmen into committing a mistake. Both got to their hundreds in the 71st over, but Paranavitana was dismissed in the next over when he dragged a Sharma ball onto his stumps. The pair had added 174 runs. Sangakkara was joined by Jayawardene, who had a wonderful record at the Sinhalese Sports Club. There were to be no fireworks, only the occasional boundary, and both the batsmen were content with the runs their team had put on by that time, and looked only to get through to stumps.
The Indian bowling looked toothless and weak. They were not helped by the lack of seam movement and the flat pitch. The bowlers did manage to come back well on the second day of the first Test and Dhoni will hope that they repeat that tomorrow.
Things look ominous for India, and if they don’t strike early tomorrow, they are in for some leather-hunt from the Sri Lankans.
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