Written by Sunny | 06 August 2010

The day four of the final Test match at Colombo between India and Sri Lanka was full of ups and downs as the teams struggled for dominance since the starting of the day.



Sri Lanka started playing ahead of their overnight total of 45 runs at the loss of two wickets. Indian bowlers made a dramatic comeback in the morning session of the game. The Sri Lankan middle order perished under the attack of Pragyan Ojha. Ojha grabbed wickets of Suraj Randiv, Mahela Jayawardene and captain Kumar Sangakkara within the few minutes of the start of the game and jolted the Sri lankan batting line up.



Captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni then introduced the new comer Amit Mishra and he did his job for the captain by picking up the wickets of Angelo Mathews and Prasanna Jayawardene. The Sri Lankans looked in visible danger as their score became 87 runs at the loss of seven wickets.



But the heroic innings from Tilhilan Samaraweera and tailender  Ajantha Mendis caught Indians completely off guard. The duo had a whopping 118-run partnership for the ninth wicket and made sure that they sail their team to a safe total.

 

Samaraweera who had made 137 runs in the first innings, played a responsible innings of 83 runs this time. Mendis gave his full support to Samarweera as they kept on picking quick singles in their entire innings and Indians were left with nothing much to.



The torment finally ended for Indians when Mishra dismissed Mendis at a score of 78 runs. But it came too late...

Written by Sunny | 06 August 2010

Kumar Sangakkara, the Sri Lankan captain, recently lashed out at the ICC’s ranking system calling it as something that was not understood by anyone. He also called for a fair evaluation with all the top teams playing each other every two years. His team has been the most affected by the ICC’s future tours program with the least number of Tests in foreign soil.

This happened after it became clear that India will retain the top spot irrespective of the result of the ongoing Test series in Sri Lanka. Many have questioned India’s rank and have openly debated as to whether they deserve to be the top side in the world. Mahela Jayawardene, said that India were not as aggressive as a top side is ought to be.

The top side has to be one which sets the standards for the others to follow. They should also be the most feared side and the rest of the teams should want to beat them and prove to the world that they can match the champions. This was the case when the West Indies were the dominant side in the 70’s and 80’s and when Australia were on top in the late 90’s and the noughties.

But this is not the case now and most of the sides clearly think that India are on top only because of a ranking system that is pretty complex. The reason behind this thought is that India have never won a series in Australia and South Africa and have not done so in Sri Lanka in the last 17 years. There are four other sides that are in contention for the top spot, Australia, South...

Written by Sunny | 05 August 2010

The Hot Spot technology will not be available at next year’s cricket World Cup. The technology, which is favored by many players, uses infrared cameras to determine whether contact has been made with the ball and if there was contact, which part of the batsman made the contact. However, the Umpire Decision Review System (UDRS is expected to be present.

BBG Sports, the Australian company that supplies the technology has announced that the technology will not be present at the World Cup due to non availability of Hot Spot cameras. The company has only four cameras at present. The technology is similar to that of tank and jet fighter tracking that is used in military and the company needs to get permission after undergoing security checks, if it has procure a camera.

There are only seven months left for the World Cup and that will not be enough for the company to procure enough cameras to make the technology available for the first round matches. The set up costs also are pretty high with a two-camera set up costing $6000 a day and a four-camera set up costing $10000 a day. However, the four cameras would be enough for matches beginning with the quarter finals.

The non availability of the Hot Spot is not likely to stop the use of the UDRS. The UDRS is likely to use the Hawk-eye, super slow-motion replays and audio from the stump mikes.

Written by Sunny | 04 August 2010

On the second day of the final Test match between India and Sri Lanka at P Sara Oval, the hosts began playing ahead of their yesterday’s total of 293 runs.

In the morning session, Sri Lankan middle order batsmen, Thilan Samaraweera and Angelo Mathews kept on adding more runs to their team’s account while Indian bowlers desperately tried to get wickets.

The parternership broke when Mathews was caught lbw by Pragyan Ojha. But Samaraweera was firm on one end while wickets kept falling on the other. He played a heroic innings of unbeaten 137 runs and cruised his team to a decent first innings total of 425 runs. This was Samaraweera’s 12th Test century. He played with cofidence and dominated Indian bowlers at every opportunity.

Although Indian bowling was much more disciplined in this match, they failed to perform as a unit. Ishant Sharma gave some good spells but lacked the support from the spinners. Pragyan Ojha got four wickts while Ishant Sharma grabbed three. Abhimanyu Mithun and Amit Sharma failed to create any magic with their bowling.

In response to the Sri Lankan innings, Indian opener Virendra Sehwag and M. Vijay started the innings steadily. However, M. Vijay was dismissed at an early score of 14 runs by Lasith Malinga. But Sehwag continued playing his trademark shots and was quick to add runs to the Indian scoreboard.

The next batsman, Rahul Dravid was caught lbw by Mathews at a score of 23 runs. Then Sachin Tendulkar joined Sehwag on the crease and the...

Written by Sunny | 04 August 2010

Three men were detained by police on the first day of the third Test between India and Sri Lanka, for taunting the Indian player, Yuvraj Singh. They had also made provocative hand gestures towards the player.

The fans were placed just outside the Oval Taverners Bar, closer to the players’ passage. The taunts were thrown every time Yuvraj took drinks to the players on the field and returned back to the dressing room. The fans taunted him by shouting “Water boy”. Yuvraj is the twelfth man and his place in the team has been taken by Suresh Raina.

The fans apparently drunk, also chanted “Water boy, Water boy, why ain’t you playing”. Yuvraj then complained to the Indian team management at the end of the day’s play and the police were asked to intervene and take the fans into custody.

The team management was pleased by Yuvraj’s attitude to the chanting and taunting from the fans. The manager, Ranjib Biswal, said that Yuvraj was restrained throughout the chanting and did not do anything to provoke them.

This looks like a good sign as the player is known for his fiery attitude. He was recently accused of involving in a night club brawl at the end of the T20 world cup in the West Indies.

Written by Sunny | 03 August 2010

The Sri Lankan batsmen dominated the day one of the final Test match between India and Sri Lanka at P Sara Oval. Sri Lanka is already leading the series with 1-0 and a draw is all they need to win the series.

The day started on a difficult note for India as their most experienced spinner Harbhajan Singh missed the match due to injury. Although Harbhajan had failed to perform in this series, his absence could be felt as the Sri Lankan batsmen were ruthless against his replacement, Amit Sharma.

Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni lost the spin of coin for the third time in this series and the Sri Lankan captain Kumar Sangakkara decided to bat on a pitch that looked dry, thus favourable for batsmen on the first couple of days.

The Indian bowling looked much more disciplined today. Ishant Sharma and Pragyan Ojha had a good early spell and Abhimanyu Mithun backed them. Ishant Sharma picked up an early wicket of the danger man Tharanga Paranavitana, dismissing him at a score of eight runs.

TM Dilshan was run out at a score of 41 runs as M Vijay surprised the batsman with his quickness. However, the Sri Lankan middle-order took control the situation. Captain Sangakkara along with Mahela Jayawardene quickly added more runs to the Sri Lankan account. Sangakkara made 75 runs before falling prey to Pragyan Ojha.

Jayawardene then added 84 runs with the next batsman TT Samaraweera for the fourth wicket. He was dismissed at a score of 56 runs by Ojha. By the end of today’s...

Written by Sunny | 27 July 2010

Sri Lanka piled on 311/2 on the first day of the second Test match against India at SSC in Colombo as the Indian bowlers looked as jaded as they had in the previous game. The flat nature of the track means that the ordeal may not yet be over for the Indian side.



 

With Lasith Malinga and Muthiah Muralitharan out of the side, it did look like the Indians could have a decent chance of making a match out of this after their first game loss. However, Sri Lanka won the toss, batted first and the manner in which they played, almost seemed to have batted the Indians out of the game.

 

The Indian opening bowling pair of Ishant Sharma and Abhimanyu Mithun continued with their inability to extract anything out of the wicket. There was that odd occasion when Mithun got the ball to swing around, but for most  time, the bowling seemed  less than ordinary.

 

Tharanga Paranavitana and Tillakaratne Dilshan added 99 runs for the first wicket and it came off only 18 overs. Dilshan got to his fifty and then got out, but Paranavitana continued from where he had left off in the previous game.

 

Number three batsman, Kumar Sangakkara continued to bat on at the same pace as Dilshan, and it was not a surprise when both, Sangakkara and Paranavitana got to their centuries in the same over. The opening batsman left soon after, but Sangakkara carried on to get to 130, as the Sri Lankans ended the day at 311/2.

 

Without too many penetrative bowling options, the Indians will be...

Written by Sunny | 24 July 2010

The  were dealt a huge blow when their best bowler from the previous game against India, Lasith Malinga, was ruled out of the second Test match to be played at the SSC in Colombo. Malinga suffered from a knee injury and was ruled out as a precaution.

Sri Lanka had won the first Test match at Galle against India by ten wickets, thanks to a fine all-round show by Malinga. He had hit a half-century and followed it up with a six-wicket haul.

Malinga will be replace by either Dilhara Fernando or Dammika Prasad, both of whom are present in the squad named for the second Test match.

Muthiah Muralitharan, who had retired from Test cricket at the conclusion of the first Test match will be also be replaced by another spinner. In all probability it will be Ajantha Mendis who will be chosen to lead the bowing attack.

Mendis had made life difficult for the Indians in the warm-up game and scalped a six-wicket haul.