Both Sri Lanka and India go into the second test with unchanged teams. India giving Sehwag another lifeline as he made two confidently played starts, whilst Sri Lanka stick with the winning formula.
Sri Lanka confidently go into the game as favourites.
Captain for the Blues.
Code:FC : 129 matches 281 runs @ 1.76 650 wickets @ 28.86, S/R of 41.75 Best Bowling of 8 for 57 39 5-wicket innings, 7 10-wicket matches. Test : 12 matches 8 runs @ 0.62 68 wickets @ 27.99, S/R of 40.22 Best Bowling of 5 for 59 4 5-wicket innings, 0 10-wicket matches.
Sreesanth?
I know a place where a royal flush
Can never beat a pair
Scorecard
Commentary
Sri Lanka fall short in Colombo
A strangling performance by India's spinners turned the match and gave India a sniff of a come from behind series win.
Sri Lanka batted first, and apart from two solid partnerships in the middle order, lost wickets at regular intervals with Harbhajan Singh taking 4-52 on what seemed a perfect batting pitch.
Kumar Sangakkara was the stand out performer with a silky 93 runs for 166 deliveries faced. Silva was a distant second with 43 as the Sri Lankans compiled 286 runs from 90 overs.
In reply, the Indians fared nearly identically to their subcontinent counterparts. Sehwag and Pathan both passed fifty on a pitch that was being molested by the bowlers. Chaminda Vaas's accuracy picked him up 5 wickets with the rest being shared.
India ended up 12 runs short of Sri Lanka's first innings total, with extras being the 4th highest scorer.
Any hope Sri Lanka had of making a big total to defend withdrew rapidly as Irfan Pathan, Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh worked well in tandem to take 8 scalps between them. There were no real stand outs for the Lankans, with 4 (arguably 5) batsman making starts but no one going higher than 35 (Tharanga).
India's second innings was almost like their first, which worked to their advantage as they cruised to the target set for them, despite losing four wickets. Rahul Dravid played a real captains knock to ensure they made it by remaining 55 not out off 180 balls to see India home and leveling the series.
Sri Lanka 1st Innings 286 all out
Sangakkara 93, Silva 46
Singh 4-52, Patel 2-29
India 1st Innings 274 all out
Sehwag 74, Pathan 51
Vaas 5-72, Muralitharan 2-32
Sri Lanka 2nd Innings 186 all out
Tharanga 35, Sangakkara 32
Singh 3-31, Pathan 3-36
India 2nd Innings 200 for 4
Dravid 55*, Jaffer 42
Vaas 3-58, Muralitharan 1-49
India won by 6 wkts.
MOTM: Harbhajan Singh
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India Name Team
Interim selector Manjunath Reddlapalli has decided to shore up the batting heading into the final and deciding test against Sri Lanka.
Zaheer Khan is dropped in favour of Yuvraj Singh while Laxman is moved up to 3.
After stepping out of his 30ft long, bullet proof, dark purple limosuine complete with deep fryer, spa bath, pinball machine, fake-tiger skin couch and water bed, Reddlapalli said this about his selections.
"Its a great honour to be selecting the team for the all important contest, lots of considerations had to be made as pitch conditions suited most to Indians, so we had to stick with the duo of Kumble and Harbajan" he said while an un-identified lingerie model filed his nails "Unfortunately Sreesanth and Khan missed out, but they would be in contention once again in the future series."
India
1. Virender Sehwag
2. Wasim Jaffer
3. VVS Laxman
4. Rahul Dravid (c)
5. Sachin Tendulkar
6. Yuvraj Singh
7. Mahendra Singh Dhoni (wk)
8. Irfan Pathan
9. Harbhajan Singh
10. Anil Kumble
11. Munaf Patel
12th man: Gautam Gambhir
Last edited by NZTailender; 12-02-2007 at 04:05 AM.
Sri Lanka Finish Series Unchanged
Tillekeratne Dilshan might count himself unlucky not to get a go in the Sri Lankan middle order after the third test Sri Lankan team was made public.
His replacement for the series, first class veteran Silva, has scored mildly, but solidly to retain his spot. Former Sri Lankan captain Marvin Attapattu is still out of the team with a niggling back injury. Attapattu was hopeful to come back into the side for the last test match, but failed a fitness test. He is now hopeful to return for the best of seven one day series to follow the test series.
Sri Lanka Third Test XI
Jayasuriya
Tharanga
Sangakkara
Jayawardene (c)
Kapugedera
Silva
Jayawardene (+)
Vaas
Maharoof
Malinga
Muralitharan
Dilshan (12th man)
The Indian selectors are clueless. Sreesanth is twice the bowler Pathan is.
Sreesanth said, "Next ball he was beaten and I said, 'is this the King Charles Lara? Who is this impostor, moving around nervously? I should have kept my mouth shut for the next ball - mind you, it was a length ball - Lara just pulled it over the church beyond the boundary! He is a true legend."
He would've made the difference I reckon on those damn sub-con pitches, too.Originally Posted by Mr Mxyzptlk
Arghhh
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Haha, Sreesanth not playing....
Run-Fest Ends In Draw
The deck was flat, the outfield was fast and the sun was shining. Just the kind of pitch that the batsman wanted to be playing on but also one that offered the bowlers a reasonable amount of bounce. After winning the toss, Indian captain Rahul Dravid made the smart choice to bat first but would have been extremely disappointed with his team's batting performance as they were bundled out for 267, the skipper himself making a fine century with assistance coming from Harbhajan Singh, who struck a quick fire 55 from only 56 deliveries faced. Lasith Malinga and Chamina Vaas were the main weapons, taking 9 wickets between them, Malinga ending up with figures of 5/86 while Muttiah Muralitharan's 18 overs were played away with relative ease by the Indian batsman.
In return Sri Lanka amassed 495, with ten of their batsman getting into double figures. Youngster Chamara Silva led the way with 105 while the two Jayawardene's, Mahela and Prasanna both hit half centuries. The Indian bowling was woeful, conceding over 40 extras that included 19 no-balls and 9 wides. Irfan Pathan returned figures of 3/162 but was easily the most expensive and wayward of the bowlers. India were required to score 218 more runs before Sri Lanka had to bat again and they duly impression, Virender Sehwag and Wasim Jaffer putting on over 200 for the first wicket before Jaffer was lbw to Malinga on 93. Sehwag went on to make 123 and was helped with half centuries to Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar.
India eventually declared with the score at 469/5 with Sri Lanka chasing 241 for victory. Opener Sanath Jayasuriya got them off to a flying start, slashing 52 from just 37, an innings that included six 4's and one 6. After being dropped by Dhoni on 18 he had no trouble hitting out before eventually being dismissed by Anil Kumble. Sri Lankan captain Mahela Jayawardene batted very slowly for his 38 and some responsibility for not being able to chase down the total must lay on his shoulders. Chamara Kapugedara was also dropped early but put that out of his mind as he cleared the boundary four times on his way to 65* but the Sri Lankan's will be rueing their inability to take their chances and win the series.
India 1st innings 267 all out
Dravid 101, Harbhajan Singh 55
Malinga 5-86, Vaas 4-79
Sri Lanka 495 all out
Silva 105, M Jayawardene 86, P Jayawardene 69
Pathan 3-162
India 2nd innings 469/5 dec
Sehwag 123, Jaffer 93, Tendulkar 84, Dravid 73
Malinga 2-116
Sri Lanka 2nd innings 217/4
Kapugedara 65*, Jayasuriya 52
Kumble 2-67
Match Drawn
MOTM: Dravid
Last edited by Perm; 13-02-2007 at 09:31 PM.
Sachin what a gun he is.
Chamara Silva isn't a youngster ^^
Decent series, that. 1-1.
He's a youngster in International cricket, only played two test's before this.
Two tests!
Or something.
RIP Fardin Qayyumi (AKA "cricket player"; "Bob"), 1/11/1990 - 15/4/2006
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