Running diary - Day 1: Dravid shows the way yet again
Day 2
Early morning appears to be the best bet to take wickets and today should be no different. I think India needs at least another 150 runs or so. The key will be the frame of mind in which Rahul Dravid resumes his innings. He has the players who can keep him company (even Zaheer Khan has a batting world record to his name - highest score ever by a #11 batsman).
Sivaramakrishnan speaks in a manner unique to him, injecting emphasis multiple times in a sentence, going up and down, for no fathomable reason whatsoever.
Only one slip in place to start the day. Sangakkara will not get through this line-up quickly by giving them easy singles. Until the batsmen show they can pierce the gaps, why give them those gaps? The ball is still very new (only 4 overs old).
Early indication, all of 6 balls into the day - Dravid's footwork is still a little edgy. He is yet to hit a ball with the middle of his bat today but made it through without any damage.
10:10pm: Harbhajan is the next best we have to Virender Sehwag in terms of hitting a ball if he thinks it needs hitting. By the way, with a boundary he reaches 1,500 Test runs. Yes, the milestone watch shall continue today.
10:12pm: Murali is the captain as Sangakkara goes off the field. The ball has not gone to Sanagkkara today and he probably knew about the time the match started a few weeks in advance. So I wonder what it could be. Surely not the Delhi belly.
10:15pm: And Murali's captaincy is the lucky charm. Dravid's shaky footwork today gets him in trouble as he inner-edges Welegedara onto the stumps. Sri Lanka gets a wicket in spite of the defensive field. ZAK comes in to bat.
10:18pm: I play cricket with a batsman who takes a guard with his bat on the leg-stump, exposing all three stumps. The guy is an opener and bowler after bowler tries to hit those exposed stumps. This year he was our leading run-scorer, with his high being a century he hit in the first 15 overs of the match. ZAK's stance reminds me of him. Dammika Prasad is all charged up about hitting those stumps or hitting ZAK, whichever comes first. So far it is neither as his balls keep sailing by harmlessly.
10:24pm: "Harbhajan has a good eye," informs Ravi Shastri, as he (Harbhajan, not Shastri) bludgeons Welegedara to the cover fence. I wonder if it is Harbhajan's right or left eye that is the good one. Poor soul. No wonder his bowling is all wonky sometimes.
10:26pm: Harbhajan evaded the exact duplicate of the ball that got Sehwag yesterday, thrusting his bat well forward of the pads and punching it down. Well played, sir. 398 for 7 in 95 overs.
10:29pm: Dammika Prasad continues to bowl short even as his partner picks up 4 wickets with fuller-length deliveries. Some people are like that only. Supporters of Ajit Agarkar acutely know what I mean.
ZAK enjoys to the tune of two upper-cuts, one more edged than the other to take India past 400. Take that, 32 for 4 and all that jazz!!
Oops, I nearly forgot:
Obligatory Non-SRT Milestone watch: Zaheer Khan needs 73 more runs to reach 2,000 first class runs. And 107 more to reach 1,000 Test runs.
10:33pm: Prasad glares at ZAK after an over of bouncers and yorkers that ZAK took 2 boundaries off of. The 6th ball was pitched up and beat ZAK who escaped being bowled by the narrowest of margins. Naturally, Prasad was so interested in glaring at ZAK he probaly did not notice how a good length ball produced his only "beauty" of the day. Talk about missing the picture while focusing on the details.
10:35pm: Prasad would be well-advised to not rile up ZAK. Zaheer has a history of getting excited when the opposition taunts him, most famously during the "jelly bean" fiasco that cost England a home series. And anyway, even without watching him bat, I guarantee that Zaheer's bouncers will be more on-target than Prasad's have been.
10:36pm: Harbhajan plays a hook shot that would make any top order batsman proud. Deserved a four, got a couple. Where's the justice in this world? If he edges a ball, he gets a four to third man. He plays a gorgeous hook shot, he gets a couple.
10:41pm: Prasad channels his inner-Brett Lee and bowls an atrocious beamer. Replays show that there appears to be no malicious intent at all in it as he was instantly apologetic and shares a man-hug with ZAK, who was able to fend it off for a single.
10:43pm: Welegedara keeps getting the ball to come in sharply and ZAK is up to the task with his bat. The next ball holds his line and beats ZAK. Welegedara deserves a Michelle Pfeiffer and more for his efforts.
10:46pm: ZAK must be a little confused right now. Welegedara is bowling like ZAK usually does and facing him is proving to be a hard task. It's like looking in the mirror for the comeback man. Harbhajan is tired of Wlegedara's in-swingers and walks down the wicket and sweep-pulls it to keep the strike.
10:48pm: Bruce Yardley is bemoaning the fact that the tail-enders are just taking singles and not upping the rate. I guess he'd be happy with 420 all-out as opposed to 483. Just some numbers I am throwing out there. Let's see where the total finally ends up.
10:49pm: Rangana Herath in the attack and promptly finds the right line and length, inducing an edge 4th ball. It sure is easy to loop them in when you don't fear the batsman. This must be like playing the Kiwis as far as he is concerned.
Yardey critiques Mahela Jayawardene's slip-catching technique and thinks that he spreads his legs too wide apart to be able to dive forward and take catches. Nice pick-up but, Yardley, Mahela does something right, I bet. Don't look now but he is just 33 catches shy of the world record in Tests, clocking in at 151 catches.
10:53pm: Something stinks in the state of Murali-land. He is bowling to ZAK with 4 guys on the boundary. This is the first over you are bowling, Kandy Man, and you have almost as many wickets as ZAK has runs in Test cricket. Plus, ZAK has not even shown an inclination to hit you over the top. This is a Virender Sehwag field to a vastly inferior batsman. No wonder your record against India is pedestrian compared to other countries.
10:55pm: Before the replay is shown I am telling you ZAK was NOT OUT.
10:56pm: Okay, the replays show that the ball was sliding down outside the leg-stump (kissing the outside of the leg-stump according to Hawkeye). Booo. Harper errs and gives a decision that he would not have given to a top-order batsman. This is the curse of a tail-ender and partially explains why they average so much less than top-order batsmen. That and the little matter of a difference in skill level. 414 for 7 in 101.2 overs.
Amit Mishra comes in to play Herath (who got the wicket, by the way). Amit Mishra looks quite accomplished, so far. Hopping back to flick the first ball for a single and then sweeping Murali for another single. Meanwhile, Harbhajan is getting antsy, trying a reverse sweep and then getting twitchy at the crease. Doesn't he see Mishra looks like a good player? And as I say that, Mishra edges a ball between keeper and slip for a four. Well, he still looks like he knows which end of the bat to play with.
Drinks come at a good time. I hope Dhoni sends Harbhajan a message here. The difficult part of the morning, as far as batting is concerned, has passed and India needs another 75 runs at least, if not more. Don't laugh, but this is Harbhajan's best chance yet of scoring a century.
423 for 8 in 103 overs. Harbhajan 19, Mishra 6.
Obligatory Non-SRT Milestone watch: Amit Mishra needs another 63 runs to reach 1,000 first-class runs.
Mishra has 9 first-class 50's to his name, Harbhajan has 11. Both have a high score of 84. So, if Harbhajan thinks he can bat, then surely Mishra can, too.
11:06pm: Harbhajan plays more calmly and takes a single off the third ball. Mishra promptly waits for the ball and flicks a single. One last time: Mishra can bat. Harbhajan seems to have realized this as he defends the next one in copybook fashion, and then plays an inside-out cover drive for a single to sweeper cover. Just like that, 3 singles in the over, no risks taken. Nice.
11:09pm: Harbhajan Singh tries a reverse-sweep to Murali and throws his wicket away. Seriously dude, what's the matter with you? Don't you like having a good total behind you when you bowl? I hope someone gives him a talking-to in the pavilion. He just threw away a chance to put the game beyond Sri Lanka's reach.
11:10pm: Ishant Sharma belongs to the Jason Gillespie-school of the forward press. It is a matter of time before Murali finds a way through that. *Sigh*.
11:11pm: Yup, Prasanna Jayawardene shows us why he is the best keeper around, stumping Ishant Sharma who misses the doosra and drags his foot out of the crease as he thrusts forward. Murali picks up two garbage wickets. India 426 all out. I hope you are happy, Bruce Yardley. Now can you talk to the Sri Lankans and tell them what not to do, too. Ugh!
I did not even have time to give you a Milestone watch for Ishant. Harbhajan owes me some wickets now.
Okay, the damage today has been 41 runs for 4 wickets. And Sangakkara did this with a defensive field set to stop the boundaries from being scored. Seriously.
Now, WillowTV is showing highlights of the Lords Test in which Ganguly and Dravid made their debuts. Having never seen that before I shall sit back and enjoy the show. Be back in 10 minutes.
11:18pm: Yikes. I forgot that the players had trooped off a few minutes ago so three Ganguly highlight shots (a flick and two drives) later the broadcast comes back live. Grrrr. The Indians come out on the field, ambling in, with the body language of a bunch of folks who believe they are in for a long day in the sun.
By the way, if you get a chance to watch the Ishant Sharma stumping in real-time, please do so. The speed of Jayawardene's hand movements is stunning. What a keeper.
11:22pm: The Sri lLankan Sehwag - Tillakaratne Dilshan - comes in. The relief is that Zaheer Khan is the bowler with the new ball. Should be a fun battle. At the other end is Tharanga Paranavitana. For obvious reasons I shall refer to him as Tharanga.
11:24pm: Zaheer Khan begins with three bouncers, hitting Dilshan with the second one. Yes, Dammika Prasad, this one's your fault. But ZAK better bring his line back and get back to doing what he does best. Sachin and Laxman are waiting at slip. I am surprised there isn't a third slip for the first few overs.
Obligatory Non-SRT Milestone watch: Tharanga needs 120 runs to reach 6,000 first-class runs.
Tharanga is a lefty, by the way. I knew that but I had forgotten. Zaheer bowls a more conventional line to him, suggesting that he has some खुन्नस (grudge) against Dilshan.
Loud appeal for caught behind but that was definitely the bat hitting the pad. Yes, replays confirm it and Tharanga is fine.
11:29pm: Ishant Sharma at the other end. Dilsha takes a Dhoni double to the square-leg umpire. Yuvraj slides all over the ball. What a comedown for a guy who used to be such a livewire at point. He is now fielding at mid-on.
11:31pm: Note to Dilshan. Batting aggressively is not about trying to smash the ball as hard as you can. It is working out for you right now, but it is too risky. If you want to be like Sehwag, note that his fours come off "proper cricketing shots", to steal a commentatorism.
Obligatory Non-SRT Milestone watch: This is a tough one....hmmmm. Dilshan needs 164 runs to get to 19,000 all-purpose runs.
Interesting factoid for you: Ishant Sharma has taken 5 wickets in an innings just once in Test cricket in 31 innings. No better indication than this of how he is simply a guy picked on potential. And I give Arjun Yadav grief. Gulp.
11:39pm: Already there is a sense that we are waiting for the batsmen to make mistakes. Or is that just my latent pessimism following the insipid batting display of this morning?
Ishant is bowling wide of the stumps and Tharanga is just letting them go through. Wasted effort here. Make the batsman play, Ishant. Make him play.
Finally, Ishant makes him play and the edge predictably goes in the gap between slip and gully and races way for a four to third man. Ishant Sharma is not a pitch-it-up bowler, Dhoni. Why do you have a cover-point, cover, and mid-off for him? Strengthen the slips.
Lightning is surely going to strike me now - Sunil Gavaskar echoes my sentiments on TV and shows how the field placement is slightly awry. ZAK gets the first "look out for the danger zone" infraction from Harper. I wish the umpires were just as hawk-eyed when it came to watching LBW's. ZAK would agree.
11:47pm: The news isn't good for Ishant supporters. He looks slightly off his rhythm. Hard to believe this is the same guy who had the best batsman in the world in all sorts of trouble. Here's some proof of that:
11:51pm: Predictable. "Slashes, slashes hard and gets a boundary to third man," points out Shastri as Tharanga is the latest benefactor of the missing-third-man field placement.
11:52pm: 10 minutes to lunch and Harbhajan makes an appearance. I have a good feeling about this. Just one slip and a forward short-leg. I think Harbhajan should get a backward short-leg, too. Dilshan jumps out and hits it to Ishant Sharma at deep midwicket. I swear it must be the water in Delhi. (Dilshan is a Delhi IPL player, I think).
Habhajan comes round the wicket to Tharanga but bowls it short and wide. Tharanga is enjoying this. Doesn't Harbhajan wish Murali had been just as generous?
11:55pm: FLIGHT the ball, Harbhajan, FLIGHT the ball. Dravid is waiting for catch #185. Sri Lanka 24 for no loss, in 7 overs. Dilshan 9, Tharanga 14.
11:58pm: Dilshan continues to channel his inner-Sehwag, smashing a cover drive through Sehwag's hand, injuring him in the process. Badrinath comes in while Sehwag takes an early lunch break, and promptly let's a ball go through him for a four. Yikes! Rude welcome.
By the way, why isn't Badrinath getting ready to play for Tamil Nadu? Surely, there's at least one local cricketer in Ahmedabad who is a decent fielder. India can pull out a Gary Pratt or two, right? Like so:
Sri Lanka saved plenty of runs in the field even as India was laying the cosh on them. In one over, India has given away three fours with the fielders getting a hand on (or being in a position to field) the ball. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Sri Lanka merrily advances to lunch at 37 for no loss in 8 overs. Dilshan and Tharanga are both on 18.
12:01am: I think I shall spend the next half-hour reading a book (The Beekeeper's Apprentice). And even as I type that, WillowTV is showing me the very same Ganguly-Dravid highlight that was interrupted earlier. Goody. I shall watch the events from 1996 instead.
Interesting points from those highlights:
Watching Graeme Hick bowl, Ganguly's batting was already the style that he carried through till the end, Dravid's batting reminiscent of his display yesterday, no third man stopping boundaries, Shastri pronouncing Rahul's last name as Draveed, Azhar in the Indian dressing room, Dravid walking on 95.
Now it is Sarfaraz Nawaz against England:
He was a big guy, with an impressive mustache. His run-up would have been "rectified" even before he went past puberty by a "bowling coach" today. Spectators could sit in the stands behind the bowler's arm (wonder how Tendulkar would have liked that). Finally, a highlights package for a bowler is extremely limited if all they show are his wickets.
12:46am: Post-lunch session begins with Ishant Sharma angling the ball across the lefty, who is not even remotely interested in it as there is no threat of the ball coming back in. Dilshan, on the other hand, is more interested in the ball, thumping it when it is bowled in the same zip code as him.
12:48am: ZAK is back, coming round the wicket now, continuing from where he left off in the over before lunch. Badrinath is still on the field, so Sehwag is definitely injured or is living up to his nawaabi nickname. This over is exactly what Ishant should be replicating. Close enough to interest the batsman, but venomous enough to get him thinking. I wish Ishant would go round the wicket to left-handers more.
Sri Lanka is motoring along ominously with Sangakkara, Jayawardene (Mahela, that is) and Samaraweera still to come. Of course, yesterday the Sri Lankan supporters were saying the same thing about the Indian line-up, substituting our big names for theirs, and see how that panned out.
12:55am: Finally, Ishant makes the batsman put bat to ball. Nothing earth-shattering yet but at least he is giving himself a chance. Tharanga unfurls an exquisite cover drive to overtake Dilshan. Interesting batsman. Patiently letting the balls go by till the bowler comes back to him and yet he has scored 3 more runs than Dilshan (24 to 21) in the same number of balls (33). Sri Lanka is now 48 for no loss in just 11 overs. Fun stuff.
12:59am: Edged. Third man. Boundary. Broken record. *sigh*
1:00am: ZAK and Tony Hill discuss the danger area once again. If the ICC would be just as worried about more relevant things like slow over-rates and spectator comforts, the world would be a better place.
1:03am: Ishant is bowling too close to Dilshan, giving him too many opportunities to slide the ball away to the leg-side for easy singles. Ishant is now coming round the wicket to the lefty. Oversteps, though, and gives away three more to deep midwicket.
Sri Lanka looking really, really good. Just as I say that Dilshan hooks uppishly but luckily on one bounce to Gambhir at deep square-leg. Tharanga then takes a bouncer on his chest even as he sways out of the way.
Yardley and Russell Arnold think that Ishant was too quick to start bowling round the wicket to the lefty. I dunno. The batsman has been more involved in the activity since the change. Ishant operating out of a 23 step run-up and bowling in the high 130's. He has bowled better in the last couple of overs, I must say.
1:09m: ZAK getting the ball to move away from the right-hander even though he is bowling round the wicket. Just needs to get the ball closer to Dilshan, inviting him to drive.
Aargh! Yuvraj Singh does not collect the ball cleanly at mid-on and a furiously back-pedaling Tharanga (non-striker) makes it back to the crease. When he prowled at point, Yuvraj had the same propensity to just knock the ball down, too, and it has persisted with him through the years even as he has transitioned away from the close-catching areas. ZAK is hitting the 140 kmph mark now.
Sri Lanka 59 for no loss, 14 overs, Tharanga 32, Dilshan 24.
One more over of Ishant and if there are no wickets I'd try Amit Mishra for a few overs just to see how much purchase he can extract from the wicket. Time to get a little more pro-active now.
1:19am: Mishra into the attack! First ball induces a top edged sweep from Dilshan that lands just short of Ishant at deep fine-leg. Second ball inside edged to midwicket. Third ball, spun in and took the inside edge to fine-leg. Oooh. Fourth ball, Dilshan dances down and drives crunchingly through cover for 4. Fifth ball, repeats the dance and drives straighter where Yuvraj puts in a Kumble-dive and lets it go for 4. Sixth ball goes around Dilshan but not at all close to coming back to the stumps.
Okay, that was better. Even though the over yielded 10 runs, there was enough happening to give both sides something to be happy about.
Sri Lanka is showing the Indians why they needed to be more disciplined about their batting earlier today. This is a great wicket to bat on right now. By the way, Yuvraj is now patrolling sweeper cover. Ouch!
1:25am: Dhoni's persistence with Ishant Sharma pays off. An outside edge by Tharanga induced from an over the wicket line (what do I know, huh?) is snaffled one-handed by Dhoni diving away to his left in front of first slip. What a fantastic catch!! Brilliant keeping. The ball would not have reached first slip as it was dying in front of him and this is about as good a catch as a keeper can ever expect to take. Take a bow, captain.
1:28am: Kumar Sangakkara to the crease. Is he still the #1 ranked batsman in the world? Let me check. Yup, he is. Look who's at #2! It's Gautam Gambhir.
1:30am: Mishra spins one viciously past a dancing Dilshan who rushes back into the crease in time. He is looking impressive enough for Dhoni to give him a slip, forward short-leg, and backward short-leg.
1:34am: Ishant is finally bowling the right line to Dilshan, the length is still just a little short. And even as I say that, he adjusts the length, loses the line and gets flicked for 2 runs by Dilshan. Ranjit Fernando says that the Indians are making Dilshan work hard for his runs, even as the batsman is motoring along at a strike-rate of 75. 82 for 1 in 19 overs, Dilshan 41, Sangakkara 3.
1:42am: Sangakkara unfurls the most elegant cover drive imaginable against the turn of Amit Mishra. Ominous signs for India, even as Mishra is extracting startling amount of turn from the rough outside the left-hander's off-stump. Time for Harbhajan now.
I am going to take a quick break now and get something to eat. Be back shortly while the players take a drinks break.
I just had some first-class pappu. Those in the know will know what I mean.
1:47am: Harbhakan flights it outside the off-stump and is thumped by Dilshan to deep cover. I don't mind that one bit. I hope Harbhajan doesn't either. You want batsmen to be trying to hit against the spin.
Obligatory Non-SRT Milestone watch: Sangakkara needs 32 runs to reach 15,000 Test+ODI runs. He is already at 16, so he is halfway there.
1:54am: Dilshan takes a Harbhajan ball on leg stump and flicks it for 2 runs to get to a well-deserved 50. He needs to convert this to a double century if he can. He has taken two doubles to Yuvraj at deep fine-leg. I will quit harping on this after this time, I promise, but Yuvraj is a distinct liability in the field now. Where's the dynamite of this video?
I miss Mohammad Kaif in the covers. Poor guy.
2:02am: Dilshan and Sangakkara are merrily picking away the runs, at almost 5 runs per over. Dilshan continues to adopt his high-risk style and gets away with it, while Sangakkara is batting with a fluidity that is ominous to the Indians.
2:03am: Shastri informs us that Murali Vijay and Pragyan Ojha have been released from the Indian squad so they can play Ranji Trophy. But Badrinath is still around. He will not bat in this match, so why not let him play Ranji Trophy, too? Also, Vijay was picked as the "reserve batsman". If so, then why isn't he in Ahmedabad while Badrinath goes and plays Ranji Trophy. I am totally disillusioned by the selectorial committee and its shenanigans.
2:10am: Harbhajan goes round the wicket but continues to operate without a leg-slip even though he is back to bowling his middle-leg line. 128 for 1 in 27 overs, Dilshan 69, Sangakkara 19. 298 runs behind India now. Still quite a long way to go.
2:12am: Two slips for Mishra and it almost pays off as an edge lands just ahead of Laxman at second slip. Rest of the over is handled with more confidence and nothing untoward happens. Mishra is slowly settling in for the long haul. Sri Lanka is motoring along merrily here.
2:19am: Finally, a good over from Harbhajan where he did not try anything different or fancy. Just looped it up high onto Sangakkara's off-middle stump inviting an expansive drive. Sangakkara is made of sterner stuff and gently patted away the offerings. Would you believe it? That was the first maiden of the innings, in the 29th over of the innings.
Test cricket today in no way resembles the beast that Boycott and Gavaskar flogged in the 1980's.
2:23am: Third man. Four runs. Not an edge, just a guide through the gap by Dilshan. ZAK is not amused. Why would he be? The third man fielder has not stopped any boundaries today. Oh wait, there is no third man. What was I thinking? Dilshan then pinches a Dhoni double to the square-leg umpire to reach the 80's. 142 for 1 in 30 overs, 80 to Dilshan, 20 to Sanhakkara.
2:27am: 13 minutes to tea. Gavaskar is not advocating caution to the Sri Lankans. Double standards, I say!
Do you think Harbhajan is wondering why Dilshan is not attempting a reverse sweep off of him?
By the way, it is precisely in this type of situation that MS Dhoni shows us why he is an upgrade over some of the captains of the recent past, Indian or otherwise. He is mixing and matching, changing fields and angles of attack and trying things out rather than letting it meander along as used to be the norm. I daresay this would be a good time to try Sehwag for a couple of overs, just before the break.
Harbhajan injures his left shoulder diving to stop a punch from Sangakkara at cover. Hopefully, it is nothing serious.
Dravid stops a square drive, diving at point. Yes, India's most successful slip fielder is prowling at point these days.
2:34am: Okay, it is not Sehwag but rather Yuvraj Singh who comes into the attack. Of course, the injury to Harbhajan may have precipitated this so there is no way of knowing if it is Dhoni trying something different or simple happenstance.
Gavaskar thinks it is because he has a "knack of breaking partnerships". Let's see what CricInfo's stats have to say about that. He has taken 7 wickets so far in Tests:
Yasir Hameed - partnership 31 runs.
Misbah-ul-Haq - partnership 4 runs
Yasir Arafat - partnership 6 runs
Graeme Smith - partnership 91 runs
Steve Harmison - partnership 27 runs
Brendon McCullum - partnership 4 runs
Kevin Pietersen - partnership 1 run
There's only one significant partnership in there and that was a 91 run one. Well, I am not quite sure you'd call him a partnership breaker then, would you?
(There is, of course, another way of looking at this that could suggest that he has a knack for taking wickets, as opposed to breaking partnerships, but I will let you figure that one out).
2:40am: Tea break. Sri Lanka is 155 for 1, Dilshan 88, Sangakkara 23. The day has belonged in every which way to the visitors and it sets the stage for what should be a fascinating cat-and-mouse game this afternoon as Dhoni will, no doubt, look for ways to slow down the scoring and induce an error from the batsmen.
WillowTV is now showing some ICL highlights. The distinctive voice of Tony Greig is the key feature. Funny, I don't remember the BCCI ever raising a stink about Greig in the commentary booth with his ICL connections. I wonder why.
3:05am: Dilshan starts proceedings with a shimmy down the wicket and a drive through covers for a four. What made it special was that Mishra is now bowling the Shane Warne round-the-wicket leg stump restrictive line and Dilshan pounced downwards like Laxman at Kolakta, circa 2001. High praise, yes. Still gets 7 runs from the over and keeps the strike. Admirable fellow. Dilshan is on 95 now. You can do the math and figure out how many runs he needs for a century.
3:08am: Ishant Sharma at the other end. Two slips, point, cover, mid-off and sweeper cover on the off-side. Ishant is bowling two feet outside the off-stump. Is Dhoni starting on the line that was bowled to the Aussies last year in a famous win at Nagpur? The only thing missing is the 8-1 field.
The partnership is at 91 runs in just 118 balls. Dilshan moves on to 96, Sangakkara is at 25, Sri Lanka 165 for 1 in 36 overs.
3:17am: This will be Dilshan's 5th century this year, against just one 50. Superb conversion rate. Moving along in singles now as he nears the century.
36 overs to go in the day's play. And Dilshan square cuts away for a boundary to go to 102. Fantastic knock. Taking the fight to the Indians and pushing them on the backfoot. One-third of the way for him now.
100 run partnership, too. Good stuff. By the way, this match is playing out the way Steve Waugh liked it. Sri Lanka is 250 runs behind with 9 wickets and 3+ days to go. A lead in the first innings for Sri Lanka and India will be under pressure, for sure. But that's in the realm of conjectures right now and too far away to think about. 250 runs is still a lot of runs to make up.
3:28am: WillowTV loses live feed and so does CricInfo. Hmmm. Did not account for this when I decided to do a running diary.
3:33am: Okay, back. Yardley informs us that the problem was at the ground as they had a power outage. And he helpfully informs us that no Sri Lanka wickets fell while we were off-line. I wonder what a Sri Lankan follower will make of that line of commentary. 184 for 1 in 41 overs, 110 to Dilshan, 28 to Sangakarra.
3:36am: Yardley is immensely surprised that India are way behind the required over-rate. Really? You find that surprising, Bruce? Have you been watching Test cricket lately? There's that extra half-hour provision, remember? Why rush through your overs when you can use that extra half-hour at the end of the day?
3:38am: The commentators have spent the last 5 minutes or so discussing how big a lead Sri Lanka can get and what they can do with it. Too soon, my friends. Remember India was 381 for 5 at one stage?
3:40am: Looks like there's another power outage as the live feed is lost. Will wait this one out, like I did the last one. Tap...tap...tap.
Tap...tap...tap.
Okay, back. Sangakkara gives sweeper cover some fielding practice and moves to 29 while Dilshan is on 111 (the highest score by a Sri lankan in India, by the way). I wonder how good a batsman Welegedara is. I'd love to see him bat.
4:43am: The Turnbantor is back. In spirit, if not in deed. Bowling round the wicket to Sangakkara and targeting off-stump. Good. Sangakkara has withdrawn into a shell. At one point he was at 20 runs in 33 balls. Now he is at 29 in 77 balls. How good is he at shifting gears?
Dhoni adjusts the field, inviting a drive, while Harbhajan responds with a short ball that is cut away to sweeper cover. Right hand, please meet left hand.
3:47am: ZAK
Dilshan departs for 112 in just 133 balls. Brilliant innings. But the truth is that he left lots of runs at the table. Sri Lanka did not need this from him. The ball was wide of the stump, and better served for a cut, not a pull. But the field had been set for the aerial cut shot, so he tried to go elsewhere with the shot. Interesting field placement yields the result.
Dravid moves to first slip for Mahela Jayawardene, while Tendulkar goes to sweeper cover. There is also a deep point (?) but no one between second slip and cover. ZAK is now back to over the stumps. 191 for 2 in 44 overs, Sangakkara 30, Jayawardene 2.
3:56am: Harbhajan pitches short again, rushing the ball through. Sangakkara rocks back and cuts for a single. Then he follows that with a ball on the leg-stump that is flicked away by Maheala for another single. I am slowly getting frustrated with Harbhajan's no-show here.
4:00am: Well, well, well. What do I know? Sangakkara falls for the bouncer and hooks it straight to Tendulkar, who catches it a couple of feet inside the boundary at long leg. Years from now, someone looking at the scorecard will think it was an edge to first slip, I am sure. (cough, cough).
Suddenly it is 194 for 3, two new batsmen at the crease, and the highest run-scorer in 2009, Thilan Samaraweera, is at the crease. 232 runs to get still to match the Indian score and it will take a lot of hard work again.
Earlier in the day Dhammika Prasad bounced and bounced at Zaheer Khan. ZAK is now showing him how it really should be done. And to be fair, ZAK's bouncer's were just as troublesome when the Sri Lankan innings started today. Harbhajan needs to show up big time now to drive home this slight advantage his team has.
4:05am: There! Now Harbhajan is bowling off-outside off and looking so much more dangerous. The ball is looping and dipping and if Samaraweera keeps thrusting forward, a silly point is necessary there.
4:08am: ZAK bowls in the low 130's and he looks dangerous. Irfan Pathan bowls in the low 130's and he looks innocuous. What a difference that slight movement that ZAK gets makes. 195 for 3, Jayawardene 5, Samaraweera 0.
4:13am: Harbhajan gets a leg-slip, and Jayawardene skips down and clobbers that over long-on. Good strategy this as Harbhajan does not like to be hit and is likely to bowl flatter and on the leg-stump when it happens. And yes, long-on is in place now. Mahela punches down the ground and gets a single there. Long-on comes in for Samaraweera. Good. But Harbhajan bowls it short and gets pulled for a single. *sigh*
Obligatory Non-SRT Milestone watch: Mahela Jayawardene needs 167 runs to reach 1,000 runs in 2009.
4:21am: Now, Samaraweera skips down the wicket and straight drives for four. Harbhajan is unruffled (for now) and loops it up outside the off-stump and get a thick edge that loops up safely to short midwicket. Samaraweera is taking a long stride forward to try to smother the spin. Is a silly-point needed to stop the forward press? Harbhajan already has a slip, forward short-leg, and a leg gully. Okay, over negotiated safely by Samaraweera.
4:24am: ZAK back to bowling around the stumps and gets the ball to reverse away from the right-hander. Now he follows that up with four straight balls that come into Jayawardene. This may well be his last ball for some time now. And it is defended away safely. Current spell by Zaheer reads 5-1-4-2. Nice. 209 for 3 in 52 overs, Jayawardene is on 12, Samaraweera is on 7. 20 overs still to go today.
4:29am: Harbhajan Singh is now looking good and there is a significant loop to his deliveries. Looks like he is finally getting into it, both in terms of line and length. He gets Samaraweera to skip down the wicket again for a single. The next time he is on strike I'd suggest a top spinner or the doosra. Chris Broad is not the match referee so Harbhajan can freely bowl his doosras.
Gautam Gambhir is shadow practicing his forward press and backfoot defense. Too soon, my friend, there are 7 wickets still to go.
Amit Mishra is going to bowl now. Loop, flight, spin. Repeat, rinse, repeat.
4:33am: Just two fielders in close, forward short-leg and slip. No damage done to either team in that over.
Sri Lanka's run-rate drops below 4 runs per over. Sangakkara a big reason for that.
4:39am: Amit Mishra induces the edge from Samaraweera but it falls just short of Dravid at slip. Thilan responds by running down the track and smashing the next ball to the cover fence.
Mouse and cat in the house.
Drinks. 218 for 3 in 56 overs, Jayawardene and Samaraweera on 14 each. 16 overs to go today, India has about 50 minutes to do it. Can they? Will they? Do they want to? Those twiddling thumbs you see in the corner belong to the ICC.
4:44am: Ungainly swipe by Jayawardene (hoick is the word, I believe) and gets a boundary for it. Sri Lanka trails by 200 runs now. Chip, chip.
5:01am: Slowly, but surely, Jayawardene and Samaraweera are taking back some of the lost initiative, attacking the spinners but more judiciously than earlier. 244 for 3 in 61 overs. Jayawardene 24, Samaraweera 31. Run-rate is back over 4 again.
Laxman is at the lone slip now. Dravid is at short cover for Samaraweera and second slip for Jayawardene when Mishra bowls. Just enough spin to keep everyone on their toes, batting and bowling side.
11 overs to go, 25 minutes left. Sivaramakrishnan just realizes that there might not be enough time to bowl them all. I should have been in bed by now, catching a couple of hours of sleep before my morning lab. (This week: predator-prey relationship lab).
248 for 3 in 63 overs, Jayawardene 25, Samaraweera 32. Mishra to Jayawardene, two slips in place, cut to deep point for a single. Easy does it. Jayawardene own the highest score ever by a right-handed batsman in Test history (374). He has scary levels of concentration and is looking set for a long one now.
Mishra is looking tired. It might be a good time to bring on a non-traditional bowler (Sehwag or Yuvraj or even Tendulkar) and taunt the batsmen into being over-cautious and making a mistake.
258 for 3 in 65 overs, 29 Jayawardene, 38 Samaraweera. Looks like Yuvraj is coming on to bowl. Nothing special there. One slip in place (Dravid wins the slip lottery this time) and each ball is speared onto the leg stump. No intent to take wickets as there are just three fielders within single-saving distance of the batsmen.
262 for 3 in 66 overs. Jayawardene is on 32, Samaraweera on 39. Ishant Sharma into the attack now. Two slips, cover and midwicket are the close fielders. Rest of the fielders are interacting with the spectators. Everyone seems to be going through the motions here. Second slip is taken out after three balls and moved to gully. Dravid is at gully, Laxman at slip.
5:23am: 7 minutes to go, 6 overs to bowl. If they get through 2 of them, then they will be 4 overs to go and can probably talk their way out of whatever small fine will be threatened to be levied at them.
After Dilshan's dismissal the batting has been more workmanlike and measured. Yuvraj gifts a four to third man with a wide ball outside the off-stump.
5:28am: Last over of the day coming up. Harbhajan has the honors. Runs through it so quickly that they can get another over in. Which will leave India 3 overs short at the end of the day. Mishra to bowl. Can he replicate the magic he performed against Australia when he got the wicket of Michael Clarke with his last ball? All of a sudden there are 5 fielders around the bat with 3 balls to go. Mahela defends. Two to go. Inside edges a googly to the leg-side and wanders over to the non-strikers end. One ball to go. Defended safely.
275 for 3 in 70 overs. Samaraweera on 45 and Jayawardene 36, partnership of 81.
The day belongs well and truly to Sri Lanka, a brief flurry by India notwithstanding. Sri Lanka trails by 150 runs with two very well set batsmen at the crease.
Tomorrow morning's play will be pivotal. Welegedara and Dilshan have been the brightest stars for Sri Lanka while Harbhajan's brain fade while batting may well come back to haunt India later on tomorrow.
See you then.
2 comments:
I am really liking the Obligatory Non-SRT Milestone watch ...
Who knew numbers existed for the other batsmen as well!
:-)
L, it is actually a lot of fun to come up with this stuff. Keeps me occupied and I am enjoying keeping a step ahead of the folks on TV.
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