10:00pm: Dhoni wins the toss, bats first. Somewhere Steve Waugh frets that his legacy of winning the toss and bowling is dead. Sri Lanka drops Mendis, ignoring precedence for pragmatism. On current form, Herath is Sri Lanka's best spinner. Current form, JAN, before you send me an email!
And so it begins...Test cricket is back. Phew!
First ball, single to Gabhir - drop and run.
Second ball, four to Sehwag, eases into the type of cover-drive that Tendulkar avoided like a monk in his 241 not out in Sydney years ago.
Sehwag is irrepressible, as always. No sense of occasion or decorum. If the ball is there to be hit, he hits it, game situation be dammed.
Dammika Prasad took 5 wickets on debut against India. Looks like the word "bustling" was coined for him.
10:10pm: Dammika bowls a wide ball that goes between first and second slip, and the keeper is penalized with the byes? I don't quite understand why a wide ball in Tests is so much more severe than one in ODI's. Who were the first umpires to decide this? How did this "norm" get started? How on earth was Prasanna Jayawardene expected to collect that ball?
10:17pm: Gambhir goes! Lately, he has developed this habit of playing under his nose, looking simply to nudge for singles here and there. It caught up with him in the ODI's and it looks like it has crossed over to the Tests, too. 14 for 1, Gambhir out for 1.
10:18pm: Rahul Dravid comes in. I hope he does not go into a shell simply because an early wicket has fallen.
The first 4 Indian batsmen average over 50 an innings, the next averages over 45, and the next two average over 35 (Yuvraj and Dhoni). Surely a line-up as strong as this has no business putting up less than 450 runs in the first innings.
Dammika Prasad has appealed twice for LBW's and both times you could see all three stumps. Sehwag responds as only he can - a square drive for 4. Simple strategy - see ball, hit ball.
10:26pm: Good field set for Dravid - 3 slips and a forward short-leg. End result - "The first maiden of the innings," bellows Ravi Shastri. Predictable, really.
10:30pm: By the way, in case you were stranded on a deserted island or were otherwise busy contemplating the meaning of life and did not hear the news - Sachin Tendulkar has completed 20 years of service to Indian cricket. He used to be 7 feet tall, but is only 5'4" now. That's because he has been "carrying the hopes of a billion people" for two decades. Never mind that India did not even have a billion people when he began his career. In fact, that did not happen till 2001.
10:33pm: Stop the presses! Rahul Dravid stretches way out and cover drives for four off Prasad. Beware Dravid, this is the same ball that Mitchell Johnson kept getting you out with in Australia last year.
10:35pm: Tight call by the umpire, but the right call, and Sehwag goes LBW to Welegedara. The stage is set for Sachin Tendulkar to come in at 27 for 2. Let the countdown to 30,000 runs begin.
Sachin comes, scores a four first ball, Gavaskar praises his footwork saying he is playing really well, misses an in-swinger third ball and Gavaskar complains about his footwork and bat speed. 31 for 3 and Laxman comes in to bat. Sri Lanka gets three big wickets!
Three of the 4 50-plus average guys are gone. So much for that!
10:46: Laxman gone for duck!!! Ghosts of the previous Test match that India played on this very same venue, when they were all out for 76 in less than 20 overs, come dancing out. Yuvraj Singh gets his chance to prove, once and for all, that he belongs in the Test arena.
My week just got off to a very bad start. *sigh*
The Wall stands between Sri Lanka and 76 all out. I can't believe that just a few minutes ago I was worried he would bat too slowly and affect the flow of Sehwag's batting!
By the way, Muralitharan has not even touched the ball and 4 big guns are gone.
Yuvraj does what Yuvraj does best - edge the ball, reaching for it, to third man and then follows it up with the most exquisite cover drive imaginable. He is the ultimate double agent - teasing the fans of both teams at the same time!
11:00pm: First hour goes to India. Just checking to see if you are still reading. Of course it goes to Sri Lanka. Phew! This is definitely not the start I imagined when I heard that India had won the toss. A few years ago I saw Pakistan being reduced to 39 for 6 and then going on to win by 341 runs. Let's see if India has a similar get-out-of-jail performance in her.
11:10pm: Nobody times the ball better than Yuvraj Singh. A simple flick of the wrists and he beats deep square-leg who was just a few yards away from the ball. The expression, "when he hits them, they stay hit," definitely applies to him.
Angelo Matthews comes in to bowl. He reminds me of Abdur Razzaq, a fellow who will probably never run through a batting line-up but will hang around mostly because of his ODI "all-rounder" tag. 9 runs in that over, about right for the line he was bowling. 62 for 4.
I sense that Muralitharan will be joining us soon.
Another 4 to the vacant third man area. It seems like a memo is sent out to every Test captain that third man should be left unattended so batsmen can get runs in a fair clip whenever they beat the slips. And it is not a new thing either. I was watching highlights of a Greg Chappell-Ian Chappell innings in an Ashes Test and the same thing happened then, too.
By the way, there is no third man, but there is a sweeper cover. Go figure.
11:20PM: Murali comes on to bowl the 15th over of the day - 67 runs on the board. The surprising thing for him surely has to be that 4 wickets are down. It has been a morning full of highlights - 11 fours and 4 wickets - and all that in just 80 minutes. First ball is a bad full toss. I don't think I have ever seen him bowl a ball that full. No run, no harm done.
(CricInfo 2008)Prasanna Jayawardene is keeping to Murali and I am looking forward to this. Prasanna is, by a fair margin, the best keeper playing international cricket in the world today. Nice soft hands while he collects the ball and almost invariably well-balanced when doing so.
By the way, somewhere Steve Waugh is sitting back and nodding sagely. Hindsight has supported his view about what to do when you win the toss.
Murali has bowled more than 61,000 balls in international cricket alone. That's a lot of bowling. Those 10,000 plus overs have fetched him over 1300 wickets. Wow.
11:35pm: Ravi Shastri resorts to that all-too familiar fallback option to describe why the Sri Lankans have been so successful today - "they have bowled in the right areas." What exactly are these right areas? Heaven alone knows because that is never explained by the experts.
11:37pm: Sweet, sweet straight drive by Yuvraj off Murali for a four. The cat-and-mouse game has begun. Murali has that same aura about him that Warne cultivated so assiduously, which is that even when they are hit for boundaries it appears as if it is a part of a big plan to lull the batsmen into their trap.
11:40pm: First no-ball of the Test from Murali. No free hit, though. That is reserved for ODI's. Thankfully, Yuvraj realizes that and no harm done off the next ball.
11:42pm: Matthews preying on Dravid's patience. Must be a new tactic against Dravid. Haven't seen that one before. And then blots the plot by bowling full on his pads - three runs later, Dravid takes a breather at the non-striker's end.
A gem of a stat from CricInfo: Yuvraj's three centuries (so far in tests) have come when India were 4 for 94, 74 and 61. Meanwhile, not surprisingly, we are informed by the TV commentators that Yuvraj is hitting it straight to the fielders (as if we cannot see that for ourselves).
(By the way, there will be plenty of digs at the television commentators. If you are not in the mood for that, I apologize in advance).
11:46pm Murali goes round the wicket to Dravid, 20 balls into his spell. Harbhajan would do well to pick up tips from Murali about changing his line of attack, trying to make things happen, rather than just firing them onto middle-leg stump, trying to set up the doosra.
11:48pm: Gavaskar reminds the batsmen that there are 15 minutes to lunch, no doubt mentally shutting down for the break just as he was wont to do when he was batting.
India crosses two milestones in one over - 76 runs and 21 overs. Supporters of the "history repeats itself" principle can find other historical precedents to lust after.
In comes Rangana Herath. And Dravid dances down the wicket and hits a six over long-on. I repeat: Dravid dances down the wicket and hits a six over long-on. How momentous is that? It is just the 16th six in 135 Test matches for him.
Yuvraj takes the next ball on the full and drives it as straight as he can to the long-off fence. Yes, they are definitely playing for lunch. 96 for 4. India trotting along at 4.3 runs an over.
The best antidote to losing wickets is to score runs. Time to start dusting out the "this is the New India - the aggressive India" storyline.
11:57pm: Probably the last over before lunch. The 24th over of the innings, an average of 12 an hour. THIS is one of the biggest tragedies of Test cricket, but all the ICC does is to levy some "10% of match fees" fines that the captains don't even sweat about (except for one famous occasion when Ricky Ponting saved his wallet and lost a chance to win a Test).
11:59pm: Sri Lanka squeeze in another over. Goody. Dravid still punching away to cover. No signs of listening to Gavaskar, who once again reminds everyone that lunch is around the corner. No wonder Gavaskar lost or drew 38 of the 47 Tests he captained. (I know I am being unkind and that there were other extenuating factors, including the lack of Kumble and Tendulkar under his wing, but still, don't let facts get in the way of a good story).
12:01am: Lunch. Day 1. India 105 for 4 in 25 overs. Session advantage Sri Lanka, but the second hour belonged to Dravid and Yuvraj, who are batting on 45 and 35, respectively.
12:40am: Lunch is done. In the meantime I discovered some videos on youtube that my friends (and I emphasize the MY component) will enjoy watching.
12:52am: Yuvraj is getting a little expansive with his cover driving Ominous signs for both sides.
Cleverly, Welegedara teases Yuvraj with a wide ball. The fish did not nibble at it this time. Followed it up with a length ball on off-stump. Yubraj studiously defends. Next ball - bouncer! Yuvraj sways out of the way, dropping his gloves as he does so. Then one that comes in and Yuvraj inner edges it onto his pads, drops safely to the leg-side! Ahhhh! This is Test cricket and this is why I love Test cricket. 107 for 4 in 27 overs.
Rahul Dravid needs 4 runs to reach 21,000 first-class runs. Strangely, no countdown for that...and even as I type that he reaches 50 and 21,000 runs! I may be the only person who noticed that today. The Wall goes on. 50 in 80 balls, full of his trademark flick-drives to midwicket. Like so:
(CricInfo 2008)
1:04am: Hah! The commentators do pick up on Dravid's 21,000 runs but they say he is nearing it when, in fact, he has crossed it. Trust me. (Okay, so I wasn't the only person in the world who had an eye out for that stat).
1:06am: Ah! That dreaded edge for a four to third man strikes again - Yuvraj gets four more runs. India scoring in boundaries since lunch. 126 for 4 in 30 overs.
11:10am: The ball is still swinging, but it is late swing and only to balls that are fully pitched up. The venom of the morning when it was swinging even from a short of good length is missing now. I think Sangakkara needs to go with Herath and Murali for a while until it is time for some reverse swing to come into play. And, historically, Yuvraj prefers playing faster bowlers to spin bowlers.
The batsmen in the pavilion must be kicking themselves for not surviving that early part of the morning.
Since BRB/AV says I don't highlight the feats of non-SRT players enough, here's a countdown for you - Dravid needs another 118 runs to reach 11,000 Test runs. Make that 114, after a square-cut that Vishy would have been proud of. 100 partnership comes up in 24 overs.
77th 100-run partnership for Dravid, extending his own world record in this category, ahead of Ponting (75) and Tendulkar. By the way, there have been 3751 partnerships in Tests of over 100 runs. (Here's the complete list, courtesy Statsguru on CricInfo).
1:22am: Another slash to the third man fence fetches him his 50. And he celebrates with the best off-drive of the day - with all the flair that Yuvraj brings to the shot when he times it like only he can. That's his 10th score of 50-plus in 46 innings in test cricket. Time to kick on and keep going and add to his 3 centuries. No impending milestone to attain, though, unless you want to dig really deep and say that he needs another 41 runs to reach 16,000 runs in all forms of cricket. (Oh yes, I can keep playing this milestone game all day long!)
1:27am: Murali in the attack, 17 wickets short of 800. Not going to get it in this match, for sure, as there are just 16 wickets left to take. Yuvraj says hello and thumps him 2 bounces to the long-on fence and then smashes forward short-leg with a ferocious sweep. Ouch. Then leaves a doosra but no harm done as it did not turn enough to come back onto the stumps. Interesting battle this.
I remember when Richard Hadlee became the first man to reach 400 Test wickets. I never imagined that within 20 years we'd be talking about a man snaring double that number. Wow!
1:32am: Yuvraj gets hit by a bouncer for the second time today, this time by Matthews. Does not flinch or rub the spot. Not surprisingly, the next ball is a short one and he pulls. Only, this time he inside-edges the ball and it barely misses the stumps to reach the fence. Somewhere, Laxman fans wonder why their man was not so lucky when he inside-edged the ball earlier today. The next ball is short again, and this time he upper-cuts it to the vacant third man fence for a one bounce four.
An obligatory "good over for India" comment from Sivaramakrishnan puts the exclamation mark on it. 157 for 4 in 36 overs. For those of you at home who don't know how Test cricket operates, there's an additional 54 overs left in the day's play. For those of you that do not know how Test cricket operates, you will not see another 54 overs bowled in the rest of the day today.
1:36am: Softest of dismissals for Yuvraj, walking down the wicket and trying to dab the ball on the off-side, instead getting an inner-edge that balloons to short cover, where Dilshan takes the easiest catch of his life. He was walking even before the Dilshan caught the ball. Murali opens his खाता (account). 157 for 5.
Dhoni comes rushing in to bat, adjusts his gloves, hat, pad (Raman Lamba-style or Nomar Garciaparra-style, depending upon what's in your memory bank) and then waits for Murali, who promptly goes round the wicket to him with a forward short-leg in place. I shall let you know when the words "Dhoni" "hard hands" or "bottom-handed" are uttered in the same sentence. Shastri is in the box, so it should be coming soon.
Obligatory Non-SRT Milestone watch: Dhoni needs 38 runs to reach the 2,000 mark in Tests.
Dravid has played 100 balls and scored 65 runs. Ponting-esque and that makes me happy. This is the type of batting I want him to do, which was missing these past couple of years while he searched for runs.
1:46am: Dhoni marches down the wicket to Murali and thumps the ball to the fielder - no run. Next balls, waltzes down again but just nudges it to the same fielder and ambles a single. Smart, very smart (Ajit-style, please).
Dravid then lofts Murali over Dilshan's head at short-midwicket for another boundary. Good intent from the Wall. It's got to be the aggressive New India, no?
I like this wicket - there is sufficient bounce to keep fast bowlers and spinners happy. There is swing for the fuller-length bowlers, and there is some slight spin for the tweakers. Of course, to take advantage of this pitch you must land the ball. Prasad does not do so, bowls a full-toss, and Dhoni uses his "bottom-hand" to cover drive for four.
Okay, at 1:53am, the words "Dhoni" and "bottom-handed" are used for the first time by Bruce Yardley, 14 balls and 13 minutes into his innings.
Dhoni hits it Sachin-Chennai-circa 2001 style for four. A straight drive behind the keeper for four. Here's Hamish Blair's brilliant image that captured the original moment.
(Getty Images 2001)
2:01am: Rahul Dravid does sweat a lot, doesn't he? As he waits for the ball to be bowled, drops of sweat come dripping down the end of his visor. I am surprised the ICC does not pull him up for damaging the "danger area". Dravid thumps Murali wide of midwicket, albeit uppishly, for another four. Dravid does seem to have left the horrors of last year behind him now.
Murali is doing what I constantly berate Harbhajan for doing - bowl on the middle and leg stump. But there is a difference here in that Murali is coming round-the-wicket and looking to either get the LBW or a bat-pad catch to forward short-leg. Somehow he is bowling the same line that Harbhajan does and is making it an offensive rather than a defensive option.
2:06am: Danger alert. Dravid is starting to reach for balls wide outside the off-stump and driving them to cover. These are balls that he normally leaves well alone. Gets a four this time to go to 80, taking India to 189 for 5. Prasad compensates by bowling it full and, yes, that flick-drive to midwicket is unfurled for a single. Okay, danger moment has passed, Dravid is at the non-strikers end. Time for Herath to come into the attack at this end.
2:10am: Dravid has hit a lot of good shots, but this is his best - an inside-out cover drive to the fence after making room by sliding to the leg-side, off Murali who bowled this from over the wicket. 196 for 5, Darvid 85, Dhoni 17.
2:13am: And Herath into the attack. "India needs another partnership here," suggests Sivaramakrishnan helpfully. Sangakkara has the Ponting field for Herath. If you ignore the fielders in the catching positions, the rest are too deep to prevent singles but not deep enough to stop the lofted shots to the fence. And Dhoni shows him what I mean by jumping down and hitting one over cover for four, after Dravid took a single deep mid-on.
2:16am: The first mention of the slow over-rate by the Lankans and the "option" that captains have of taking an extra half-hour to complete them is mentioned. I think the solution is to make the transgressing team bowl the extra half-hour, but deduct runs from their total when they come to bat next. That would speed up the over rate in a jiffy.
2:18am: The fascinating sight of sweat dripping from Dravid's visor will have to wait as both batsmen opt for caps since two spinners are in tandem at the wicket.
By the way, JAN, it is okay to be a little worried now. 203 for 5 in 47 overs, Dravid 87, Dhoni 22.
2:22am: Herath bowls with a lot of loop and flight, always tempting the batsman. Pretty to watch.
2:25am: Finally, Murali shows up. The first over of the innings by the Kandy Man that showcased his skill, ending with a doosra that slipped past Dravid's defense and would have hit the middle stump if the back leg was not in the way. (Murali was bowling round the wicket, and pitching it outside the leg-stump, so no LBW appeal).
2:27am: The words "Dhoni" and "soft hands" are used in the same sentence by Sivaramakrishnan, (as the captain taps Herath to short cover for a simple single). Probably the first time in recorded history this has happened. Wonders never cease.
By the way, the 50 of the partnership has come up in 14 overs. Dravid's contribution: 24, Dhoni's contribution: 25.
2:31am: Another doosra beats Dravid, the second consecutive ball from Murali that he has not spotted the variation. This one slips by the off-stump and Prasanna calmly collects behind the stumps. Is Dravid thinking of the 100? Methinks that may have entered the equation here, possibly explaining his recent twitchiness.
2:24am: Gavaskar points out that only 6 runs have come in the last 5 overs. Yes, good pick up by him but he does not continue that thought and link it with Dravid's milestone as I thought he would. Instead he says that this shows how Sri Lanka have pulled things back and contained India. I can buy that, too. The bowling has started to look a little dangerous, too.
2:37am: Dravid spots the doosra and drives the ball to the mid-off boundary. 216 for 5, 94 to Dravid, 28 to Dhoni. Another doosra and this time Dravid edges it just short of slip. Sivaramakrishnan reminds the viewer that Dravid knows that milestones are not as important as the team. Was Gavaskar paying attention to him when he said that?
2:40am: Dravid square-cuts Herath to the fence to get to 98. The shot reminded me of the one he hit to win the Adelaide Test during Steve Waugh's swansong series.
That's tea. 98 Dravid, 29 for Dhoni. 116 runs in the session in 29 overs for the loss of Yuvraj's wicket. This session belonged to India, both hours.
Things are looking a lot better for India than they did 45 minutes into the game. Sri Lanka is one wicket away from stealing the first day's honors. A twenty minute break beckons while I rest my fingers and read some Wodehouse (Very Good, Jeeves).
2:59am: They are back and taking their positions on the field. I'd like to see a couple of overs of Welegedara while Dravid is in the 90's. Let's see if Sangakkara thinks the same way as I do.
3:03am: First mention of Dhoni's 2,000 run mark. (You'd forgotten about that, hadn't you?). Now he is 5 runs away by my count, having started after tea with a hard-hit straight drive to the fence off Murali.
3:05am: Herath continues. Dravid on 98. Single off the first ball takes him...you know. Dhoni farms the strike for the rest of the over. Dravid has to wait.
3:09am: Murali switching to round the wicket now. Gets a maiden as a reward. Puts Dravid on strike, and the crowd wakes up. I predict he gets a single off the second ball of the over.
3:12am: I was wrong. He gets it off the first ball. Goes past Garry Sobers with his 27th century, off 158 balls. That's his 57th first class century. Good innings. Very good. As I mentioned earlier, Ponting-esque. The last ball of the same over sees Dhoni reach 2,000 Test runs, with a typical double to a ball placed a few feet from the square-leg umpire.. The celebration is a lot more muted, however. Nobody judges the two to the square-leg region better than Dhoni, in my opinion.
3:16am: Shastri says, "No need to try anything out of the blue." Even as he finishes the statement, Dhoni comes dancing down and deposits Murali into the stands behind long-on! Shastri, to his credit, breaks into a laugh. Dravid then punches down the ground for another boundary and Murali's figures are starting to scatter again after a few tight overs in the middle. 244 for 5, Dravid 104, Dhoni 45. 59 overs. Partnership is at 87 runs now. Dravid driving towards another 100-run partnership.
By the way, Dravid has a thick stubble. I don't think I have ever seen him so unkempt before.
Obligatory Non-SRT Milestone watch: Dravid needs another 73 runs to reach 11,000 runs. Ahead of him are Border, Ponting, Lara, and Tendulkar.
3:22am: Welegedara back in the attack. Dhoni walks down the wicket and defends. This is a typical Dhoni tactic to counter any swing and to remove an LBW from the equation. Only other person I have seen who does this regularly is Brendon MacCallum. Welegedara's pace has fallen to the mid-120's. Hmmm, has he been talking to the Indian bowling coaches during the lunch break? Dhoni launches into an over-pitched ball, smashing it to deep cover, and reaches his 50 (off 80 balls; a slower rate than Dravid has been batting at, by the way). Good, good knock. Still about 100 less than he should be content with. 249 for 5 in 61 overs, Dravid 104, Dhoni 50.
3:27am: Dravid continues, with an exquisite skip down the wicket to drive it inside-out through cover for 4. Dhoni survives a strange-looking ball. Herath bowled it with a change in action, just flipped it straight through without his full-motion and bowled it with (replays showed and Russell Arnold pointed out) two fingers. The ball clips his pad, strikes Prasanna in the chest and not out says Harper, rightly so, too.
This is Dhoni's 18th score of 50 or above in 60 innings. Contrast that with Yuvraj, who has 10 in 46 innings and it tells you a tale. Not a complete one (because Yuvraj was made to open in a few of those) but still a telling one.
3:34am: Another 100 run partnership for Dravid, the 78th of his career, 3 clear of Ponting now. Yup, milestone-watch is in full flow now. 259 for 5 in 64 overs. Dravid 113, Dhoni 51.
3:39am: Another double to short midwicket for the master of this skill, taking him to 54.
3:45am: Dhoni and Dravid are starting to pile it on. a 2,3,4,.,.,1 over from Herath. 278 for 5 in 66 overs. 123 for Dravid, 60 for Dhoni. Prasad coming into the attack. 14 overs to go for the new ball and Sangakkara is forced to use his pacers already. Interesting choice, this.
3:48am: Dhoni gets L-U-C-K-Y. A thick outside edge goes between the keeper and a wide first slip to the fence. The shot that I was warning Dravid to be careful about earlier in the day is the one that Dhoni nearly perished to.
3:49am: Prasad pitches it short, and Dravid swivels and pulls it beautifully to the fence (yes, once again it reminds me of Adelaide and how he played Jason Gillespie that day). 67 runs in the post-tea session for India in just 13 overs. But for the loss of those 4 early wickets, this has been a wonderfully paced display of batting today by India.
3:57am: Dammika, Dammika. If you have just beaten Dravid with a bouncer, then don't follow it up with a yorker that he can convert into a half-volley and smash you to the straight fence. This tactic was fine the first few times you tried it, but now it is very predictable, and Dravid too experienced.
4:01am: Drinks break. 70 overs gone, 20 to bowl in one hour (hah!), 299 for 5, Dravid 134, Dhoni 70. Dhoni's career average is inching towards 40 now.
Obligatory Non-SRT Milestone watch: Dravid needs 43 runs for 11,000 Test runs.
4:10am: Dhoni greets Dammika Prasad with a stinging cover drive in the Sehwag stand-and-deliver mode. Runs coming quite freely now. But they have to keep it up till the close of play and not give the advantage back to the Sri Lankans.
4:15am: This is looking all too familiar. Sri Lanka has a middle-overs-of-an-ODI field, and Dravid and Dhoni just milked 5 singles in the last over. Dhoni is standing a good 5 feet outside the crease and walks further down to meet the ball. Matthews is not the threat the selectors thought he'd be, I suppose.
4:23am: Wonders never cease. Murali has now resorted to bowling the Harbhajan line! Yikes, it looks like Murali is learning from Harbhajan when I was hoping it would be vice versa. Still it does not stop the Indians from taking 4 singles in the over. Typical.
316 for 5 in 74 overs. Dravid 138, Dhoni 83.
4:43am: The dripping visor of Rahul Dravid is back!! And so is his cover drive and then his square drive, both for fours. Dravid motors along to 148 now.
And then two balls later, he gets to 150. What a player. Yardley helpfully tells us that it is his 10th score of over 150 (out of 27 centuries) in his career. And yes, the world-record holder is Tendulkar with 19. 150 in 216 balls (strike rate of 70). Yup, yup, yup...Ponting-esque. Dhoni is on 85. India at 330 for 5 in 75 overs.
4:40am: Seeing-seeing (देखते-देखते) the partnership is quietly worth 183 runs, and Dhoni has reached 89 on his own, Dravid is on 156. 340 for 5 in 79 overs.
4:45am: Dravid in enjoying himself now, taking two fours off a visibly-tiring Murali. The ball is getting shorter and shorter in length, and it is turning into a long day for Sri Lanka. 349 for 5 in 80 overs, 164 for Dravid, 90 to Dhoni.
Dravid and Dhoni are still running hard, pinching a single to short square-leg.
4:49am: Tillakratne Dilshan into the attack now. I am a little worried, actually, as I rate his wicket-taking ability more than Sangakkara does. Three singles in the over and Sangakkara says enough is enough, and asks for the new ball.
8 overs to go in the day's play. Dhoni continues walking down the wicket. Negating the LBW in my opinion. Shastri thinks it is to counter the swing. Well, big appeal for LBW but not given. Tony Hill says no and also does not signal leg-byes. I think walking down the wicket saved Dhoni. That, and the fact that the umpire thought that Dhoini edged the ball.
By the way, Dravid needs just 10 runs to reach 11,000. Dhoni needs 5 for his second Test hundred. "Milestone central, this blog is becoming," says Yoda. 200 run partnership it is now. Nice turnaround for India.
Also, the two "commentators" on CricInfo's ball-by-ball commentary website are Jamie Alter and Siddharth Monga. Grrrrr.....how I envy them.
4:55am: The high point of this Dravid innings has been that he has never gotten into a shell, always looking to score runs allaying all my fears.
4:59am: Dhoni square-cuts fiercely and over point to get to 99 with a boundary. One run from a brilliant century. A well-deserved one, too.
5:05am: Jayawardene is standing up to the stumps to Welegedara in order to stop Dhoni from wandering down the wicket, without a helmet at that. Dhoni pats away five straight deliveries as the crowd groans each time. The crowd pans over all the hopeful Mrs. Dhoni's in the crowd and there are quite a few of them today.
5:07am: Herath comes on to bowl the new ball. Interesting move this. Dravid takes a single and the field comes in for Dhoni and he gets to his century with a shimmy down the wicket, and a cover drive to the fence (154 balls). The crowd cheers wildly and lets him know how much they enjoyed it. So did I, so did I.
Captaincy has really brought out the responsible side of Dhoni and India is so much the better for it. 369 for 5 in 86 overs. Dravid on 170, Dhoni on 104
5:11am: A simple shimmy down the wicket, a casual push and Dhoni helps himself to another boundary to the cover fence off Welegedara. After taking 6 balls to go from 99 to 100, he has taken 4 balls to get another his last 10 runs. Funny game.
Bouncer. Pull for four. Beautiful wrist-work. Dravid moves to 174. Yup, yup, yup...Ponting-esque. By the way, his dripping visor makes its appearance again.
5:15am: Dravid is on 175. A few days ago, another Indian made the same score. Different circumstances. Different result? Only time will tell. 3 overs to go. 381 for 5, in 87 overs. Dravid 175, Dhoni 110.
5:17am: Dammika Prasad gets Dhoni slashing at his first ball and the captain perishes, caught behind for 110. This ends a 224 run partnership in 51 overs (Dravid contributed 111 to this partnership...truly a partnership in the best sense of the word).
161 runs in this session in 33 overs for 1 wicket. Perfect from India's point of view. The focus now shifts to Dravid's 11,000 run milestone, 2 runs to go.
I need to scrounge up some milestone for Harbhajan Singh, the batsman, don't I? Okay, let this over go by and then I will find something, I promise.
Obligatory Non-SRT Milestone watch: Harbhajan Singh needs another 95 runs to reach 3000 first-class runs. Too much? Okay, how about this? He needs another 2 runs to get to 1,500 Test runs.
5:24am: Dravid gets to 11,000 runs. Like there was any doubt he'd get there when he started this morning (cough, cough). The Wall was indeed the Wall of old today. A wonderful innings to watch. He needs to convert this to a triple century tomorrow, assuming the others can hang around long enough with him.
5:28 am: 385 for 6, Dravid on 177, Harbhajan on 2. One over to go in the day's play. And Dravid nearly runs himself out backing too far off the first ball. But the throw misses the stumps and no harm done.
Aah!!! Sivaramakrishnan mentions that another single will get Harbhajan to 1,500 runs! Copycat.
Harbhajan refuses two singles in the over, clearly shielding Dravid from facing any more balls in the last over of the day. Dravid has earned it with a sterling display today.
385 for 6 in 90 overs. The most runs ever scored by an Indian team in the first day of a Test match (and maybe any single day's play). What an unexpected stat when the team was 32 for 4, 45 minutes into the day.
Sri Lanka did as well as they could possibly have. They exploited the early swing to pick up wickets, but once the pitch eased out, the positive-minded Dravid, Yuvraj, and Dhoni took it away.
Dravid stays not out on 177 off 251 balls, 26 fours, 1 six. No doubt who the hero of the day has been.
Okay, it's been a fun day's play, full of the ebbs and flows that are unique to Test cricket. Now it is time to get a few hours of sleep before work beckons.
Good night (or good morning).
5 comments:
"The best antidote to losing wickets is to score runs."
Like that line. Dravid should have a poster in his room with that quote.
M, thanks. Dravid, I have noticed, is the perfect foil, adjusting his tempo to that of his partner.
Yesterday was a case in point: when Yuvi was around, he had a lot of boundaries sandwiched between dot balls. When Dhoni came, the two of them bustled singles and doubles like nobody's businesswith the periodic boundary.
I wish he would always bat like he did on the first day.
Woah - did you stay up all night for this?
been fun reading the scribes struggle with using "dashing" and "the Wall" for Dravid in the same sentence today!!
Great knock.
S, yes I did. I have been waiting for the Indian team to play Test cricket for a while (and also to watch Laxman play...*sigh*) so it was quite an enjoyable experience.
D, it was a great knock, yes. Worth staying up all night for.
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