Running diary - Day 1: Dilshan and Mathews keep India at bay
Running diary - Day 2: One word - Sehwag
Running diary - Day 3: Attritional ascendency by India
Day 4 is the make-or-break day for this Test. I believe that the Test will end today with an Indian win. But I also am convinced that Sangakkara will get his maiden century in India in a losing cause. The 4 Indian bowlers are, collectively, in a much better frame of mind than the Sri Lankan bowlers. Sri Lanka's opener, Tillakaratne Dilshan, is as close as any batsman is to India's Virender Sehwag and he will need to duplicate Sehwag's feat. Today's bowlers abhor getting their analyses ruined in the runs column and are prepared to get fewer wickets in search of a lighter economy rate. Therefore, what Sri Lanka needs to do is to keep looking for runs. Quick runs. That will spread the field and make it easier for them to bat India out of the Test.
In the first Test of this series India trailed Sri Lanka by 334 runs after the first innings and batted for the good part of two days (129 overs with an additional 6 available, I believe) to draw the Test. Sri Lanka has to believe that they can do unto India what the home folks did to them. The Sri Lankans have bravely talked about giving India a target of 150 on the last day. To do that they needs to score 500 runs. It is imperative they get at least about 350 of that today. Let's see if they mean what they say or it is just talk.
As far as India is concerned, the players know that they need 10 balls to go their way and have 10 batsmen to clean up. The trap has been set, and they will wait for the batsmen to fall one by one. This is not a pitch where the bowlers can run through a batting order, but there is enough help for the bowlers to keep their head in the game.
Okay, here we go.
10:00pm: Zaheer Khan to start the day. Look for him to start with a couple of looseners. Hah! ZAK probably has heard me and bowls two bouncers in the first four balls. The second one is fortuitously top edged by Dilshan to the fine leg fence. Encouraging signs for the fans of both teams. ZAK seems more into it already and induced a semi-false shot from Dilshan. On the other hand, the Sri Lankans should be happy that Dilshan is prepared to take the bowling on. Encouraging signs.
10:05pm: MS Dhoni entrusts Harbhajan Singh with the ball at the other end. Let's see how Harbhajan attacks and, more importantly, how does he respond if he is attacked. Luckily for him the batsman facing him is Tharanga Paranavitana. Tharanga is content to defend and gives Harbhajan a gift of a maiden to start the day. Two slips and forward short leg for Harbhajan, incidentally.
10:10pm: ZAK is content for now to bowl outside the off-stump and the openers are watchful for the ball that comes in. Come in it does, and Dilshan helps himself to a single to square-leg. The only run in that over. Looks like the plan is to keep it tight from one end while Harbhajan bowls a more aggressive line from the other.
10:14pm: I give Harbhajan a lot of grief at times and deservedly so, but so far today he has bowled an attacking line. A backward short-leg is added to the field and Dilshan flicks it between the keeper and the backward short-leg fielder for a four. That was close. The next ball is swept with full gusto and Murali Vijay, at forward short-leg gets hammered on the thigh. Ouch!
Sri Lanka 22 for no loss in 7 overs. Dilshan 13, Tharanga 9. Trail by 311 runs.
10:22pm: ZAK overpitches and Dilshan channels his Delhi Daredevils captain's inner muse and drills it to cover where a tumbling Yuvraj Singh stops all runs but gets stung on his forearm in the process. Dilshan is adopting Plan B for Sri Lanka - look to injure the Indians. Plan A, of course, involves troubling the scorer all day. Harbhajan is bowling over the wicket and Dilshan, inexplicably, chooses to raise his bat very high and pad it away. I find it surprising when batsmen do that. You are already outside the off-stump, use your bat to cover the line and play it. I have seen Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar given out LBW while shouldering arms. (The SRT dismissal was when the fellow was in the 90's, Collingwood was the bowler, and Simon Taufel the umpire).
10:31pm: Harbhajan is starting to bowl the irritating line of his, middle and leg to the right hander from over the wicket. The pitch is giving him tremendous bounce and turn and he should try to get it from off or just outside the off-stump. Gives up 4 byes doing that. Oh no!!! Dilshan gets a second shocker in the Test. He shouldered arms to Hanbhajan. The ball was fuller and struck him on the underside of the front thigh but the ball was drifting down the leg side even as it hit him and Darryl Harper gives him out! I hate to say it but shouldering arms is a dangerous proposition with today's umpires. Especially since Shane Warne convinced them that batsmen could be given out shouldering arms and on the front foot. 15 years ago, Dishan could have done it all day (and indeed Jimmy
But Dilshan, you have such a wonderful array of strokes, why are you padding them away and giving the umpire a chance to get involved?
30 for 1 in 9 overs. Sri Lanka trail by 303 runs.
10:35pm: ZAK probes away outside Kumar Sangakkara's off-stump but Kumar ignores everything. ZAK skips away with a maiden.
10:40pm: Harbhajan probes away past the off-stump but bowls one shorter than the rest and Sangakkara simply cuts away very sweetly for a four. Australia remembers this shot of his very well.
10:45pm: ZAK is not able to do too much with the ball today. Paranavitana glides the ball through the 2 slip-1 gully cordon for a four to the vacant third man region. Other than that it was an uneventful over. Tharanga is looking solid here but in a way that is totally different from the first innings where he seemed to be in a hurry to get runs.
10:49pm: Harbhajan is mixing it up to both batsmen from around the wicket (both are left-handed) but it is clear he prefers bowling to right-handers. Oooh, he goes over the wicket and sends one in that just goes past the edge of the bat.
40 for 1 in 13 overs. Tharanga on 14, Sangakkara on 6. Sri Lanka trail by 293 runs.
10:54pm: Sreesanth is introduced for the first time. Let's see how he fares on this pitch that offers more bounce than the one in the previous Test where he did so well. A fairly steady over by him, no extravagant swing or bounce. Sangakkara lets him get away with a maiden. The captain is playing quite cautiously, probably mindful of the way he has gotten out all series long playing extravagant shots.
10:56pm: How did that ball miss the stump? Harbhajan bowls one at 97kmph and Sangakkara is beaten comprehensively and the ball just misses the off-stump. Lucky. Sangakkara counters by swinging away at the next one, misses and the Indians go up immediately appealing for a catch. Harper is not interested. I wonder what snicko will say.
Sreesanth and Harbhajan are bowling quite steadily but there is something missing. It may have to do with the fact that both batsmen are settled and pushing hard at the ball, waiting for the bowler to come to them to score runs.
Sri Lanka 49 for 1 in 18 overs. Tharanga on 21, Sangakkara on 8. Sr Lanka trail by 284 runs.
Tharanga is beginning to feel his oats. After producing the best cover drive of the innings for four, he then greets Pragyan Ojha, who is introduced into the attack, by repeatedly sweeping him, including once to cow corner for a four.
11:20pm: Ojha is bowling a bit too straight on the off-stump from over the wicket. The batsmen are waiting for the ball to turn and then either punching him or sweeping him for runs, Tharanga moreso than Sangakkara. Tharanga does it extremely well and picks up another four with a sweep.
11:31pm: ZAK is brought back to replace Sreesanth. I am surprised Sreesanth did not try to bowl around the wicket. Apart from being a change in line to the lefties, it would also create some rough for the spinners outside the off-stump. ZAK is played away cautiously by Taranga. Nothing much happening from either side. The game of cat and mouse is well under way.
67 for 1 in 24 overs. Tharanga 31, Sangakkara 16. Trail by 266 runs.
Tharanga is in the danger zone for him. A very good starter, he has shown a propensity to get out after working hard to get a decent innings going.
11:40pm: Ojha gets Sangakkara to flick agonizingly close to Dhoni's gloves. This was the way he got out in the first innings. Oooh...the replay shows that it was a little further away from Dhoni than I thought but not more than half a foot. By the way, earlier in the innings when the Indians were convinced they had Sangakkara caught by Dhoni, snicko showed that there was absolutely no contact between bat and ball. Tharanga jumps out and thumps Ojha to deep mid-on for four. Tharanga tries to repeat it and is beaten completely. Luckily for him the ball hits his pad and rolls away to first slip and he scampers back in time. Ojha is still flighting the ball in spite of being hit and the fielder has not been moved back. Good job.
11:43pm: ZAK drifts into Sangakkara's pads and is casually flicked through midwicket for four. ZAK is unable to do much here in terms of swing or speed and I think it is time to have a double-spin attack. Surely Harbhajan cannot already be tired, can he? Actually, Dhoni has shown in the past that he likes a fast bowler-spinner combination more than a double-spin attack. Also, in the afternoon it will be harder for the fast bowlers so he may be trying to extract as much as he can from them in the cooler morning hours.
11:46pm: Harbhajan comes into the attack. Looping it on the off-stump from round the wicket. A good line from him. Sangakkara is equal to the task and watchfully plays out the over. Ominously for India, Sangakkara looks a lot more relaxed.
11:51pm: Tharanga presents a straight face to a good length ball and the drive fetches four runs past mid-on. Sweet shot. ZAK comes back by beating Tharanga on the forward push. Small signs for ZAK but not enough to warrant many more overs for him. The Indians can squeeze in a couple of overs before lunch. Would be a good time to try Yuvraj or Sehwag or even SRT for one over.
82 for 1 in 28 overs. Tharanga on 41, Sangakkara on 21. Trail by 251 runs. I sense a wicket coming here. 50 run partnership between the duo. Good going. They need about 5 times this to feel safe.
11:54pm: Harbhajan continues over the wicket and bowls his quicker one at 97kmph. Tharanga goes on the backfoot and jabs it away. The next one is picture perfect, landing on middle stump and beating the forward prod. Dhoni collects the ball above his waist to his left.
Nope, no wicket there. Maiden for Harbhajan, though. Will please him immensely. 10-1-28-1. Just the type of analysis he strives for in ODIs.
11:58pm: Dhoni thinks like me! Sehwag into the attack, coming round the wicket to Sangakkara. Sangakkara defends and then taps it to short midwicket for a single. Four balls to go for lunch. Tharanga leans forward and defends the next two balls. Two balls to go. Shorter outside the off-stump, it climbs up and takes the splice of the bat and they get a single to point. The last ball is a b-e-a-u-t-y spinning past Sangakkara's forward thrust. Ooof! On top of it, since he took less than two overs to bowl it, India can squeeze in another over before lunch. The Sri Lankans should have wasted a little time there.
11:59pm: Tharanga is playing Harbhajan very cautiously with a very low backlift and is not even trying to score runs now. There are still some old-fashioned batsmen playing cricket these days. By the way, Dhoni, why do you have a deep point? Tharanga defends and gives Harbhajan another maiden.
84 for 1 in 31 overs. Tharanga on 42, Sangakkara on 22. Sri Lanka trail by 249 runs.
Sri Lanka scored 74 runs in that session. Based upon their current play and from the type of batsmen to follow, it is unlikely that they will cross India's score today. To do that they will need to score more than a run a ball for the rest of the day. I do not see that happening. Sadly, that will mean that they will always be under pressure and each time a wicket falls (if it does) the pressure ratchets up even more. But you knew that, didn't you?
Okay, time for a break. Be sure to return in 35 minutes.
12:40am: Sehwag continues after lunch. I like this. I was worried that he would be one and done. Sehwag is bowling with three close-in fielders and does not have a deep point. Sangakkara edges one to the left of Dravid...that was close. Sehwag getting good spin away from left-hander from round the wicket.
12:45am: Harbhajan is bowling with a deep point and Sunil Gavaskar (SMG) is tearing into him for such a defensive field. I agree with SMG's outburst here. India is leading by almost 250 runs and Harbhajan has a fielder for a bad ball. He is the second highest wicket taking off-spinner in the history of the game. MS Dhoni is unfortunately an accomplice in this endeavor. I wonder how many runs it will take before MS Dhoni and Harbhajan will bowl with a completely attacking field? Tharanga plays away a maiden, reinforcing Harbhajan's thoughts about the field. He is bowling with a perma-scowl on his face. Lighten up just a little bit, Harbhajan, you have a lot of bowling left to do.
12:51am: Sehwag is bowling without a deep point while Harbhajan does. Strange. Almost in response to that, Sangakkara cuts one away to deep point for four and (sigh) Dhoni responds by sending a fielder deep.
(Editor's note: Personal tangent). We had a bowler on our WVUCC team, AB, who occasionally tried to bowl a "faster one". He never got a wicket with it but was convinced that he could get the batsman out LBW. However, when he tried that ball he always pitched it short and would get thumped to the leg-side fence. In time our captain used to start with a deep midwicket for him. Unfortunately, it dawned on us a few games later that AB thought the deep midwicket fielder was a catching position and was now intentionally pitching his faster one short as he wanted the batsmen to hit it in the air. In all the years we played with him, AB never got a batsman out at deep midwicket and by the time his tenure with us was winding down he was bowling fewer and fewer overs. For some reason, as I watch the fielders in the deep for our #1 spinner, I am reminded of AB.
1:03am: Brad Hogg, on the commentary stint with SMG, is about to pick a fight with the Indian and does not even know it. Tharanga is distracted by some movement to the far left of the sightscreen and Hogg comments that a batsman who is distracted by the movement to the far edge of huge sightscreens (which are there so spectators can move freely behind them) is focusing on the wrong place. His focus should be on the bowler. SMG tries to counter it by saying that sometimes the batsman needs to have a completely clear field of vision so he can concentrate. Hogg continues on his point, oblivious to the fact that the batsman most bothered by sightscreen movement is SMG's favorite son SRT! Watch out, Hoggy!
The lefties are simply milking the gap at deep point, scoring 3-4 runs an over without a sweat. Plug the gap, Dhoni, plug the gap. Make the batsmen work for their runs.
By the way, over an hour ago I "sensed" a wicket was going to fall. I guess one hour is sufficient time to say that my sense was wrong.
102 for 1 in 41 overs. Tharanga on 47, Sangakkara on 34. Trail by 231 runs.
1:13am: Ojha replaces Sehwag, flights the ball, and Sangakkara wanders down to flick it for a couple. He cuts the next ball from in front of the stumps (Ojha is bowling round the wicket and spinning it into the lefty) for three runs. Harbhajan walks across and is advising Ojha to move the off-side fielder squarer and deeper. *sigh* Ojha continues to flight it, drawing Tharanga out of the crease for a defensive prod. Tharanga's scores in this series 35, 38, 20, 53, and 48*. Will he finally carry on to three figures this time at least?
1:17am: Tharanga simply angles the bat and runs the ball down to fine-leg for four runs to take him to his second fifty of the match. Well played, so far. Harbhajan switches to round the wicket. A better angle with two slips and a forward short-leg. Ravi Shastri advocates patience to the Indians saying that a wicket can easily lead to one or two more quick ones.
The two teams are settling into a familiar post-lunch dance. Ojha is beginning to draw the batsmen out of the crease more often. So far the batsmen have been content to pat him away. Harbhajan is bowling to a straighter field with less flight. Harbhajan asks for a silly point in addition to his forward short-leg and two slips.
117 for 1 in 45 overs. Sangakkara on 44, Thranga on 52. Trail by 216 runs.
1:31am: Sreesanth comes in to bowl just as Tharanga started batting in a cap. And Sreesanth strikes!! He pitches a ball on off-stump and swings it in to hit Tharanga plumb in front. There were two noises but it was just bat hitting pad well away from the ball. Tharanga looks unhappy but even he does not know he missed the ball. Hawkeye has the ball hitting the middle of the middle stump. Tharanga misses out on a start again.
The crowd wakes up again. Mahela Jayawardene at the crease.
Earlier today I talked about Jimmy Adams and his Padams nickname. I wandered over to CricInfo and checked out their All Today's Yesterdays feature and Jimmy Padams Adams is mentioned! Spooky! Check it out.
1:44am: Sreesanth is bowling full and on the stumps and Sangakkara and Mahela are extremely carefully playing him away. Sreesanth bowling really well. Sangakkara has been stuck on 44 for a long time.
125 for 2 in 48 overs. Sangakkara on 44, Mahela on 5. Trail by 208 runs.
Chip. Chip. Eight more chips to go for India. Patience is, indeed, the key. Drinks break.
1:55am: Harbhajan is settling into the restrictive role while Sreesanth prowls at the other end. He gets Mahela to
Sri Lanka trail by 200 runs with 8 wickets left. The other details are incidental for now (unless milestones are reached) as Sri Lanka is batting too slowly to overhaul India today, meaning it will be battling for survival well into the fifth day. (For the record, there are 42 overs to go, so unless they score at almost 5 an over they will not cross India today).
Sangakkara has scored 6 runs in the last 33 balls he has faced. Inching towards a fifty (46*).
2:12am: ZAK is back and Mahela is back - in the pavilion. 21 consecutive dot balls were bowled by Ojha and ZAK and this is NOT the way to save a Test, my friends. ZAK changes line and length with impunity knowing he will not be thrashed and one such change, over the wicket across the batsman, results in Mahela leaning forward and letting his angled bat touch the ball on its way to the keeper. That is Dhoni's 99th catch and one of his most important yet. Mahela gone for 12.
Trail by 198 with 7 wickets left.
Samaraweera comes in to bat. Sangakkara has now scored 3 runs in the last 36 balls. Obviously he has not followed the fortunes of the Indian team too closely in the past 5 years. You CANNOT dead bat your way through two days of cricket. More so on a pitch that is giving some help to the bowlers.
2:30am: ZAK strikes again with a big hand from VVS Laxman. Bowling round the wicket, ZAK gets the ball to climb even as it holds its line. Samaraweera is forced into pushing his bat out and gets a thick outside edge that is snaffled by Laxman falling low to his left. He caught the ball near his ankle and the roll takes him right next to Dhoni. Dhoni leans over, confirms the catch has been taken and they exchange a high-five and then a big hug. Some inside joke there about the way the catch was taken as they laugh about something. Methinks it may have been that one of them felt that 2nd slip should not be there as no balls had gone that way in the Test so far.
Trail by 196 runs, 6 wickets in hand. Sangakkara is on 48, by the way.
2:34am: Sangakkara takes a single off Ojha to get to 50. This has got to be the most muted celebration of a 50 in his career. No joy for the skipper. The "final frontier" comment is coming back to haunt him just as it did Steve Waugh.
2:38am: Angelo Mathews gets a reprieve! Lunging forward to Ojha, who is bowling on a beautiful trajectory on and around off-stump, he edges the ball between the two slips. Neither of them moved to the ball. It could have been taken more easily by Laxman had he been lower to the ground. Mathews is going at it with "hard hands". Not a good strategy. Yesterday evening, the most notoriously hard-handed batsman there is, MS Dhoni, took to holding his bat so loosely it was twirling in his hand after the ball hit it when he was defending. Mathews should do something similar. But Ojha gets him before he can contemplate this strategy!!! Leaning forward to smother the spin, Mathews edges it and Dhoni takes a smart, sharp catch behind the stumps, the 100th of his Test career. Milestone Watch continues without even me needing to try hard.
That's tea. Sri Lanka trail by 189 runs with 5 wickets remaining.
Sangakkara will get a lot of good but misplaced press for that Test cricket oddity - the "lone fighter on a burning deck while staring at defeat" innings. But he has contributed directly to this predicament. At one point he was on 39 in 90 balls. Now he is on 50 in 151. He has taken 61 balls to score 11 runs and just added to the pressure by letting the bowlers settle into a rhythm. It is interesting for me to see how this is playing out from the other side of the fence, having been at the receiving end when India did this a few times in the past few years and lost Tests.
Ravi Shastri advocated patience when Sangakkara and Tharanga were stitching together a partnership. He reminded the viewer that on a pitch like this one wicket could lead to another quick one. As usual, he was wrong. One wicket has led to three quick ones. (Seriously though, good call, Ravi).
3:08am: Stop the presses! After bunting, defending, and ducking the first four balls, Sangakkara flicks the fifth one to the square-leg fence off Sreesanth! This sudden deluge of runs, all 4 of them, send sea gulls scurrying for cover in places as far away as Adelaide. Sangakkara reaches 1,000 Test runs for the calendar year. A list headed by Samaraweera, by the way.
3:19am: Sangakkara dances down the wicket to Ojha and hits a sweet-looking six over the sightscreen and follows that with a shimmy and a drive through cover. Finally, he is looking to spread the field and disrupt the bowler's rhythm. Something about barn doors and horses bolting comes to mind, however.
Sri Lanka trials by 168 runs with 5 wickets remaining.
3:32am: Sangakkara is looking to score more runs, probably trying to get close enough to a 100 before he runs out of partners. Prasanna Jayawardene is looking comfortable against ZAK and Ojha. Sangakkara has moved on to 74 now, while Prasanna is on 18. Indians have settled back into the waiting mode again. It is surely just a matter of time before the next wicket falls.
3:42am: Harbhajan replaces Ojha, eying a five-for. To do that he needs to take 4 of the last 5 wickets. Sangakkara plays him away quite easily.
3:47am: ZAK is replaced by Sehwag, who is greeted by Jayawardene with a slog swept six. Sehwag getting a taste of his own medicine. 54 run partnership in 65 balls. Prasanna sweeps again, but simply manages to top edge it! Oooh...reaches the fine leg fielder on the bounce. Close.
3:56am: 127 runs behind, Sri Lanka is playing more positively and reaping the rewards for it with a more spread out field, easier singles to get, and a general sense of security about their batting line-up, which was not there at tea.
4:01am: Ojha replaces Sehwag and he strikes immediately! Jayawardene went on the backfoot, playing for the turn, which was not there as Ojha bowled the arm ball. Struck right in front of the stumps and it was indeed a matter of time before another wicket fell, wasn't it?
125 runs behind with 4 wickets remaining. Secondary countdown: Sangakkara needs 19 runs for 100.
I am afraid that MS Dhoni will start to spread the field and give Sangakkara some easy singles in order to be able to bowl to the other batsmen. If I were him, I would not change it one bit. Let Sangakkara continue to work for every run and try to take wickets as and when you can. Nuwan Kulasekara, with a top score of 64 in Tests, comes to bat. Four close-in fielders on the off-side now. Kulasekara is out LBW. No!!! The umpire says not out. Hawkeye has the ball hitting middle and leg-stump 2/3rds of the way up the stump. It was another arm ball to a right hander. Ouch!
4:09am: Kulasekara is a very popular young man. No less than 5 fielders, the wicket-keeper, and the bowler are close-in to him, within touching distance. A visibly moved Kulasekara reacts by pretending to be unmoved thereby reducing Harbhajan close to tears. His spirits perk up when ZAK reminds him that he did get a maiden out of it.
4:12am: Sangakkara has one eye on the scoreboard and dances down and thumps it to deep midwicket for a one-bounce four. 14 to get for him. Ojha helps him out with a ball so bad, it was going straight to leg slip. Kumar sweeps away for a four and reaches 90. A single to midwicket takes him to 91 and to safety. He will get a century easily now.
By the way, check out the first three sentences of my running diary for today. I may be jinxing myself, but I cannot help gloating right now. Maybe the reverse jinx will work and Sangakkara will not get to his century!
4:15am: Harbhajan is bowling to Sangakkara with all the leg-side fielders (four of them), barring forward short-leg, on the boundary. Sangakkara shows that he is playing for his personal milestone by refusing to take a single. This is just the 7th wicket partnership, captain. Surely, Kulasekara knows how to hold a bat. Your team needs the runs and not for you to be shielding the tailenders so soon.
4:21am: Ojha tries to bore Sangakkara to death by bowling so he can hit it all the way to the boundary on the leg-side, but he refuses the single and painfully watches the ball roll all the way before playing the next ball. He may as well save himself the energy by simply defending the ball. He does dance down to the last ball and hits it over the midwicket fielder for a four to get to 96.
4:31am: Sangakkara meets his date with destiny, getting to 100 with a four through midwicket. He celebrates it with two more fours through cover. Handsome, handsome cover drives. Vintage Sangakkara.
91 runs behind with 4 wickets remaining.
Only 8 overs left today. By golly, it looks like the Test will stretch to a 5th day, gladdening the heart of the Treasurer of the BCCI. Sangakkara takes Zaheer Khan to extra cover and then third man for successive boundaries. 5 boundaries since the new ball was taken. Sangakkara dealing in multiples of four. Only 21 more boundaries required to tie the scores.
4:54am: Sangakkara produces the sweetest, high-elbow straight drive for four, followed by a glide to deep square-leg. Cashing in with boundaries that are on offer.
65 runs behind with 4 wickets remaining. Kulasekara has held strong for over an hour. He has contributed 9 runs to a 60 run partnership. Two overs to go for close of play.
5:08am: Harbhajan gets six balls at Kulasekara and bowls three of them outside the leg stump. He gets his maiden, though. Small victories.
5:09am: Sehwag comes on for the penultimate over of the day. Sangakkara refusing to take singles, still unsure about Kulasekara's ability to flat bat everything. Surprisingly, Sehwag gives up a single off the last ball and Sangakkara will bat the last over. He is playing nightwatchman to Kulasekara. Talk about role reversal! Sangakkara has been the nightwatchman for about 70 minutes now.
5:12am: Sangakkara takes a wide offering from Harbhajan and hits it in the air past cover for a four. Takes a single to get off strike and will go into the 5th day unbeaten on 133. Kulasekara is batting on 9 in 45 balls.
Okay, so my prediction of an India win today did not materialize. But they are primed to pick up the win tomorrow. It is a matter of time and they have plenty of it - one whole day and 90 overs of it. My other prediction of Sangakkara scoring a century has come true. This innings will cement over the cracks in the batting edifice that appeared until now, as such centuries are wont to do. Yes, it was a high quality innings but only after he eschewed the ultra-defensive approach that doomed their innings in the mid-day period.
Sri Lanka trail by 59 runs. I expect a fairly quick finish to the game tomorrow. And then I can go to bed at a decent hour! Good night.
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