Paradise regained

If he plays a few more Tests, Mahela Jayawardene will supplant Rahul Dravid as the most prolific Test match fielder in history.  Lots of articles will be written about the (often) ignored Sri Lankan batting legend.  Many more have already been written about Kumar Sangakkara, who melds his lawyerly background with an outspokenness that is loved by writers everywhere.  Sangakkara, with his faux British-Lankan accent captures the popular press while the man who has made more runs, scored more centuries, and made the highest-ever score by a right-hander in Tests is content to cede the spotlight.

However, for all the press that the more prominent cricketers of our time (the Pietersens, the Tendulkars, the Kohlis) get, I doubt any of them will be the feature of a tribute as wonderful as this one by Wright Thompson, of ESPN.

This happened a few years back, a month after finishing a crushing second in the 2007 World Cup. It was during the war, when checkpoints regularly stopped traffic on the highways. Java and Mahela, the team captain, rode back late at night from a friend's funeral. Java drove. It was dark and empty on the garrison road. The troops stopped them. It was dark, the soldiers focused and on edge, the cricket star was out of context. Java was exhausted and needed to get home. "Tell him who you are," Java begged. "I won't," Mahela said. 

Java laughs now in the hotel lobby. "This guy asked for the ID," he says, "so he gave him the ID. The ID doesn't say 'Mahela Jayawardene,' it says 'Denagamage Proboth Mahela de Silva Jayawardene.' Even if you read it, it doesn't click, unless you look for it, you know?" 

They waited on the soldiers to finish searching their car and then drove on to town. Java was annoyed and wanted to know why Mahela wouldn't do something so simple that would speed up their day. "I may play cricket," he said, "but let them do their job."

Pop Quiz #4: Who am I?

(Note: Every so often I shall have a pop quiz on my blog with questions about people, places, things, events, and any other thing that comes to mind. Please take the quiz without peeking at the answers, which will be included at the end, and let me know how you did. Previous quizzes can be seen by clicking here.)

Today's quiz is about sports personalities.

1)  In a Test match in 2007, I was involved in a 408 run partnership for the first wicket. I was the first wicket to fall at a personal score of just 129 runs.  At that time my partner was batting on 49.  Yes, you read that right, he had scored 49 runs and I had scored 129.  Who am I?  Actually, more importantly, how was this 408 run partnership possible, especially considering that the opposition had give up just 10 extras?

2)  I am the only batsman to have been involved in two partnerships of over 400 runs for the first wicket.  Both times, the partnership ended within one scoring stroke of setting the world record. Yet, I have scored more runs (than anyone else in Test history, in fact) at a different position - #3. 

3)  On my Test debut I opened the bowling for India along with my fellow debutant Tinu Yohanan.  My solitary wicket was of Graham Thorpe.  In the second inning I even made the winning runs.  In fact, I scored 100% of the runs made by India in that second inning.  I am one of the few genuinely fast bowlers who have opened the batting and bowling in their debut Test.  Unfortunately, I never played another Test match for India.


4)  I am the only player in the history of tennis to have won at least 10 tournament on every surface that the sport is played on - clay, grass, hard court, and indoor.


5) The Sportsmanship award in tennis is voted on by the players.  I won it so many times that, after I retired, the award was renamed in my honor!  I am the only man to have won all four Grand Slams tournaments in the same year, as a junior.  I would have completed a career Slam on the senior circuit if a 17 year-old had not caught fire and won his only major after I was leading him 2 sets to one and was even up a break in the 5th set.


Answers after the jump:

Why I hate Rahul Dravid...and other random musings

....I hate Rahul Dravid.    I hate him for making me believe that as long as he was batting we had a chance to save/win a Test match.  I hate him for being such a team-man that he sacrificed so many of his preferences just so the team could do well.  I hate him for timing his retirement so perfectly that even the BCCI could not botch it.  I hate him the fact that, for years, he prevented VVS Laxman from occupying the #3 spot that he was best suited for.  But the thing I hate most is that he is no longer going to be there in the Indian line-up at #3.  *sigh*  I hate that he has gone away and I will never see him in whites again.  Good luck, Rahul, may you find that retirement is just the starting point of the more meaningful phase of your life.

...VVS Laxman should be seriously contemplating playing county cricket in England.  Any sort of cricket to keep him "match-fit" for the Test matches later in the year will be a must.  Unless, of course, he already knows that he is going to retire soon and not play those Test matches.

...If folks can change their stance and switch hit, then I say we abolish the amnesty that batsmen get from being adjudged LBW to balls outside the leg-stump.

...I do not want Sachin Tendulkar to retire.  (There, I said it, BRB....bring it on!)

...I don't follow the IPL but I also do not follow the logic of folks who claim that the IPL is a domestic tournament.  As long as the strength of an IPL team is determined by the strength of the foreign players in the roster, it can never be a domestic tournament.   Having said that...let me know when the tournament ends so I can go back to reading CricInfo regularly again.

Call off the hounds!

I did something a few minutes ago that I have never done before - I stopped watching an Indian Test match.  In the past, no matter how dire the situation, I never gave up on the team.  Today, I am as close as I have ever been to do that.

I just saw Ishant Sharma, bowling just his 8th over of the day, about half an hour after lunch on the first day, trundle in and throw down an innocuous loosener, short and wide outside the off-stump to a salivating Ricky Ponting.  When I contrasted that with the number of times the Aussies have blasted through from the first ball of their spell, I felt like weeping.

YOU DON'T DESERVE MY SUPPORT!!

Half an hour past lunch on the 1st day and they cannot summon their best stuff?!!  The fielding is lethargic, the field positions are defensive (I promise you, placing just one lone slip at 2nd slip is asking for trouble.  There will be an edge that travels between the keeper and the lone slip.  Just you watch), and the body language is of total surrender.  Senior citizens show more interest that these fellows.  Did you see the way they walked onto the ground?  Gah!

It's too bad I don't have a say in the selection of the Indian Test team.  This would have been my 11 for the Test (in batting order):
Ajinkya Rahane
Virender Sehwag
Virat Kohli
Sachin Tendulkar
Rahul Dravid
Rohit Sharma
Wriddhiman Saha
Abhimanyu Mithun
Umesh Yadav
Pragyan Ojha
Zaheer Khan

Oh, and I'd make one more change out of left field.  With the caveat that a failure will not affect his chances, I'd make Virat Kohli the captain and put Sehwag, Dravid and SRT on notice.  Twin failures from any of them and it would be the last Test match they play for India.  Anything less than 75 runs in an inning is a failure.  (By the way, unless MS Dhoni shows me in a first-class match that he is willing to tough it out and bat for a long time in the longer form of the game, he does not deserve a spot in the team, either.  Anyway, for me, his Test captaincy days are done).

I'm done with this Test team.  Wake me up when the new-look Indian team is revealed 8 months from now.  Until then I shall watch the Pakistani team and root for them to exact revenge on England.

How SRT and the IPL ruined the Summer of George

(or) The Eternal Lament of the Spoiled Indian Cricket Fan

This was supposed to be the Summer of George. India had just won the World Cup and ahead of me, over the next 9 months, were no less than 14 Test matches, 6 against the West Indies, 4 against England and then the Big Daddy of them all – a 4 Test series against Australia.

On April 3rd, being a fan of Indian cricket was a good occupation to have. Then, two not entirely unrelated things happened that eventually ruined the happy ending.

First came the lure/pressure of the IPL, call it whatever you will. Virender Sehwag was injured but still played in the IPL, nursing his shoulder injury as best as he could. He played 11 games and, tellingly, only when the Daredevils were eliminated did he opt for shoulder surgery, rendering him inactive for the tour of the West Indies.

Sachin Tendulkar played every game (16 in all) in the IPL but felt compelled to seek rest after that from the West Indies series.

Gautam Gambhir got injured in the World Cup but was not totally aware of it until he re-aggravated it in the IPL. However, he continued to play with the injury until the Knight Riders were eliminated, and then rested, missing the tour.

Yuvraj Singh played 14 games but missed the West Indies tour because of a lung infection. All in all, four stalwarts of the the Indian World Cup campaign were rendered hors de combat for the Windies tour. However, I will not apportion any blame on the IPL for that.

Coming on the heels of a long and arduous World Cup campaign, the timing of the IPL was not the best. However, it is revealing that all the major players named in the previous paragraph did not seek “rest” or “treatment” for their ailments during that tournament, instead choosing to forego the West Indies series altogether instead.

I have absolutely no issues with a person choosing to make some more money at the expense of playing “for the country”. They have an obligation to themselves and their families and I am no one to tell them how they should go about maximizing their revenue or what their priorities should be. However, I do have an issue with the consequence of that choice and how it affected the rest of the campaigns over the next 9 months.

The second factor crept up on us during the World Cup, when Sachin Tendulkar was in sublime touch, continuing his rich vein of form of the past few years. He scored a couple of centuries, had a near-miss against Pakistan, failed in the final, but got the ultimate prize – courtesy a ride on the shoulders of his teammates. Somewhere along the way a new beast was unleashed by the media – the quest for the almost-mythical 100th international 100.

It is at that point that some of SRT’s choices become curious, especially in hindsight. By eschewing the Windies tour, SRT ensured that his next international match would be at Lord’s. Ooooooh, how perfect, his handlers (and he himself, maybe) crooned: a century of centuries at the Mecca of cricket. What a perfect setting for the feat. It made great business sense to score that century at Lord’s than, say, at Roseau.

After a fruitless Test series in England, SRT skipped the return ODI series at home. Why risk scoring the 100 in a meaningless ODI on an Indian highway, when Test matches at Kotla, Eden Gardens, and/or Wankhade were yet to come, each carrying an alluring ring for the media and his sponsors? When that did not work, the ODI series against the Windies was skipped since the Boxing Day Test at Melbourne beckoned. Longingly and achingly.

Now, bear with me while I imagine an alternate scenario. (Not a guaranteed scenario but still a very possible one.) SRT goes to the West Indies and scores a century in one of the Test matches (maybe at Kingston). Suddenly the stories go away, the pressure is lifted, none of the remaining Indian players have to field any more questions about whether SRT is feeling the pressure. Viru and Gambhir decide to skip the IPL, get rested during the Windies tour and are ready to play in England, fully healthy. With SRT playing the Windies series, the Indian batting order does not have to be reshuffled, and  since Viru and Gambhir are ready for the England Tests, VVS Laxman can continue to play at #5, and Rahul Dravid does not have to become an opener in England and the batting order is not unsettled. Since the batting order is more settled .... I can’t bear to carry that dream any further. It hurts too much to contemplate what could have been.

Damn you SRT and the IPL!  This was supposed to be the Summer of George. It really was...

Book review: Beyond the Blues

For a few weeks I have working furiously on a personal deadline of writing a book before Christmas rolled around.  Now that the deadline has been done and dusted with I can get back to more important things like living my life again.  (Some will snicker that the deadline was less about Christmas and more about Boxing Day.  Oh, how well they know me!).

Anyway, thinking about books took me back a couple of years to a book that I had read, liked, promised to review but had never gotten around to doing.  So, here it is - my review of Beyond the Blues by Aakash Chopra.  Better late than never.

From September 9th, 2007 to June 5th 2008, Aakash Chopra kept notes of his actions and thoughts in the form of a diary.  Eventually, to the happiness of many of his fans, including me, he went ahead and published them.

The book is filled with an insider's perspective of Indian cricket, from the behind-the-scenes shenanigans in the backrooms of selectorial meetings to the on-field skullduggery that the viewer is unable to pick up on from 90 (or in these days 60) yards away.

It is a compelling book, written from the heart.  The best way to appreciate the book is to read it in its entirety.  Here are some of the nuggets that caught my fancy and should serve to whet your appetite for when you read the book.

On Sachin Tendulkar (p48):

Aakash Chopra had a very pivotal hand in Sachin's classic exercise in self-denial, that face-saving 241* at Sydney in Steve Waugh's final Test in 2004.  In fact, it is safe to say, that Aakash saved SRT's life that day.  He did something that made him "... one of the few people in the world who has given something to the Little Master without taking anything material from him in return."

On a fellow team-mate (p60):

He has definitely mastered the way to score at this level consistently and I wouldn't be surprised if, one day, if he plays enough domestic cricket (given his India commitments), he goes on to break every batting record on the domestic circuit.

Open letter to the Indian team

To: Indian Cricket team - Test edition
Date:  Day 2, Test 1 - India-West Indies, November 2011

Dear friends,

After watching most of the first two days of the first Test match against West Indies, here's what I have to say to each of you:

Gautam Gambhir:  Get out of ODI mode.  Stop dabbing at the ball, trying to run it down to third man with 3 slips and 2 gullies waiting for the ball.  You are lucky you got to 41.  You not unlucky you got run-out.  You should have been out much sooner and, also, you were holding the bat in the wrong hand.  You got what you were courting.

Virender Sehwag:  We all see very clearly that you do not believe a spinner exists who is worth your time.  But still, you are a little too casual for your own good.  Having said that, I MUST say this - you rock!  Very few batsmen make a game's situation and the bowling seem as superfluous as you do.  When you were batting, 304 seemed a matter of time.  You got out and the pitch reverted to being a mental minefield.  Now, go and bat in the second dig with your foot inside the crease at all times.

Rahul Dravid:  Respect.  While you may be regretting the pull shot, I think it is a godsend.  The team needed a wake up call.  If you had brought the score close to the Windies total, it would have papered over the cracks.

Sachin Tendulkar: I have never seen any batsman look as guilty as you do when you are hit on the pads in front of the stumps.  My goodness, your body language takes away any semblance of doubt the umpire may have.  By the way, smart of you to have failed in the first inning.  Now the stage is set for you to hit a heroic century in the second inning while leading India to a win, a la Chennai a couple of years ago.  As your financial adviser no doubt told you - very strategically smart move.  (Of course, I jest when I say that...maybe).

(By the way, Sachin's aura is undiminished.  As soon as Sehwag got out, the BCCI.tv server crashed!  It was almost as if millions of voices cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced.)

VVS Laxman:  Are you close enough to that wall that you seem to always have your back against?  Now turn around and look closely.  There's some thing written on it - your future.  You play in just one of three teams for India.  And you land up after a long gap looking like you had a dozen too many extra sweets?  Really?  You can no longer afford to slide by with an inning here or there.  Like Dravid, you need to realize that what you have ahead of you are your last flashes of brilliance before the sun sets.  Lose that paunch, get into a little better shape.  Then maybe you wont look so leaden-footed when playing spinners.  When you inside-edged your 4th ball and it barely missed the leg-stump, in the process getting you off the mark, I though that (maybe) luck was in your favor.  Well, guess what?  You got out off the next ball you faced to a routine ball outside the off-stump from a leg-spinner in the first over of his spell.  Gah!!  Virant Kohli cannot be denied much longer and I don't think he is looking at Yuvraj's spot anymore.

Yuvraj Singh:  Right attitude, right way of playing.  Don't fret.  You were doing the right thing, the execution was slightly awry.  Just retain that attitude, and you'll be fine.

MS Dhoni:  Just pretend you are playing an ODI, for crying out loud.  You got out to Darren Sammy.  Think about that.  You played Finn, Bresnan, Anderson, Broad, Swann and didn't get out and then you get out to Sammy.  Darren Sammy.  Has it sunk in yet?

R. Ashwin:  The second inning was made for you.  You bowled well in the first inning, but I'd like you to pitch the ball up a little closer to the batsmen, giving them less of a chance to play you off the pitch.  Now that you are bowling with the new ball, go forth and prosper.

Ishant Sharma:  You remind me of Jason Gillespie.  And in my book that is a good thing.  Keep your chin up, the rewards will follow.

Umesh Yadav:  Not much to say to you.  The pitch isn't really tailor-made for you.  But you can learn something from the way Fidel Edwards persevered, in spite of being hammered around the ground.

Pragyan Ojha:  You are the Wizard of Ozha.  Give Sunil Gavaskar a few more days and he will come up with that nickname.  Your bowling is just what was needed on this pitch.  Relentless probing on a stump-to-stump line with just a little bit of spin in either direction.  You grabbed your chance with both hands and the sound we hear is of the door swooshing as it starts to slam on Amit Mishra and, if Ashwin can continue to do well, Harbhajan Singh (who went wicketless in his recent Ranji game).

Sincerely
JQ

Exit interview with the Indian team

If I were the coach of the Indian team and I had to conduct exit interviews with some of the Indian players in the aftermath of the Test series, this is what I would have said to them.

Objects in the rearview mirror

We all know that Sachin Tendulkar is the leading run-scorer in the history of Test cricket. Do you know who is in second place?

Not surprisingly, Rahul Dravid has quietly overtaken Ricky Ponting and trails only Sachin Tendulkar on the all-time run-getters list in Test cricket. Quite an achievement for quite a guy . . . and the lack of fanfare is typical. After all he has more important things to worry about, like saving Test matches. A task that he does really well.

In the mean time, let's raise our glasses and honor this incredible achievement.

Well done, Rahul, well done! For once, you can look back at the rest of the players in the world (but one). Enjoy this moment of zen!

(AFP 2011 via ESPNcricinfo)

The long road ahead

In a few hours from now, Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman and co. will resume their quest to bat India to a draw in the Lord's Test match against England. India needs 378 runs in 98 overs, with 9 wickets in hand to win.

A victory is out of question, a draw is a slim possibility, a defeat the most likely result. Yet, my every fiber harbors hope of the draw. And that is because the current Indian team, led by the resolute MS Dhoni, is cut from a different cloth than its predecessors of the last millennium. This team fights.

Tomorrow will be a good day of Test cricket to look forward to. England need 9 moments of inspiration. India need 588 moments of sheer doggedness. Well, since they can afford to be 9 down when the Test ends, one could be pedantic and say they need another 580 moments of sheer doggedness.

Either way, I know what I am doing tomorrow. I hope the Indian team does, too!

10 Points to ponder

1) In my report at the end of the 4th day, I had said:

P.S. Ishant Sharma, can you move your bowling mark back by about 6 inches such that your front foot lands inside the crease and not on it? I swear that if you get another batsman out off a no-ball, I will catch the next flight to South Africa, shave half the hair off your head, and catch the next flight back. Runs are precious, Laxman fought and fought to get you most of those, don't go and gift the SAffers some free ones with your irresponsible no-balls.

Well, wouldn't you know it? Ishant Sharma went and did just that when he got Morne Morkel caught at gully off a no-ball. Virender Sehwag's reaction - flinging the ball on the ground, said it all for me. (Since apparently no one reads my blog closely enough to call me on it, I have decided to ignore my threat and will not travel to South Africa to meet Ishant Sharma).

Hurtling ahead

At the end of a manic second day of the second India-South Africa Test match, a result is definitely on. Who will win is still in the balance.

The food in the pavilion must be really good or the wicket must stink a great deal. How else does one explain the haste with which batsman after batsman has left the crease? 18 wickets fell in the day and, in reality, the number should have been much less. In the first inning, India's last four wickets fell in no time at all. And South Africa scarcely batted long enough to register in the scorebooks.

A stitch in time

1) Something I have wanted to know forever but never really thought about finding out the answer for is how a sewing machine works. If you share my wonder, click here for the answer.

2)There's nothing common about the wealth being squandered by the authorities as India prepares to host the Commonwealth Games. Can anyone say White Elephant?

The underappreciated fulcrum

When the third day's play began in the India-South Africa Test match at Kolkata,the SAffers had an outside shot at pulling something off. Only one frontline batsman remained between the SAffers and the tail - VVS Laxman. For the entire day the visitors tried all kinds of lines, lengths, and bowlers at him. Barring an inside-edge for four and a half-chance to JP Duminy at gully, the fellow held firm.

Joining him in this endeavor was his skipper, MS Dhoni. When he first came on the scene, long hair with streaks, a sledgehammer for a bat, and hard hands behind the wickets, Dhoni seemed destined for a decent career in the Shahid Afridi mode - enough performances to keep people talking, but not really amounting to historical significance. While Samson lost his mojo when his hair was cut off, Dhoni has gone from strength to strength. His greatest gift is his mental strength to not worry about other people's perceptions. He is his own man. He possesses a gawky, awkward-looking, bottom-handed heavy approach to batting but it is a method that works. Behind the stumps he has improved leaps and bounds and is a safe catcher, improving with each year.

Leveling the playing field

Before the series began, Virender Sehwag stated that the Bangladeshi team did not have the firepower to take out 20 Indian wickets in a Test match. The Woofing Gods sat up and took note when he said this. They agreed it was true so something had to be done.

By the time the first Test finished, the bulwark of the middle order, VVS Laxman was out of the team. The Indians foxed the Gods by bringing in MS Dhoni and Murali Vijay. But the Gods did not get to float on clouds in the sky by simply sitting back when attacked. They responded by getting Rahul Dravid to duck into a bouncer that did not rise, caused Yuvraj Singh to rupture a tendon and got Sachin Tendulkar to take a tumble in the field while attempting a catch. Take that, mere mortals!

Suddenly, the Bangladeshis need to take just 8 wickets to win a Test if they get a lead. Of the 8 wickets, the trio of Pragryan Ojha, Zaheer Khan, and Ishant Sharma do not inspire confidence that they can last long. So that means they need to prise out 5 wickets. Ooooh, this gets easier now.

Bangladesh is 83 runs behind with 7 wickets in hand. They made a massive blunder yesterday by sending in a nightwatchman. Mahmudullah bats too low as it is, now he will be batting with one fewer tailender as a buffer. It is bound to play on his mind. There's only so many times a team can drink from that well.

All in all, a very intriguing two days lie ahead of us. My suspicion is that Bangladesh will take a lead, but not one that is too substantial. India has Gambhir, Sehwag, Vijay (promoted to #3), Tendulkar, and Dhoni to get those runs. It is time for Sehwag to put his bat where his mouth is and ensure that the task does not even reach Dhoni.

Maybe overcoming this adversity will appease the Gods...for now.

P.S. Quick math should tell you how hard it will be for Bangladesh to set India a target of more than 200. Trailing by 83, they need to score 300 runs to set a target of 213. Tamim Iqbal and Junaid Siddiqui put on 200 runs yesterday and it was the first ever 200-run partnership in Bangladesh's rich Test history. In a given day they will have to bat about 85 overs (a combination of bad light and MS Dhoni's typically languid pace of going through overs) and that would get them close to that 300 mark.

My gut feeling? Based on what I have seen so far, India will wrap up the win late on the 4th day or early on the 5th.

Out, damn'd spot!

(Associated Press 2010 - via CricInfo)

VVS Laxman did himself no favors on multiple fronts in the recently concluded India-Bangladesh Test. After gorging himself to an inning-steadying, match set-up-ing 69* on the previous day, he blotted his copybook by lunging for two catches to his left, one high and one low. In his defense he was closer to the wicket than most slip fielders should be because of the nature of sub-continental pitches but I have seen him take similar catches in the past.

To add insult to injury (no pun needs to be intended here), he also split the webbing of his left hand and left the field, requiring 10 stitches on that gash. To wit, he is not playing in the second Test and his availability for the South Africa series is in jeopardy. Somewhere east of Kolkata, Yuvraj Singh is breathing a little easier.

Rahul Dravid benefited from Laxman's absence by padding his catching stats and (don't look now) can scent the rarefied, never-before attained level of 200 Test catches.

It did not take long for Sreesanth to forget his vow and revert back to being Soursanth, when Mushfiqur Rahim was whaling away at him. Give your lip a rest and get back to bowling, Sreesanth. What an idiot.

The same goes for Zaheer Khan, too. I understand being aggressive and bowling plenty of bouncers. But if the Bangladesh team is really as ordinary as your stand-in captain proclaims, then you don't need to be swearing and taunting them. Grow up, ZAK.

Mushfiqur Rahim scored what is now becoming a typical innings in these times - the 4th innings one-man show for a pleasing but utterly insignificant century in a big loss. I thought that Mohammad Ashraful would be the one to do so, but he left after just creeping past his career average. The fellow averages an abysmal 22.91 but has already played 51 Tests! He truly is like an ईद का चाँद shining through once in a long while and bringing great joy when he does so.

I am sensing a very big century from Virender Sehwag in the second Test. He has been coasting into the 40's and 50's and getting out, seemingly hell-bent on proving something to Shakib Al Hasan. A good pep talk is in the offing from Gary Kirsten and with Gambhir keeping one eye out for another century, there may be very little batting time left for whomsoever comes in at #7 (surely, Yuvraj will be at #5 and Dhoni at #6). Will India play Dinesh Karthik at #7 or will they change the batting order to accommodate Murali Vijay? Either way, Krish Srikkanth has covered his bases. Poor Badrinath.

Sachin Tendulkar truly deserved the man of the match award. His innings received some press but not quite what it deserved. Strangely, I am convinced that if Dravid had played this innings, there would have been another set of tributes across the country about how Dravid is so important, integral, and underappreciated in the Indian team. For once, SRT did not get the press he usually gets. (Sriram Veera talked about this innings of SRT after Day 2, without emphatically making the thesis I put forward about Dravid).

Dare to dream

If I was the coach of the Indian team, these would be my talking points at the team meeting before the 4th day's play in the India-Bangladesh Test match.

First, I would take Rahul Dravid aside for a small heart-to-heart talk.

What's wrong with you? What were you thinking last night when you sent in Amil Mishra as a nightwatchman? If Amit Mishra was able to score 24 runs with 5 boundaries, why did you need someone to protect you? The score was 90 for 1 in just 17 overs when Sehwag got out. The bowlers were not looking threatening and you chose a protector?!! Seriously, dude. I hope Amit Mishra does a Jason Gillespie and bats and bats tomorrow. What were you thinking? It couldn't have been that you were tired. You fielded at slip for most of the inning and then got to rest for 17 overs. Please. I didn't think you'd be scared of facing a set of Bagladeshi bowlers on the backfoot? Ugh!

Second, I'd call the team meeting to order and tell the rest of the team to channel their inner-Sehwag.

Here are the cold facts. India is leading by 123 runs with two days to go. So far on no day have we seen the entire quota of 90 overs being bowled.
Day 1: 63 overs
Day 2: 24 overs (plus a 10 minute innings break)
Day 3: 72 overs (plus a 10 minute innings break)

So, realistically, in the next two days there are about (65+65) 130 overs left at the minimum. For the next 50 overs we should aim at scoring about 5 runs an over and put up 250 runs. That will leave Bangladesh the task of scoring about 375 runs in a maximum of 130 overs but, more realistically, about 80 overs.

If a batting line-up that reads Gambhir, Dravid, Tendulkar, Laxman, Yuvraj and Karthik cannot score 250 runs in 50 overs against Bangladesh, then we seriously need to find new batsmen to take their place. Remember fellows, if you are serious about being the #1 Test team in the world, you need to go out there and beat the last-ranked Test team in the world, even in less than convenient conditions.

And if the bowling team needs more than 80 overs to finish Bangladesh, then we should admit that Ian Chappell was probably on the money when he said that India did not have the bowling attack to be the top ranked Test team in the world.

Trolling for cricket

a) Of the many articles written to commemorate Sachin Tendulkar's service to Indian cricket (20 years and counting, in case you did not know), I like this one by Rahul Bhattacharya the best. Admiring the man without being overly gushing, it stands out for the little gems that are thrown about here and there. Gems such as these:

Memory obscures telling details in the dizzying rise thereafter. Everybody remembers the 326 not out in the 664-run gig with Kambli. Few remember the 346 not out in the following game, the trophy final. Everyone knows the centuries on debut in the Ranji Trophy and Irani Trophy at 15 and 16. Few know that he got them in the face of a collapse in the first instance and virtually out of partners in the second. Everyone knows his nose was bloodied by Waqar Younis in that first Test series, upon which he waved away assistance. Few remember that he struck the next ball for four.

This was Tendulkar five years after he'd first handled a cricket ball.

b) Suresh Menon positively raves about Rahul Dravid here but does so in a manner that makes it a must-read for anyone who likes sports journalism. It is a qualitative and quantitative description of the highest order.

To be defined by what he has missed has sometimes been Dravid’s fate. When he made 180 in a Test match, he was upstaged by a man who made 281; that innings by VVS Laxman is rated as the best by an Indian batsman. When Dravid made his then highest one-day score of 145, Sourav Ganguly made 183 in the same innings; when he topped that by making 153 against New Zealand, Sachin Tendulkar made an unbeaten 186. Is Rahul Dravid the best supporting act in the history of the game or a great player born in the wrong decade?

He is the best supporting act in the history of the game (a world record 78 century partnerships in Tests) and a great player (over 10,000 runs in both forms of the game). It is tempting to conclude that he was born in the wrong decade, forcing him to play in the shadow of Sachin Tendulkar, but that hardly matters to the man who is in competition with no one but himself, and who was secure enough to say at one time, “Most people want me to get out quickly so they can watch Sachin bat.”

c) Virender Sehwag is the subject of a simple statistical study by CricInfo who provide a list of all the partnerships he has been involved in as a Test player. Not surprisingly, Rahul Dravid is his companion at the top, though it is a matter of time before his position is usurped.

(Just for kicks, here are Rahul Dravid's partnership stats for his career).

d) Sambit Bal, the Editor of CricInfo, is also a fine writer when he does put his thoughts to paper. Here, he reflects on a gripping Test encounter at Dunedin between Pakistan and New Zealand, reaffirming why the long form of the game is unparalleled for all the different types of scenarios it can throw up in just one match. He finishes with a thought I can empathize with:

The experience of watching cricket on TV in India has grown progressively worse. One of the joys of the Dunedin Test was the cleanness of the TV feed. You could watch the bowler start an over, and indeed end it; no creepy-crawlies invaded the screen while the game was on; and between overs you could watch the captain change the field. Also, somehow it felt like the commentators spoke only as much as they needed to. In India, enduring cricket on television has itself become a test of loyalty.
(...)
Test cricket needs an avenger. It needs men with vision and a sense of mission. It needs ownership and drive. Now, someone needs to convert Lalit Modi.

e) Reading this article sent shivers down my spine at the thought that it might be true. S Aga speculates that the third Test between India and Sri Lanka may have been the last time SRT, Dravid, and VVS Laxman batted together in a home Test match.

Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman have played 183 home Tests between them, scoring 13,665 runs and 37 centuries. They also have a combined age of 107 and, with few countries actually adhering to the Future Tours Programme, there might be no home Tests before the World Cup in 2011. Next year's series against South Africa will feature only ODIs and it's hard to see much enthusiasm on the part of the BCCI for a tour by New Zealand just three months before the first ball is bowled at the World Cup.

(Subsequently, there have been rumors that South Africa may play a couple of Tests so there may still be some time left for this triumvirate).

f) If the Indian Test team bats at an average of over 4 runs per over for an innings, an essential element is that it features a blitz by Virender Sehwag. When Sehwag is on song (and it happens too often in Tests to be a fluke) the overall picture of the game looks rosy from an Indian point of view. But if you dig deeper, his batting actually masks a big deficiency of the middle-order, namely the inability to grind the hapless bowlers into the dust. Here are a couple of articles on that theme. First, an older one by Rahul Bhattacharya that goes deeper into this than anyone before.

Since Australia are the benchmark - and in batting the Indians ought to be meeting them eye-to-eye - it is instructive to note that when Matthew Hayden makes a score (fifty or more, for the purpose of this exercise), those who follow him score marginally faster than they would do had he fallen cheaply (at a rate of 3.79 against 3.75, from September 2001 onwards). When Sehwag scores fifty or more, however, the rest of the Indian line-up make their runs discernibly slower (2.96 against 3.15, in matches where Sehwag has opened) than they otherwise would. So where Australia are taking a man's success and building on it, feeding off it - the cornerstone of their cricket in general - India are using it, bizarrely, as an occasion to play inside their abilities.

Some of India's recent post-Sehwag dawdles make damning reading. At the MCG last season, when Sehwag was fourth man out, having made 195, the run-rate plummeted by 1.75 points (or 157 runs per day). At Kanpur against South Africa this season, when he was second out, having scored 164, it dropped by 1.52 (137 runs per day). At Kolkata in the following Test it fell by 1.02 (92 runs per day) after he was gone for 88. And at Mohali most recently against Pakistan it dipped by 1.46 (131 runs per day). Of the above matches India could only win the Kolkata Test. And there too South Africa, had they shown more resolve in the second innings, could have made India regret the tardiness, as the Pakistanis did at Mohali.

About 4 years later here's Prem Panicker on his blog collating some of the best pieces written on Viru by some very good cricket writers. Read the entire post, if you will, for links to some fine pieces of writing.

g) And just to show that he is not just a fan of Rahul Dravid, Suresh Menon unloads about Virender Sehwag.

VIRENDER SEHWAG’S batting is a reminder that there are no absolute standards in sport. “They told me in the dressing room that I was hitting good balls to the boundary,” he said after his neartriple century in the Mumbai Test, “but actually I was hitting only the bad balls.” The combination of innocence and ruthlessness, of self-doubt and self-awareness is unique.
(...)
HIS ROLE in the rise of India to the No. 1 spot in Test cricket has been fundamental. In the last 25 Tests (eight series), he has scored more runs than anybody else (2,093 in 20 Tests) as India beat Pakistan, drew against South Africa, beat Australia, England, New Zealand and Sri Lanka (they lost in Australia and Sri Lanka).

As Sehwag went berserk against Sri Lanka to the tune of 293 runs, there were many spectators with stories of their own to share.(By the way, I did not know that Sehwag was the vice-captain of the current Indian team. With MS Dhoni getting suspended for a couple of ODIs Viru should be back at the helm again. It will be interesting to see how he juggles the middle-order, sans Dhoni).

h) Even as the current edition begins to reach for the #1 spot in Tests and ODIs (getting there is not enough, staying there is more important IMHO), Indian cricket's next generation readies itself. Here's a handy guide to the players who will represent India in the Under-19 World Cup in a few weeks. Which of these names will be hawking televisions and toothpastes when not playing cricket in the years to come? Your guess is as good as mine. I will try to keep up with their progress and if I spot anything I will be sure to pass it along to you.

i) I have a fun comparison for you. Here are the stats for two Test players currently representing their country.
Player A: 48 Tests, 87 innings, 3509 runs, HS 160, average 42.79, 9 hundreds, 20 fifties, 44 catches.
Player B: 49 Tests, 88 innings, 3144 runs, HS 199, average 39.79, 8 hundreds, 21 fifties, 45 catches.

Not much to choose from between the two, is there? Both were lauded as the future of their countries' hopes but have been treated very differently by the media. Player A is the proverbial golden child, handled with cotton gloves as his mistakes are glossed over, his potential constantly brought up, and is likely to captain his country very soon, while player B is on the verge of having his career stalled because of a perception that he has not done enough with his chances. How would you react if you were either player?

(Update: CricInfo's Andrew McGlashan seems to have picked up on this and talks about it in his latest column.)

There is a lot more to this than plain numbers but you can see how players' livelihoods are really at stake when the media decides to lay tags on them.

(By the way Player A is Alastair Cook and Player B is Ian Bell)

j) Take a look at the first two items on sports page from December 8th, 2003. The seeds for so many different things were sown on that day that it boggles the mind to play a game of what-if based on "what if Sourav Ganguly had not succeeded that day?".

k) Finally, just for kicks, here's VVS Laxman.

(Reuters 2003)

Running diary - Day 5: Zaheer's pfeiffer takes India to #1

This is a running diary that I will keep updating periodically with random thoughts as and when they occur during the day's play of the third Test between India and Sri Lanka being played at Mumbai (December 2-6, 2009). I shall keep it in chronological order so the latest additions will be at the tail end of the diary. Also, since this is being done on the fly, excuse the spelling and grammatical mistakes.

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

Running diary - Day 4: Chip, chip, chip

It is 9:30pm CDT and with 30 minutes to go for the start of the fifth day's play, I am making the following predictions. If you read this before the match, could you acknowledge it so I cannot be accused of making them up after the fact? Here are my predictions:

a) Kumar Sangakkara will be out quite soon on Day 5.
b) The Sri Lankan tail will wag, particularly Muttaiah Muralitharan.
c) Sri Lanka will avoid the follow-on.
d) India will require a small amount (let's say around 20) to win.
e) They will do so for the loss of one wicket (maybe a final wicket for Murali).

Okay, let's see how it pans out.

10:03pm: Kumar Sangakkara gets a thick outside edge to the (vacant) third man fence past gully off Zaheer Khan. And off the third ball, prediction #1 comes true for me!! Sangakkara hangs his bat out to a ball that moves off the seam and a routine edge to MS Dhoni behind the stumps. Another chip. Three chips to go. ZAK's three wickets in the innings are Mahela Jayawardene, Thilan Samaraweera, and Kumar Sangakkara - three of the top 4 run-getters in Test cricket in 2009. (The fourth is Tillakaratne Dilshan).

55 runs behind, 3 wickets in hand. Rangana Herath replaces the departing Sangakkara.

10:08pm: Harbhajan Singh comes on at the other end. Around the wicket to the left-handed Herath with two slips and a forward short-leg. Harbhajan hits his straps right away, ball after ball lands just outside the off-stump and beats the batsman 3 out of the first 4 balls. The fifth is chipped in the air to midwicket for a single. The last ball is edged to square-leg by the right-handed Nuwan Kulasekara for another run.

10:19pm: Herath tries to pull ZAK and the ball hits the bat-maker's sticker and pops up towards midwicket where Pragran Ojha comes racing in and takes a sharp catch diving forward. Another chip. ZAK gets a good chance to pick up a Michelle Pfeiffer. (51 runs needed, 2 wickets remaining). Murali comes in and slogs the very first one for four through midwicket. Will ZAK bowl a bouncer to Murali? No, he doesn't and Murali swings over midwicket, one bounce to the fence. ZAK comes around the wicket and bowls a bouncer that Murali twists out of the way of and top edges to the fine leg fence!

Over in college football, Nebraska takes a 12-10 lead over #3 ranked Texas. The BCS is about to implode!

10:31pm: ZAK gets his Pfeiffer. Kulasekara jumps onto his backfoot to defend a short-pitched ball and edges it towards VVS Laxman who takes a very comfortable catch. Another chip.

A few runs to get, one wicket left.

Texas manages to get two big penalties courtesy Nebraska and with a second to go, attempts a game-winning field goal.....and makes it! Okay, BCS folks heave a sigh of relief. Alabama-Texas for the national championship. Certainly not a pairing I expected or hoped for.

10:36pm: Murali nearly hits a six, Sehwag nearly takes a catch, in the end it is two runs to the batsman. Two balls later, Murali swipes in his own style and he edges it behind the stumps for Dhoni to fittingly take the catch to win the Test. India reaches #1. At least in the ICC rankings table. Dhoni leads India to another Test win, rapidly climbing up the charts of India's successful Test captains.

Of the five predictions I made only the first two came true. 40 percent success rate. I'll take it in return for the Test win.

Life resumes for me. It has been an enjoyable 3 weeks for me. I hope you had fun reading these diaries, too.

Running Diary - Day 3: Attritional ascendency by India

This is a running diary that I will keep updating periodically with random thoughts as and when they occur during the day's play of the third Test between India and Sri Lanka being played at Mumbai (December 2-6, 2009). I shall keep it in chronological order so the latest additions will be at the tail end of the diary. Also, since this is being done on the fly, excuse the spelling and grammatical mistakes.

Running diary - Day 1: Dilshan and Mathews keep India at bay

Running diary - Day 2: One word - Sehwag

9:50pm: Day 3 promises to be a lot of fun. I am curious to see how Virender Sehwag feels this morning. I sense that he may have blown his chance to get to 300 yesterday. Ignoring the score, I hope Sangakkara begins the day with an attacking field, looking to get the batsmen out. That is Sri Lanka's only hope. If they spread the field as soon as the ball is hit to the boundary they will simply be playing for time. With 3 days to go, time is a commodity in great supply for India.

India 443 for 1 in 79 overs. Sehwag on 284, Rahul Dravid on 62.

9:58am: Sunil Gavaskar (SMG) does a very odd pitch report speaking "for" all the players involved in the match. For Sehwag the pitch report is just a little ritual that is done before the day gets started. The umpires are on their way to the middle and SMG and Ravi Shastri are doing the commentary, no doubt excited about the impending milestones that the Indian team and its players can leave behind in their wake. All of this is disregarding Sri Lanka. The field placement to start the day's play will tell us a lot about the mindset of the visitors.

10:01pm: Rangana Herath to start, just one slip and short mid-off in place. After watchfully playing away the first five balls, Sehwag hits the ball hard to sweeper cover for the first run of the day.

10:05pm: Muttaiah Muralitharan at the other end to Sehwag. Just a forward short-leg and short midwicket close-in. Murali starts round the wicket and Sehwag defends the first three balls. Sehwag delicately late cuts the fourth for a couple of runs to third man. Repeats the shot for a single this time. Murali finishes the cheapest over of the innings for him, giving away just 3 runs in that. 70 maiden-less overs and counting for the maestro.

10:10pm: Sehwag punches Herath off the backfoot to deep midwicket and hurries through for an easy two and follows that with a single. Into the 290's here. Rahul Dravid plays at and misses a sharply spinning ball and Dravid hits the ground but the Sri Lankans are convinced they got the man. Clearly missed everything on the replay and Dravid's bat did hit the ground. Dravid gets mad! He dances down the wicket and sends the ball way over long-on for a six.

456 for 1 in 82 overs. Sehwag on 291, Dravid on 68.

10:13pm: Another late cut by Sehwag for a brace, taking the ball from in front of off-stump. The next ball is looped in and Sehwag tamely bunts it back straight to Murali who juggles the ball but takes it on the second try. Sehwag out for 293.

10:24pm: Sachin Tendulkar (SRT) walks in at 458 for 2. He takes on Murali and paddle sweeps him for four and then jumps out and thumps him through midwicket for another four.

10:26pm: There is an awkward hush around the stadium now that Viru is out and the match has settled into a normal Test mode. Herath completes a tidy over in which he gave just a couple of runs to deep fine-leg.

10:29pm: Murali continues round the wicket and SRT misses a couple of paddle sweeps. Gives up and flicks it instead for a single. Test match batting for Dravid, defending away safely, bat in front of the pad. Murali is energized now, flighting and getting bite and bounce from the wicket.

10:32pm: Herath bowls the worst ball I have seen him bowl in three Tests, short and on the leg-side. SRT leans back and swings it will full gusto to the midwicket fence. The next ball elicits a Dhoni double to the square-leg umpire. SRT looking like he wants a move on today. The latent ghost of Sehwag may be hanging around in Viru's role model.

481 for 2 in 88 overs. Dravid on 74, SRT on 18. India lead by 93.

10:35pm: SRT eats up a ball wide outside the leg stump from Murali and gets his 4th boundary of the day with a paddle sweep. The rest of the over is negotiated quietly. Murali is bowling with a forward short-leg and a leg slip in place while coming round the wicket. He has the wicket of Sehwag so he is smiling quite a bit.

10:38pm: Chanaka Welegadara comes on now, replacing the off-color Herath. Bowling wide of the off-stump to a solitary slip and a save-the-boundary field. No intent being shown by Sangakkara to try to take wickets. One no-ball in the over and the other balls harmlessly left until the last ball of the over which is on the same line and Dravid loses his patience, chases it and edges it to the keeper. Uncharacteristic dismissal but similar to ones he suffered in Australia at the hands of Mitchell Johnson.

Dravid out for 74. VVS Laxman comes in now. 487 for 3 in 90 overs. SRT is still there on 22.

10:45pm: Murali goes over the wicket for the first time and the leg slip disappears. SRT plays a typical SRT drive through covers for a simple boundary. Then flicks a single to bring Laxman on strike for one ball. Murali goes back to round the wicket but easily patted away by Laxman.

10:50pm: Welegedara is given a 6-3 field but bowls on SRT's pads and gets clipped away for a couple. Now he resumes his wide of the off-stump line. Better line from Sri Lanka's perspective. Welegedara asks for and get a short midwicket and bowls a slower ball but SRT gently pats it away. The last ball is a bouncer that is very easily negotiated by the little fellow who sits down at the crease.

10:54pm: Murali coming round the wicket to a strong leg-side field. A Laxman field. forward short-leg, leg slip, short fine-leg, short square-leg and short midwicket stopping the flick that he plays so easily. Laxman content to play Murali off the backfoot. The field is restricting him and Murali finally bowls a maiden after 75 consecutive non-maiden overs. Wow.

10:58pm: Welegedara is bowling wide of the stumps but gives up a single off the last ball. Maiden thwarted and Sri Lanka does not get it's back-to-back maidens.

11:02pm: Murali is bowling wide outside the leg-stump and a short ball is missed out on by Laxman. The Sri Lankans appeal for a catch but Darryl Harper refuses the request. Murali ends the over with no further runs and drinks are taken.

The first hour has produced 54 runs but at the cost of two wickets for India. Laxman is not even trying to force the ball into gaps and is on 0 off 11 balls. SRT has also slowed down after a quick start. The last 4 overs have produced just 5 runs. Funnily, even though India has the 104 run lead they appear to be under some stress as they need to make this innings count and get a huge 300 plus lead.

11:10p: Welegedara continues after the drinks break and is keeping Laxman quiet. Laxman is just content to play with a short backlift. The entire momentum generated by Sehwag is gone. The Sri Lankans look a lot more active and happy and seeing Laxman in this defensive mood is buoying their spirits even further. Same pitch, same bowlers as the ones Sehwag played. What a contrast! Laxman finally gets to push it to cover and gets a single. Why is the fielder so deep, Sangakkara? You disappoint me so. Here you have a batsman who is afraid of hitting it too hard and you just give him a gap to exploit. Aaargh!

501 for 3 in 96 overs. Laxman on 1, SRT on 34.

11:14pm: I wonder how Sehwag would have played Murali who is still bowling to the Laxman field and getting away with it, keeping Laxman quiet. Laxman continues to try to pierce the tight field and finally gets through for his second run.

11:17pm: Herath comes back. Surely he will bowl over the wicket and outside the leg-stump. Nope, he comes round the wicket to SRT. A couple of singles to both batsmen result and nothing much happens.

11:21pm: Flick-drive from Laxman for a couple of runs to deep midwicket. A few balls later he just taps to short point and gets another single. Katra katra...

508 for 3 in 99 overs. SRT on 36, VVS on 6.

11:25pm: Herath is bowling outside the off-stump and Laxman and SRT clean up to the tune of 6 runs in the cover region. I think Herath is trying to set them up for the carrom ball. Bowls it but Laxman leans forward and pats it to midwicket.

514 for 3 in 100 overs. SRT on 38, VVS on 10. India lead by 121.

11:28pm: The crowd is starting to get back into it, cheering every single from SRT now. They are slowly getting over the disappointment of losing Sehwag's brand of entertainment. 5 men around Laxman to stop the flick shot, a testament to how worrisome his various flicks are to the fielding team. So far the field is succeeding very well and Laxman repeatedly finds the fielders. This is the same type of field that was used to slow down Laxman in the first Test when he was trying to give the strike to SRT, who was batting in sight of his century. It worked then, it is working now.

11:33pm: SRT gets two runs from a paddle sweep but otherwise is finding it hard to get runs. At the other end, Murali pitches it short and Laxman goes over the packed field with a pull shot that bounces a couple of times before crossing the square-leg boundary. Bad ball by Murali. Then Laxman walks way back into his crease and flicks it past leg slip for a sharp single to short fine-leg.

522 for 3 in 103 overs. SRT on 41 and Laxman on 15.

11:40pm: SRT takes the last ball of the over and sweeps it conventionally to deep square leg for his first boundary in ages. The first real signs of intent from the man in over half an hour. Laxman's stodginess is rubbing off on SRT. Is this a sign he may be trying to break the shackles? The new ball is available now and, yes, the Sri Lankans take it right away.

11:42pm: Nuwan Kulasekara is entrusted with the new ball. Bowling to just two slips and a short cover in close on the off and a short mid-on on the on-side. The rest of the fielders are about 3/4th's of the way to the boundary. Laxman exploits the distance to deep point to get off the strike. SRT is beaten by a slightly moving ball from Kulasekara and the next ball is watchfully left by him. There was width on offer but SRT is not biting.

528 for 3 in 105 overs. Run rate has been falling today and it is just above 5 now. Laxman on 17, SRT on 45.

11:52pm: Two runs in that over and with the score at 530 in 106 overs, the run rate is exactly 5. The dip continues. SRT is on 46, Laxman on 18. 50 balls into his innings, Laxman hits the first authentic Laxman shot, a punch that was all timing, racing away to the cover boundary.

Last over before lunch coming up and SRT on strike to Welegedara. Laxman on 22, SRT on 47. India lead by 142 runs. SRT is watchful and takes a single off the fifth ball of the over when Welegedara finally moves onto SRT's pads. VVS defends the last ball and takes us to lunch. India has scored 93 runs in this session for the loss of two wickets. What a contrast to yesterday.

It has been a fairly dull morning with the Sri Lankans and the Indians (post Sehwag) going back into the 1980's handbook on how to play Test cricket. Time for a break now. Be back in half an hour as the beast needs to be fed.

536 for 3 in 108 overs at lunch, SRT on 48, VVS on 22. India leads by 143 runs.

There are 4 hours of play to go (4.5 actually) and 60 overs left in the day. If India bats cautiously they can get 200 more taking the lead near 350. So, a push in the final couple of hours should take the lead over 400. Enough, I think. Let's see how the afternoon unfolds.

12:43am: Kulasekara continues. Two slips in place and that's it for close-in catchers. Three fielders in the cover to mid-off arc. SRT cuts to third man for a single. 50 run partnership in almost 20 overs. Sad way to consolidate the start from Sehwag. Laxman pulls to deep square-leg for a single. SRT gets beaten on the forward press as the ball moves away after pitching. He is looking for a single to take him to 50. I predict it will be a flick that gets him there. And it is a flick to deep fine-leg and his 54th Test 50 is on the board. The young man needs another 33 runs to get to 13,000 Test runs, by the way.

12:55am: The game has come to a standstill as neither batsman is even trying to push the ball off the square. The camera lingers on Sehwag in the dressing room, talking to Gary Kirsten. I wonder if he is calculating what the score would have been had he still been out there. It definitely would have been more than 540 by now, for sure. 6 singles since lunch in 3 overs.

1:06am: Since neither batsman is looking to take on the bowlers a slow dance is being played out. Sri Lanka is not actively trying to take wickets and India is not trying to force anything.

1:07am: As I say that, the first shot in anger is a hook by Laxman off Welegedara to the deep square leg boundary. The next ball is fuller and, anticipating that, Laxman flicks from ouside the off-stump to the long-on fence. A Laxman specialty that. Another shorter ball that is flicked through midwicket for a single. In three balls Laxman doubles the run output since lunch. It is also the best over of the day and there are 3 balls to go. The fourth ball is punched through cover where Sangakkara dives away to his left and slows the ball - two runs. The fifth is defended and so is the last one.

558 for 3 in 114 overs. Laxman on 39, SRT on 53. India lead by 165 runs. 55 overs to go.

1:13am: SRT is caught on the walk and the ball cuts through the gap between bat and pad and he is bowled by Kulasekara. SRT gone for 53 in 103 balls. I firmly believe the lack of intent did him in. SRT and Laxman allowed the bowlers to bowl where they wanted to without fear of being hit. 71 run partnership in 24 overs, of which 12 runs came in the last over. Slow going.

1:21am: Laxman glides Welegedara to the third man fence. He follows that with an Azhar-like twirl of the bat to a short-pitched ball outside the off-stump and the ball is smashed to deep point for another 4. The field spreads completely and Laxman simply flicks from outside the off-stump to midwicket for an easy single. Russell Arnold asks Ravi Shastri if Laxman is the best player of pace in the Indian team. Shastri ponders and drives around the SRT, Sehwag, Dravid, and Gambhir wagon and contends that VVS is a good player of pace but not the best. Unfortunately, he does not name his vote for the best player. He does add that if you talk about spin bowling then Laxman rises in the list because of his wrist work.

1:28am: Kulasekara is getting the ball to cut in, i.e. cut away from the left-hander, and beats Yuvraj on consecutive balls as the batsman was poking outside his off-stump. Typical early jitters for Yuvraj. Sri Lanka have to get him in the next 10 runs because if he gets going on this pitch he will have some fun.

1:29am: After a long, long time Murali is back in the attack. Yuvraj does have problems against Murali so this should be a good one. 7 fielders on the on-side for Laxman as Murali goes around the stumps and bowls a foot outside the stumps. Laxman still manages to flick in the gap between leg slip and short fine-leg and gets to his third 50 of this Test series. This time he has enough breathing room to make it a big one as India bats for time for another couple of sessions. Murali has a big smile on his face as he bowls to Yuvraj. It took three Tests for this but finally he seems to be enjoying bowling. Not seeing Sehwag in front of him is a big relief. Yuvraj leans forward and thumps the ball with a straight bat - two bounces into the long-off fence. Immediately Sangakkara sends mid-off back. Too soon Kumar. Have some faith in your bowler. Let Yuvraj try it again...

575 for 4 in 118 overs. Laxman on 50 and Yuvraj on 6. India lead by 182 runs with 51 overs to go.

1:38am: Kulasekara gives up two singles and then, off the last ball, watches helplessly as a proper ball in the corridor outside off-stump is timed away to the cover fence by Laxman. The bat did not cross the perpendicular after it hit the ball. The placement was superb, through the three fielders in that region. Vintage VVS.

1:40am: Short spell for Murali. Herath comes on. Maybe Murali wants to change ends. No, it looks like Murali is nursing his ring finger, which is one of his spinning fingers due to the weird wrist position he has for releasing the ball. Seems to be in some discomfort but is not leaving the field.

583 for 4 in 120 overs. Yuvraj on 7, Laxman on 57. India lead by 190 with 49 overs to go.

1:53am: I don't believe this! Yuvraj Singh jumps out of the crease to Herath, is beaten comprehensively, and Prasanna Jayawardene fails to even collect the ball. I would not have believed it if I had not seen it myself. It was a routine stumping for any keeper. Prasanna has dropped Sehwag's catches in the first two Tests and this time misses a stumping.

1:58am: Laxman paddle sweeps Murali on the bounce over leg-slip for a four. Oh no! He jumps out and tries to clean long-on. Instead the ball climbs high in the air and Kulasekara settles under it at mid-on. He just threw it away there. If anything, he should have tried to hit it inside out onto the off-side where there are just 2 fielders. Grrrr....Laxman is out for 62.

592 for 5 in 123 overs. Yuvraj on 11 and MS Dhoni joins him now. India lead by 199 runs with 46 overs to go.

2:02am: Yuvaj bludgeons a sweep shot to the square-leg fence. MS then edges a ball past slip and gets three runs to take India's total past 600. In spite of how huge it is, it is not big enough. India must ensure it does not need to bat again in this Test match.

2:16am: Yuvraj and Dhoni have been punching away in the gaps and taking singles. Sri lanka is keeping a tight leg-side field and bowling there but the gaps are there for these swift runners to exploit. Suddenly, against the grain, Yuvraj goes to clear deep mid-off and an easy catch by Mathew gives Herath a wicket. Yuvraj out for 23. Harbhajan takes a single and Dhoni lunging forward edges the ball between Mahela at first slip and Dilshan at second slip at waist height to the boundary. Herath is starting to get the ball to talk a little bit now.

615 for 6 in 128 overs. India lead by 222 runs with 42 overs to go. Dhoni is on 10.

Harbhajan Singh commits hara-kiri. Going for the reverse sweep for the second time in this series, Harbhajan donates a wicket to Murali. I hope he thinks about this when he is bowling and the batsmen refuse to give in so easily. The match is still very open. Very bizzare series of dismissals here with Laxman, Yuvraj, and Harbhajan just throwing their wickets away as if the lead is near 400. It is just 222. After this over there will still be another 220 overs left in this Test. Enough time for Sri Lanka to overhaul India's score, put up a total and put India under pressure on a 5th day pitch. Surely they don't think it is enough, do they?

2:35am: Dhoni is meshing into ODI mode here, scampering for two's and looking for singles. The worrisome aspect for me is that Murali is unable to make an impression on Zaheer Khan, who is able to play him away easily. If Murali is struggling against a tailender, what hope do the Indian bowlers have against the front-line batmen?

Possibly the last over before tea. Herath on to bowl to Dhoni who defends with such soft hands that the bat turns 180 degrees in his hands upon contact!

628 for 7 in 134 overs. Dhoni is on 20, ZAK on 3. India lead by 235 runs with 34 overs left in the day. Herath bowled the previous over so quickly, Murali has time to squeeze in another over to Dhoni. No damage done.

At tea India are 629 for 7 in 135 overs. Dhoni is on 21, ZAK on 3. India lead by 236 runs with 33 overs to go. I'll be back in 20 minutes.

3:04am: Dhoni begins with a Dhoni double to square-leg. Basically it refers to the situation wherein he drops the ball with soft hands towards the square-leg umpire and since the fielders on the boundary assume it is a simple single and come ambling in, he races across and completes two runs. Dhoni is not afraid to give the strike to ZAK, who is defending away competently.

3:07am: The commentators begin to indulge in their favorite parlor game - guessing when the batting team will/should declare. Ravi Shastri thinks that India should give itself an hour before close today to bowl at the Sri Lankans, with a lead of about 300 in the bag. Another Dhoni double is easily taken and those are the only runs of the over. Dhoni still hasn't transitioned to the slog over Dhoni. Content to deal in ones and the occasional two. Sri Lanka keeps a leg-side heavy field for Dhoni and a run-saving field for ZAK. Neither team is trying really hard to do anything different after the brief flurry of wickets.

I will write again when something different happens.

645 for 7 in 142 overs. Dhoni on 33, ZAK on 7. India lead by 252 runs with 26 overs to go.

3:33am: ZAK suddenly decides to swing away to long on where Kulasekara running backwards takes a great catch. Murali picks up gift wicket number 4. How unexpected was that? ZAK scored 7 runs in 51 balls in a partnership of 32 in as many as 16 overs. India has meandered along again.

647 for 8 in 145 overs. India lead by 254 with Dhoni on 33.

3:52am: Finally! Dhoni waltzes down and hits the biggest straight six of the match so far off Herath. The next ball is a Dhoni double to midwicket taking him to 49. The rest of the over is spent in trying to get that 50th run but he fails. The quest for the 50th run spills over into the next over but he is unable to put Murali away into a gap.

668 for 8. Lead is 275. Dhoni on 49, Sresanth on 7.

Eventually after spending about 11 balls on 49, Dhoni walks down the wicket and rolls the ball to long-on for a single to take him to the 17th fifty of his career. The next ball fetches a wicket as Sreesanth is trapped plumb in front of middle stump as he goes back to flick and misses. Sreesanth begins to walk even before the umpire gives the decision!

670 for 9 in 151.4 overs. Dhoni on 50. India lead by 277 runs with 17.2 overs left today.

4:15am: This is going nowhere. India is not getting any runs as Dhoni is not taking singles unless it is the last ball of the over or close to it. The other balls are battered away but there are so many fielders on the boundary that no fours are forthcoming. The last five overs have produced 5 runs. If I was Sri Lanka I would try to not get them out. Let India keep batting. The longer India bats, the less time Sri Lanka has to worry about batting.

4:25am: Dhoni is occasionally finding the boundary and now launches an even bigger six than the one he hit previously. Phew! When he connects they really go far. He broke a chair in the second tier of the stand. Dhoni moves on to 69, Ojha is on 1. India's lead is now 298 runs.

4:31am: Welegedara bowls a bouncer and Dhoni swivels and smashes it for six over square leg. Moves on to 75, 3 balls still to go in the over. 698 for 9.

4:35am: Dhoni launches into another straight shot for a six off Herath. India crosses into the 700's. Herath still persists with a slip. Hope springs eternal. Dhoni moves onto 83.

(SMG reminds us that India has scored 261 runs in the whole day so far today, whereas Sehwag scored 284 runs all by himself yesterday.)

4:42am: Dhoni steps out to the leg-side and flat bats it to midwicket for another six. This is the highest score ever made by India in Tests. The shot he hit was nothing more than a flickish jab that is his specialty.

711 for 9 in 162 overs. Dhoni is on 89. India's lead is 318 runs. Ojha has contributed one run to the 41 run partnership so far.

4:6am: A double to the gap at midwicket takes Dhoni to 91. A fierce cut shot is dropped by the point fielder. It was a fiercely hit ball so we should applaud the fielder for stopping a four. The last ball is edged by Ojha for a four to the vacant third man area. Bonus runs, these.

4:51am: Dhoni sweeps and runs hard for a double and then, since he is on 94, he waltzes down the wicket and hits the longest six he has hit all day, I think, to reach his second 100 of the series. The irony is that Sangakkara does not have a century in the series and Dhoni has two. Whodathunk it? Dhoni went from 50 to 100 with Ojha for company. Ojha's contribution: 5 runs in 14 balls to the partnership of 56 runs.

Final damage: India scores 726 for 9 declared, a lead of 333 runs. Dhoni's 100 came in 154 balls with 3 fours and 6 sixes. At one point Dhoni was on 52 in 115 balls with 1 four and 1 six. After that he scored 48 runs in 39 balls with 5 sixes and 2 fours. Oh, you did know that Dhoni declared as soon as he got to his century, right? Sri Lanka has to bat three overs today.

5:00am: Harbhajan Singh has the ball to start the innings. Bowling to two slips, silly point and forward short-leg. Naturally, Harbhajan drifts down the leg-side and is glanced away to the boundary by Tharanga Paranavitana. Harbhajan is bowling round the wicket, by the way.

5:05am: Pragyan Ojha is going to bowl the second over. Tillakaratne Dilshan punches the ball to deep cover and gets a couple. The next ball sees him coming dancing down the wicket and driving to mid-off for a quick single. Slip, silly point, forward short-leg and backward short-leg for Tharanga. Tharanga's playing well forward and smothering the spin. Ohh, inner edges the ball but is lucky that it hits his pad and rolls down the edge of the bat. He ends the over with a gentle flick to midwicket to add to his score.

8 for no loss in 2 overs. Last over of the day coming up. Harbhajan is safely negotiated away by the two and Sri Lanka has all 10 wickets in hand for a two day battle to come.

11 for no loss in 3 overs. 180 overs to go in the Test. Sri Lanka trail by 322 runs.

Time to sleep. Good night.