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.
A few months ago, I got really mad at VVS Laxman and told him that he could no longer survive as a one-skill player. Right now I am watching Zaheer Khan bat....let me rephrase that..I am watching Zaheer pretend to bat and I am befuddled by it.
As a bowler on this very same pitch you saw three Australian batsmen put on more than 650 runs while you trundled around in the field and did nothing noteworthy after an initial burst of wickets. Yet, when it is your turn to bat, you are hell-bent on throwing your wicket away and making it easy for the bowlers to stay interested. Gah! On top of it, your fitness sucks. You are a below-average fielder and a total liability in the field.
Since you are Zaheer Khan and your bowling carries an aura you will play for India till you decide to drop. If I had anything to say about it, I'd pack your bags for you and tell you to come back when you were more prepared to fight it out.
As I type it, you are still flailing around while the Aussies refuse to bowl that full ball on the stumps that will get you out. I have a feeling they are toying with you like a cat toys with a mouse when it knows the mouse cannot escape.
Your dismissal is a matter of time. With this attitude of yours, it's too bad that dismissal is not from the Indian side.
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.
(This is a very long post. Disjointed and unorganized. It is a post 28 years in the making but I did not realize it till I sat down to actually write it. I can remember every little detail about the 2nd of April, 2011 like it was (day before) yesterday but just not in sequence! My reminisces about the day are also like that. I nearly deleted this post because of its rambling nature until I was convinced that I should publish it nevertheless because there are people who want to read what I write!)
...Oh My God! I think I may have just cost India the World Cup. How could I be so stupid?! It is 3:10am and I am driving east on Maple Street approaching the 204th street intersection. The light is red and I tell myself, if it stays red India loses, if it turns green India wins. It turns green! Phew! But not satisfied with dodging that bullet, I decide that if the light stays green until it is no longer visible in my rearview mirror then victory is assured. Oh no...oh no...oh no... Phew! I can no longer see it but then I reach 168th street and turn left. Oh dear, I can see the traffic light to the left in the distance, still green but how long can it hold on? Idiot!! How could I be so stupid?!!
Miracle of miracles, it stays green the whole time! India is going to win! After that - Never. A. Doubt. Honestly, God promise.
I had originally intended to give the India-Ireland match a miss until I was asked to take a peek at Kevin O'Brien. (More specifically, his heroics against England a few days ago). I am glad I stayed up all night and watched cricket, including the England-South Africa game (until I switched over to the India game with Amla and de Villiers cruising towards a regulation win).
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.
Jacques Kallis usually scores at about 45 runs per 100 balls. A big chunk of the criticism directed towards Kallis, and a huge reason why he is not revered as much as his mind-boggling stats indicate that he should be, is that he tends to hold one end up and bats in a frustratingly sedate, single-minded, plodding manner irrespective of the match situation.
Imagine my surprise when I saw the very same Kallis blasting his way to a 130 ball century. One of the hopes I held out for the 2nd day was that the South Africans would bat slowly, scoring only about 270-300 in the day's play. Instead they motored along at more than 4 runs per over and are extremely close to batting India completely out of it.
I'd be very surprised if India don't win tomorrow. Getting Kallis was huge. I though think it will be a nerve wracking 'few overs to go before stumps' win.
And that is exactly how it transpired. India escaped by the skin of its teeth to register an innings victory with just 9 mandatory balls left to be bowled. (They could have squeezed in a couple of extra overs, if required).
Rather than give you a detailed breakdown of how it transpired, I will pen some thoughts that occurred to me in the aftermath of the game.
Overnight rain and some inept groundskeeping ensured that two possible results were rendered highly unlikely in the India-South Africa Test match at Kolkata. With a South African win and a tie knocked out of the loop, only an Indian win or a draw remain.
About 90 odd overs remain to be bowled, and the SAffers trail by 232 runs, with seven wickets in hand. In reality, a combination of bad light, slow over-rate, and rain will ensure that they actually need to survive between 50-80 overs. They have the batsmen - Amla, De Villiers, Prince, and Duminy to do it, but they have also lost two very important cogs - Smith and Kallis.
South Africa had a fabulous chance to wipe India completely out of the series by batting for time. For most of the afternoon they did just that and then, in one manic session, they threw it all away, opening the door for an Indian comeback.
The first Test match between South Africa threw up a few surprises by the time the lunch interval was ushered in. Before the match, Rohit Sharma, riding the wave of popular opinion and one huge triple century against Gujrat, was a shoe-in for the middle-order spot that opened up when VVS Laxman injured himself in Bangladesh. (In spite of the 309*, Sharma had the 20th highest run aggregate in the Ranji Super League this year).
About an hour before play was to start, Sharma stepped on another player's foot in a routine pre-game play-around and was done for the day. Suddenly, Wriddhiman Saha, a wicket-keeper batsman from West Bengal, drafted into the team because the selectors (very wisely, really) deemed that Dinesh Karthik was better spent leading South Zone in the Duleep Trophy, found himself with the coveted debut match. Fortuitously, Saha leapfrogged more worthy aspirants (Pujara, Kohli, Pandey, Rahane come readily to mind) into the Test team as a specialist batsman. Since I will not mention his name again today, let me say that Saha is a very good and active fielder, especially in the deep, based on what I saw.
Zaheer Khan began as only he does - bowling to a plan in his mind, wide of the off-stump, asking the batsmen to reach out for the ball or at least pantomime letting it go. Everyone, including the scorer and his chaiwalla know that this is a set up for the ball that comes in or the bouncer, yet ZAK's current aura is such that when the ball inevitably comes, it causes discomfort. Ashwell Prince got injured in a series against Australia and JP Duminy stole the thunder. On Prince's return, he was drafted in as an opener, the selectors indicating they felt Duminy was the better long-term option. Prince is in a scoring rut and, not surprisingly, was dismissed by an iffy decision, the ball bouncing off his arm-guard to the keeper. Prince did not help matters by fending so awkwardly at the bouncer that, on first impression, it clearly looked out. Only slow motion capture from the square angle showed that he may have been not out. I cannot fault the umpire for that decision at all.
Graeme Smith and ZAK go way back and he was content to watchfully play out the medium-pacer's spell. The sucker ball to Smith is the one the comes in after pitching and the South African skipper still managed to play an angled shot to an incoming ball and heard his middle-stump rattle. Just like that South Africa was 6 for 2 and the door was open for India to come thundering in.
Instead, Jacques Kallis and Hashim Amla sedately set about surviving ZAK's probes and negating Ishant Sharma's run-denying line. The introduction of Harbhajan Singh, playing purely on reputation of late, opened the floodgates (relatively speaking). In the recent past, in my opinion, two things have conspired to make Economy Singh a ghost of the bowler of the past - both of which have to do with the doosra. The ICC is more vigilant than ever before about chucking and Economy no longer uses it as frequently as he used to, but his off-middle stump line has remained the same. Secondly, as Saqlain Mushtaq found out and Trever Jenner recently pointed out, a bowler who bowls a lot of doosras loses the action that produces the heavy overspin and loop that is the trademark of a good off-spinner. In pursuing that doosra Economy has lost his loop and bounce. Sad, really. A few weeks in purgatory may be the jolt he needs to get his rhythm back. If Virender Sehwag, VVS Laxman, and Sourav Ganguly could be dropped, why not Economy?
Anyway, Economy helped Kallis and Amla settle down. Amit Mishra found some turn and bounce but a propensity to not be able to bowl a full length on his faster balls meant that he repeatedly got pulled away to the midwicket region everytime he pitched short. Soon the SAffers were glued into the crease and, once that happens on flat pitches like this, it takes a special ball or a stupid shot to prise good batsmen out. Neither Amla nor Kallis were prepared to give it away and, barring ZAK, no Indian bowler looked capable to pulling out that zinger.
Runs, which came at a trickle in the first hour, began to gush forth in a more steady flow as the day progressed and at close South Africa had reached close to 300 runs for the loss of those early wickets. Slight advantage, South Africa, but this is a position that this Indian team has been in before and still managed to pull it out. (I will give you some examples of this later today).
For now, though, it is time for the Indian team to sit back, rest those tired feet, and plan some rebuttals. If Day 2 belongs to the South Africans, then 3 days of saving a Test match beckon.
One hour into the 4th day, with the score reading 290 for 3, 21 runs behind India, Mohammad Ashraful looking unruffled - serious advantage Bangladesh.
And then it happened: a wicket fell, another followed. A setback, but nothing too serious just yet. Shakib Al Hasan, Mushfiqur Rahim, and Mahmudullah were still alive and well.
Then Shakib jumped out and smashed the first ball he faced for a six over long-off. Madness! Put it down to a rush of blood? Nope! A few balls later he swept hard and straight to square-leg and the floodgates were well and truly opened. Zaheer Khan reversed his way to three wickets in 4 balls and just like that 6 wickets were lost for 14 runs.
Mohammad Ashraful (rightly) gets a lot of grief for his impetuosity but this display by Shakib was as egregious as any of Ashraful's misdeeds. Seriously, dude, what were you thinking? You had a chance to put India under some serious pressure and you gifted them a win.
P.S. Even as I posted it, Zaheer Khan ripped through the defence of the last batsman and India now needs 2 runs to win. ZAK gets 10 wickets in the Test.
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).
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.
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.
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.
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 Padams Adams famously did do in one series in India in 1994-95).
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 edge miss a ball that just barely swung away enough and through to the keeper. His next ball is a double-edged doozy - an overpitched no-ball that is hit to gully for four. Sreesanth gets back at Mahela with an action replay of the good ball. Mahela looks at his bat wondering if it needs to be widened just a little bit.
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.
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.
10:00pm: Sri Lanka will hope to get to 400 if it can today. Muttaiah Muralitharan is not expected to last much longer, realistically speaking, so it is up to Angelo Mathews to do most of the damage. What is also of interest is whether he can reach a century, having gone to bed on 86.
10:07pm: Oooh..close. Sreesanth gets Mathews to edge just short of second slip. To add insult, it races away to the third man fence. Sreesanth decides to try to do it himself now and promptly gives up 6 more runs. Mathews eases to within a boundary of a well-deserved century.
10:12pm: I am speechless. Mathews, who seemed to have all the time in the world since the Indians were not even trying to get him out, has just run himself out going for the second run. I think he has. He pull-hooked a short-pitched ball from Sreesanth to the deep where the prowling Sachin Tendulkar (SRT) fired in a typical Sachin throw - flat, hard, and right to the keeper. MS Dhoni collects the ball and hits the wickets. There are three angles for the 3rd umpire to look at. Would you believe it? The square-leg umpire is obscuring a part of the first one, the slip fielder is blocking the second angle and the keeper is partially blocking the third angle. Incredible. You couldn't script this with any more drama. The composite picture of all three suggests that Mathews is out. Oh dear...the only thing saving him would be the "inconclusive evidence" clause. But it looked out to me. And the 3rd umpire agrees. Mathews is cruelly run-out on 99. Poor guy.
10:13pm: Chanaka Welegedara hits the first ball he faces to the straight boundary, and his batting suggests that Mathews should not have panicked and tried to get to his century so hastily. This man looks like he knows how to hold the bat.
10:22pm: Well, Pragyan Ojha wraps up the innings. After conceding a boundary to a Welegedara shimmy, he traps him LBW right in front of leg-stump. Third wicket for Ojha and Sri Lanka is all out for 393 in 94.4 overs.
The Indian innings will start shortly. Murali Vijay and Virender Sehwag will be relieved they did not have to wait too long to get to bat today.
10:40pm: Welegedara begins by making Vijay play every ball, giving up a flick for four off the 4th ball to get the Indian innings going. No looseners for him. Are you paying attantion, Zaheer Khan? The last ball is gently nudged away for a single to cover and India are on their way. Over gaaji, Mr. Vijay.
5 for no loss in 1 over.
10:45am: A simple forward push from Vijay fetches three runs off Nuwan Kulasekara. No swing for the Sri Lankan bowlers so far. Three slips, a gully, and a forward short-leg for Sehwag. Over there in New Zealand Umar Akmal is at it again, thwarting another Kiwi push. Simple push by Sehwag takes him off the mark. Murali Vijay counters with another triple to deep square-leg and regains strike for the third over. Super over gaaji. Brilliant.
10:50am: Vijay continues from where he left off against the Aussies, simply pushing to covers and getting Sehwag on strike. Sangakkara is not bothering with deep fielders on the off-side. Thank you!!!! Attack, sir, attack. And that is what he is doing, with a short mid-off for the first time this series. Sehwag just beats him and gets three to end the over and keep strike. "Over gaaji that," he says to Vijay!
16 for no loss in 3 overs, Vijay on 12, Sehwag on 4.
10:55pm: Sehwag greets Kulasekara with a four to midwicket.The next ball is a b-e-a-u-t-y, beating his prod outside the off-stump. The first ball to really swing in this innings so far. Sehwag plays out the rest of the over with a straight bat.
10:59pm: Vijay edges short of slip and the ball goes between first and second slip (rolling along the ground) for a four to third man. The next ball is dropped to short cover and a quick single is taken. Vijay is batting in Gambhir mode and that is good news for Sehwag, who likes to keep moving, even if it is for runs for his partner. Sehwag flicks the next ball to deep square-leg and the duo pinch a quick two. The bounce is to Sehwag's liking here. The ball is bounced over his shoulder and he thinks about an upper cut and changes his mind. He should have gone for it, the umpire signals a front-foot no-ball. Cracking square-cut, stopped by Dilshan. "That was hit like a tracer bullet," intones Shastri (in my head, not on TV).
28 for no loss in 5 overs, Vijay on 17, Sehwag on 10.
11:05am: The last time this duo opened for India, they put on 98 and 116 runs for the first wicket in the two innings. Vijay looks like he fits at this level. On Indian pitches, at least. Sweet, sweet front foot cover drive. For no run but sweet-looking shot. Nice footwork from the young man. A backfoot punch now fetches him a single as the short cover fielder dives and stops a boundary. Sehwag plays a front foot punch to the same bowler.
30 for no loss in 6 overs, Sehwag on 11, Vijay on 18.
11:11pm: Sehwag is just 34 runs away from 6,000 Test runs. Make that 33, as he does his typical flick-pull to deep square-leg for a single. Welegedara is bowling on the off-stump now and gives up just that single in the over. It is hard to believe, considering the score, but the batsmen have been very cautious, with the runs coming off "proper cricketing shots".
By the way, I jinxed Umar Akmal. Shortly after I talked about him earlier, he got out to Darryl Tuffey and Pakistan are doing what they do best - get into a tight spot before counterattacking.
11:17pm: Kulasekara bowls a short one and Sehwag calmly pulls to deep square-leg for an easy single for him. Vijay plays the next ball from off-stump to square-leg. Careful, young paduan, careful. Play with a straight bat for now.
11:19pm: Sunil Gavaskar (SMG) helpfully reminds the viewers that Sehwag is 30 runs short of 6,000 runs, Tendulkar is 83 short of 13,000 runs, Laxman is 145 short of 7,000 runs, and ZAK is 104 runs away from 1,000 runs. Who needs a Milestone Watch when Sunny is around. Wow. By the way, Welegedara is bowling to the best field that Sangakkara has placed for Sehwag this whole series - two slips, gully point, short cover, cover, and mid-off. No folks on the deep. So Sehwag, naturally, swings freely and drills it through cover for a four. Keep the same field, Sangakkara. Be patient. Sehwag drives it straight down the ground now, stopped on the run by mid-off, limiting the damage to a single. It wont be too much longer before we see Murali bowl, I am sure. The opening bowlers are not doing much to influence the batsmen into mistakes. Very similar to the way the Sri Lankan innings began.
India 41 for no loss in 9 overs. Both batsmen on 20. Rangana Herath coming on to bowl now after a drinks break. "About 35 minutes to go for lunch," reminds SMG. Surely, he does not want the batsmen to play for lunch?
11:27am: Sehwag waltzes down the pitch and deposits Herath for a six over long-on. The man is irrepressible. The next ball is punched in the air to deep cover and gets two more runs. The field is starting to spread and he casually pads away to square-leg for an easy single. 50 run partnership between the duo, the third in three tries for them. Good job.
11:31pm: Welegedara bowls it short and wide and Sehwag steps across the stumps and thumps it (and I mean thumps it) to the point fence. Naturally, the next ball is full and the Delhiwallah calmly punches it straight down the ground to deep mid-on for four. Sangakkara's response is to strengthen the off-side with another square catcher. Yes, I like this new version of the skipper. And Welegedara helps him by bowling just outside the off-stump and Viru watches both balls go by without poking at it.
58 for no loss in 11 overs, Sehwag on 37, Vijay on 20. Sehwag is entering Seh-whack mode. Vijay needs to keep his calm and not try to match him as he will come up a distant second. This is where Gambhir is good. Not letting his partner's mood affect his own batting. Vijay sensibly gets an easy (sharp but easy) single to mid-on. Sehwag punches to long-off for another routine single. Vijay hits a beautiful cover drive for four. Nice, risk-free shot.
65 for no loss in 12 overs. Sehwag on 38, Vijay on 26.
11:42pm: Another wristy flick from Sehwag and he gets an airy-fairy four through midwicket. How many gaps can Sangakkara plug? He puts in a short midwicket now. Following the ball is just playing into Viru's hands.
11:46pm: Edged by Vijay and Mahela was standing up at slip and could not get his fingers under the ball. Gets a single off the last ball of the over and is relieved to be there. Hopefully, this will reinforce his focus.
71 for no loss in 14 overs. Sehwag on 42, Vijay on 28. Over in New Zealand, Pakistan slips to 161 for 6 and Kamran Akmal is batting on 21 in 16 balls. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
11:49pm: Beautiful backfoot square drive by Vijay for four off Kulasekara. He is very light on his feet whether going forward or backward. Deep point now comes into the picture. The exodus has begun.
75 for no loss in 15 overs. Sehwag on 42, Vijay on 32.
11:51pm: 6,000 runs for Sehwag and he gets to it in typical fashion, a slog drive for six over long-on off Herath. What a playa, what a playa! Now that the field has spread, he just taps it to deep midwicket and walks across for a single. Two balls later he repeats the dose for another 50. At one point he was 15 in 33 balls. Now he is on 50 in 54, his last 35 runs coming in 21 balls. His 6,000 runs have been scored at a strike rate of over 80.
84 for no loss in 16 overs. Sehwag on 50, Vijay on 33.
11:57pm: Sangakkara is shielding Murali from the openers as lunch approaches. Kulasekara continues and Vijay settles down, probably playing for lunch. Kulasekara bowls a slower ball that Vijay punches in the air to mid-off, drops well short though.
11:59pm: Murali comes on for the last over before lunch. Sehwag walks down and keeps walking to the non-strikers' end after punching to long-on. The fielder is brought in but Vijay gets a single to him with some quick running. Forward short-leg and slip the only close-in fielders. Sehwag leans back and slices it to point and goes on another walkabout to the other end. Vijay leans forward and ....hmmm...caresses the ball to the cover fence. What a shot to bring up lunch!
92 for no loss in 18 overs at lunch. Gautam Gambhir should count his lucky stars that he has scored 7 centuries in the last 9 Tests (or something like that). Only that purple patch is what is saving him from Vijay taking his spot! Sehwag on 53, Vijay on 38.
Back in 30 minutes. First session to India today.
12:42am: The players are back. This now becomes a test of temperament. Angelo Mathews to open. He was the sole bowler to escape stick in the second Test match. Let's see if he can continue that today. Two slips, short cover, deep point. Sehwag finds deep point and walks across again for a single. Mathews is bowling in the low 120's right now. He gets one ball to jag back in. I suspect it may be the fast off-spinner but cannot tell from the feed I am getting. Two singles in that over until the 5th ball when Sehwag plays a late cut for a four to third man. His gentlest shot of the day. Sublime. He ends the over with a walkabout single to deep point.
Sangakkara has a field for the full ball and all the runs came square of the wicket. Hmmm.
99 for no loss in 19 overs. Sehwag on 59, Vijay on 39.
12:48am: Murali continues in what should be a long spell for him. Bowling wide of the crease and Sehwag walks the ball to long-on for a single to bring up the 100 of the partnership. Gambhir not being missed so far. Sehwag reverse sweeps for four. Not really necessary, Viru. You are getting runs the conventional way. But the man is from another planet altogether.
12:52am: Welegedara is brought in and bowls the first maiden of the innings. Some relief for the visitors. Murali, Mahela, and Sangakkara are discussing the timings for the next flight to Colombo...or they are discussing what to bowl. I suspect it is the latter. Sehwag presses forward and survives a close shout for LBW. Sehwag begins to move his foot out of the way now and thrashes the 4th ball to the cover fence. Sliced it more than drove it to the vacant region. The next ball is smashed past short mid-on to long-on for a walkthrough single.
110 for no loss in 22 overs. Sehwag on 69, Vijay on 40. Vijay is on the cusp of his highest score in Tests. Sehwag is just 250 runs away from his personal best. (Editor's note: I was just joking when I wrote that. Little did I know...)
1:01am: Sehwag launches into a wide ball and smashes it to cover-point and the sweeper does not move. Welegedara responds by beating Sehwag on the backfoot defense. Good comeback. Chagrined by that experience he lets the next two balls go with a raised bat. The horror! In countless homes around the country mothers cover their kids' eyes. The fifth ball is in the same corridor but Viru has had enough. He leans forward and pushes it to point for a single. And Vijay repeats it to reach 41. Just like that, another no-fuss 6 run over.
1:05am: Vijay dances down to Murali and pats the ball back. Predictably Murali pitches it shorter and Vijay flicks it for a single. Short outside the off-stump and Sehwag just pushes it to point for a four. With a 3-6 field (cover, slip, and long-off) there are wide open spaces for Seh-whack to exploit on the off-side when Murali pushes one through outside the off-stump.
Sangakkara, if I were you I would bring in Tillakaratne Dilshan to bowl. You want Sehwag to take risks and he will not respect Dilshan enough to play him properly. Opportunities will be created for sure. (Editor's note: Reader, please mark the time - 1:05am - when I made this remark).
1:10am: Welegedara sees Murali Vijay on strike and bounds in with an eye on the maiden. Instead he bowls a wide half-volley and Vijay sends it to the cover fence. The cover drive is easily his most pleasing shot. The next ball is a good bouncer and Vijay sways out of the way, dropping his wrists. Great technique. The way he came into the squad may have been slightly off-putting but he looks like a great find for India. Reinforcing the first impression he created last year against Australia.
125 for no loss in 25 overs. Sehwag on 78, Vijay on 56.
1:14am: Murali is starting to turn the ball a great deal. He flights the ball this time and Sehwag dances down and gets his third six of the innings. Picture perfect step down and hit. Does it again and a splendid dive at mid-off restricts it to a single. Vijay dances down and flicks to deep midwicket for a single to go over gaaji again.
India 133 for no loss in 26 overs. Sehwag on 85, Vijay on 47.
1:20am: After defending 5 balls, Vijay takes a single off the last ball of the over again! Maybe this is a plan of Sangakkara's to frustrate Sehwag. If it is, it actually might have a chance.
1:22am: Sehwag must exude some nasty body odor. As soon as he comes on strike the fielders spread as far away from him as possible! He smartly takes a single that is offered. Murali Vijay dances down and hits the biggest six of the day so far, even more emphatic than Sehwag's trio to bring up his first 50 in Tests. Now he needs to consolidate and keep going on and not throw it away like Tharanga did. Vijay ends another over with a last ball single.
143 for no loss in 28 overs. Sehwag on 86, Vijay on 55.
1:26am: Welegedara continues. His agenda seems to be to keep Vijay on strike. Is that only until the last ball? Let's see. The fifth ball is on the pads and that Indian specialty, the drive-flick to midwicket is unfurled. Four more runs and one ball to go. Nope, defends the ball and Sehwag is on strike to the first ball of an over after what seems like 1400 years.
148 for no loss in 29 overs. Sehwag on 86 and Vijay on 59.
1:32am: Two simple singles to the leg side and the 150 is up. They have each played 90 balls so far in the innings. Nice distribution in spite of the over-gaajiness of Vijay, which must be an illusion then. Hah! Even as I write that, Vijay cuts Murali away to third man and scampers 3 runs to retain strike!!
1:34am: Kulasekara comes in to the attack bowl. First ball, majestic front foot cover drive on the up by Vijay for a four. SRT would have been proud of that one. Kulasekara responds with a slower ball. ODI mode for the Sri Lankans now. Oh dear! Another off-cutter and Vijay plays early and loops it to mid-on where Herath dives forward (unnecessarily, I thought) and the ball hits him on the forearm and goes away for three runs. Shastri notices that Sehwag has been off-strike for a while. Sehwag responds as only Sehwag does - with a crushing drive to the cover fence. THAT was a tracer bullet-like hit, Shastri. Sehwag wades into the 90's now.
167 for no loss in 31 overs. Sehwag on 92, Vijay on 70.
1:40am: Herath comes on for the last over before drinks. Sehwag is shadow batting and he is practicing jumping down the wicket and hitting over the top! Vijay on strike, though, and he steps back to cut to deep cover for an easy single to get Sehwag on strike. The crowd is alive and Sehwag defends. Five fielders on the fence for Herath and Sehwag still finds the room to step down and drive the ball straight down for a four to take us to drinks. Seriously!
172 for no loss in 32 overs. India scored 80 runs in 14 overs in this hour. Sehwag on 96, Vijay on 71. (43 for Sehwag and 33 for Vijay in that hour).
By the way, according to his CricInfo profile Vijay did not start playing cricket seriously until he was 17 years old. He is 25 now, just FYI.
1:50am: SMG on air advocates for there to be no restriction on bouncers in an over, feeling that it should be left to the umpires to decide if it is intimidatory in nature. As he says that Vijay hits the best shot of the day so far, a picture perfect straight drive to the fence. And that's saying something since the Indians have hit plenty of beautiful shots.
1:54am: Vijay hits another gorgeous cover drive off Herath and finds the fence. This is so eerily like Gambhir's scoring pattern. As Sehwag's boundaries have been restricted by the field, Vijay has upped the rate and raced into the 80's. He is just 16 runs from Sehwag now.
183 for no loss in 34 overs. Sehwag on 97 Vijay on 81.
1:57am: Murlai comes on to stop Sehwag from getting to a century. Wide outside the offstump and Sehwag misses out! No run. And hundred #17 comes up for Viru. He gets to it with a boundary (surprise! surprise!), a drive behind the keeper to a ball wide outside leg-stump to the fine-leg boundary. 100 in 100 balls. Strike rate of.....hmmm...need a calculator for that.
188 for no loss. Sehwag on 102, Vijay on 82.
Gavaskar says that the three most thankless jobs in cricket are that of a selector, umpire, and wicket-keeper. Hard to argue with that.
2:03am: Trailing by 393 runs in the first innings, just 35.4 overs into the innings India has avoided the follow-on with Sehwag slog sweeping Herath for a huge six to cow corner. Easy as that.
198 for no loss. Sehwag on 110, Vijay on 83.
2:06am: Vijay is still helmeted while Sehwag has settled into his India cap. Murali tosses it up outside the off stump and Sehwag dismisses it one bounce to deep cover. The 200 of the partnership comes up in the 37th over. Good even by ODI standards. Dilshan saves a boundary diving away to his left at cover. The same place where he caught Sehwag in the previous Test.
2:08am: Sehwag, the fashinista, now switches to a white floppy hat. Sehwag hits Herath onto the second tier of the pavilion with a man on long-on searching for it as if it were the space shuttle in orbit. Phew. Now there are 6 fielders on the boundary and Herath goes over the wicket. Sehwag reverse sweeps for a boundary! No fielder at third man. Easy as that for the magnificent maverick of modern cricket.
Somewhere in Delhi, Gambhir is packing his bags, cutting short his holiday, as the partnership reaches 214. Sehwag is on 124, Vijay on 85.
2:13am: Vijay just punches to mid-off and scampers through for a single. Sehwag thumps it to long-on for a single. The ball is jetting off his blade now. Vijay flicks a single to deep midwicket. Too easy. Time to mix it up with some move out of left-field. Wide outside the leg stump and Sehwag repeats the shot that fetched him his century and another boundary results.
221 for no loss in 39 overs. Sehwag on 129, Vijay on 87.
2:16am: The curse of 87 strikes! Vijay tries to sweep a ball that was almost yorker length and is out LBW. As plumb as it gets. This is the first sweep he has attempted all day. Bad time to change his mode of batting. Unfortunate dismissal. That was the carrom ball that Herath bowls.
Dravid comes in as usual with India under pressure with score at 221. How will he bat? Can he keep Sehwag warm and on strike? Sri Lanka still keeps a deep point. Sheesh. When was the last time they saw Dravid play? At least they do have a silly point in place, too. Not surprisingly, Dravid plays out a wicket maiden. Deep point still contemplates the meaning of life out near the boundary.
221 for 1 in 40 overs. Sehwag on 129, Dravid on 0. The slog over phase of ODI's are at hand now. I wish someone would remind Sehwag that he can bat like this in ODI's, too.
2:22am: Perplexingly, Kulasekara comes back to bowl, replacing Murali. This was a good time to get Murali to settle into a rhythm bowling to Dravid. Sehwag greets Kulasekara with a two bounce thump to the midwicket fence. Welcome, sir, my name is Viru. To Nuwan's relief Sehwag gets a single off the next ball only to see Dravid guide it to third man for a single. Sehwag then walks a single to deep cover. This is about the only defective part of Sehwag's game. He "walks" so many runs without grounding his bat that he is often scurrying to quickly put his bat down in time if an alert fielder throws at the stumps very quickly. Here's an example that involves Sangakkara doing it to Sehwag:
2:30am: Dravid is taking his time settling in, as he usually does and Sehwag is getting antsy. A reverse sweep, a step outside legstump to try to drive inside out to cover fetch singles and indicate his wish to get on with it.
2:31am: Luckily for Sehwag, Kulasekara gives him a short ball outside off-stump and the sentinels outside the third man boundary throw the ball back. Satiated by the boundary, Sehwag now walks a single to long-on. Dravid, who is batting on 2 runs in 12 balls, is batting to a slip, a cover and a mid-off with two fielders deep in the off-side. Ugh! Easy punch to deep cover for a single and Sehwag is back on strike. Sehwag is stretching his back and decides to thump it, just clearing mid-on for another boundary to get to 146 and then hits it along the ground for a single. His back is definitely bothering him. Eight minutes to tea. Dravid now gets into the act with his trademark flick-drive through midwicket for four. (Editor's note: Sehwag was in the 140's when his back started to bother him. Imagine what he did with a hurting back the rest of the way.)
246 for 1 in 43 overs. Sehwag in 147, Dravid on 7.
Sehwag has faced 125 balls for his 147 now. Since he took 100 balls for his 100, you know his scoring rate since then.
2:35am: Sehwag has adopted a Shiv Chanderpaul stance to protect his back which is hurting him very badly. Does not stop him from reverse sweeping. Would you believe it, they have a fielder deep for that shot now? Not only is Sangakkara anticipating Sehwag's shots he is adjusting for his novelty strokes, too! Dravid hits as sweet an inside-out drive as Vijay hit for a single. The medical staff gets ready to come on to treat Sehwag who takes the easy single on offer on the leg-side.
249 for 1 in 44 overs. Sehwag on 149, Dravid on 8.
2:38am: Seeing Sehwag limping, Murali comes back to add to his 10-0-63-0 figures. Last over before tea. Sehwag flicks to long-on for the 12th score of 150 of above in his career (out of 17 centuries). The world record is 19 (SRT) for a career. 150 in 130 balls. The man scores big, big centuries in a matter of factly way. Walks another single to long-on now as Murali is finding it hard to stop the runs with the spread out field. Dravid steps back and punches it past cover for a four. Murali is taking a beating here. He must be thanking his stars Sri Lanka only plays 3 Test series. Another ball outside the off-stump and Dravid cuts it to deep point for a four. That's tea and India has scored 168 runs in that session. Murali trudges off with 11-0-74-0 to his name. Ouch!
260 for 1 in 45 overs. Sehwag on 151, Dravid on 17. A short break now. I will be back in about 20 minutes.
3:03am: Sehwag starts off by jumping down and hitting inside out over cover for a four. Welcome back Herath. The next ball chipped to long-on for another single. Herath is bowling from over the wicket wide outside the leg stump to Sehwag.
266 for 1 in 46 overs. Sehwag on 1656, Dravid on 18.
3:07am: Welegedara gets the short end of the other straw and is picked to bowl. Starts off by letting Dravid glide to point for a single. Welegedara bowls a bouncer. The perfect ball to a batsman with a stiff back. Now he walks down the wicket and smashes it over point for a thumping four. And right on cue, for the first time in the series, Shastri unfurls the tracer bullet. Another bouncer, another duck. Good stuff from Welegedara. Two for the over, cautions the umpire. Content in the knowledge that there are no more bouncers coming, Sehwag moves forward and bludgeons the ball over the cover fence for a six. Phew!
278 for 1 in 47 overs. Sehwag on 166, Dravid in 19. 35 overs still left in the day.
3:13am: Herath almost yelps with joy seeing Dravid on strike. Keeps him quiet for the entire over and gives up only a single off the last ball. Dravi goes over gaaji now. One less ball (at least) for Sehwag to face, thinks Sangakkara.
3:17am: Welegedara continues to build on the Herath foundation, keeping Dravid quiet for 5 balls. Surely, the best strategy would be to give a single to Dravid. Let's see. Dravid drops it and sets off wanting a run and Sehwag ignores him as it was hit straight to a fielder and there was no run there. Sri Lanka's putative plan is thwarted!
3:20am: Sehwag thumps it to long-on for a single. Dravid plays inside out and gets Sehwag back on strike. What will Jatman do? Steps outside leg stump and simply chips it for another run walk. Dravid punches for a single after dancing down to reach the ball. Another walk to long-on for Viru. Five singles in the over.
284 for 1 in 50 overs. Sehwag on 169, Dravid on 22. Unfortunately for Sri Lanka this is not an ODI and India continues to bat past the 50 over mark. Sri Lankans are taking their own sweet time, probably figuring the fewer overs they bowl while Sehwag is there, the better it is. Not a bad idea. The worst thing that can happen is that the ICC will take away some pocket money from the captain. Surely he can afford it.
Tom Alter is in the house!
3:25am: Welegedara is bowling it far away from Viru, trying to get him to reach for it. Sehwag is not interested at all for the first three balls. The fourth is a very good yorker that is dug away and the fifth ball yields the only run of the over. Welegedara and Herath are on fire here! The last 24 balls have yielded only 7 singles. Something's gotta give.
3:28am: Sehwag shimmies down the wicket and drives Herath to long-on for a single. Dravid shows Vijay how to play the sweep shot and smashes it to the square-leg boundary.
290 for 1 in 52 overs. Sehwag on 171, Dravid on 26.
3:33am: Welegedara bowls to a 7-2 field and Sehwag walks across the stumps, exposing all three and flicks it to the midwicket fence. That first morning when Welegedara reduced India to 32 for 4 is like a distant, distant memory now. India trail by less than 100 runs, just 53 overs into the innings. Mind-boggling. The run rate is 5.58. In a Test match!
3:37am: Dravid cuts Herath past point to bring up India's 300. This is Dravid's other trademark shot (the first one being the drive-flick through midwicket). Cannot feed him there, Rangana. Dravid chunters away to 32 in 50 balls.
3:38am: Welegedara's day gets longer as Sehwag slams him through extra cover for four to start the over. Then takes a single and rests at the non-striker end.
308 for 1 in 55 overs. Sehwag on 182, Dravid on 33. Sri Lanka lobbies for a ball change and their request is granted. I bet SRT has already told the nightwatchman to pad up. Who will it be? Amit Mishra is not in the squad.
3:51am: Welegedara pulls up lame and is returning to the pavilion. Sri Lanka may be forced to go to Dilshan by accident now. I am telling you that move will work. No, Kuasekara comes in instead. Welegedara probaby wants to avoid scoring a century today. Sehwag is not batting fluently now. He is reaching for the balls and not connecting well. The back is certainly an issue. Still does not stop him from creaming a boundary to the point fence through the two deep fielders there. He repeats the feat on the leg-side, bisecting square-leg and midwicket. Into the 190's. Third ball is flicked to fine leg for another boundary. The next ball is inner-edged and Sehwag gets a Dhoni double to the square-leg umpire to reach 198. Will he hit a six to get to 200? No, he slog-drives over midwicket to get to it with a four. 18 runs in 5 balls to go from 184 to 202. WHAT A PLAYER!! His 6th double century in Tests. Another one hit at a strike rate of over 200.
200 in 168 balls, strike rate of over 120. India 330 for 1 in 57 overs. Sehwag on 202, Dravid on 35. Second-fastest 200 in Test history.
By the way, NO ONE has mentioned this on TV yet: another century partnership for Dravid, the 80th in Tests for the world record holder.
4:03am: Sangakkara turns to Murali. Dravid almost hits a boundary but Mathews saves three runs. Sehwag survives a very close shout for LBW.
4:06am: Sehwag reverse sweeps Herath for another boundary and then punches to long-off for another walk. Sehwag is on course to be the first man to get to three triple centuries.
4:12am: Sehwag goes inside-out for another four over cover and repeats it next ball to bring up the 350. By the way, Herath is bowling about 2 feet outside the leg-stump and Sehwag is taking a stance about a foot outside leg-stump.
Until the Kolkata Test of 2001, Sunil Gavaskar's 236* was like a millstone around an Indian batsman's neck. Once Laxman crossed that mark, it has ceased to worry the batsmen and no one even thinks about that any more. Sehwag himself has crossed it three times and is en route to doing it a fourth time.
4:18am: Sehwag dances down and hits Murali to the roof of the pavilion. The placement of fielders seems irrelevant to him now. Also, he is moving a little better than he was about 15 minutes ago. Maybe the back has loosened up a little.
360 for 1 in 62 overs. Sehwag on 228, Dravid on 39.
4:22am: Angelo Mathews is sighted, coming on to bowl. Has bowled just one over so far, surprisingly. He was the most economical and restrictive bowler in the previous Test. Sehwag content to play him out for a single...until the last ball, when a bouncer from Mathews is upper cut one bounce to third man for another four. 31 fours and 7 sixes for Jatman.
368 for 1 in 63 overs. Sehwag on 233, Dravid on 42. India motoring along at 5.84 runs an over. By the way, by himself Sehwag is motoring along at 3.7 runs per over. I am running out of adjectives.
17 overs still to go today. SMG admits that at about this point in time he probably would have been batting on 70-odd in the same number of balls. Ironically, I don't think he is joking.
4:36am: Sehwag plays two contrasting shots off Murali. A late, late cut for four and then a waltz down the wicket to play an agricultural hoick for a one bounce four over midwicket. Murali about to hit a century in the 16th over for him! And there it is. The last ball single takes Murali to 100 in exactly 16 overs. What a mauling he is receiving.
382 for 1 in 66 overs. Sehwag on 243, Dravid on 46. India trail by...(gulp)...10 runs.
50 singles for Sehwag. That is the understated but extremely important aspect of his batting.
4:40am: Sehwag greets Mathews by smashing a cover drive for four. Brutal shot. Mathews and Sangakkara are indulging in a long chat. Time-wasting tactics, I think. Strategic timeout to disrupt Sehwag's rhythm, thinks SMG.
The TV announcers inform us that Sehwag scored 98 runs in the post-lunch session and in this session, with 50 minutes to go, he has already scored 97 runs. In the morning session he scored just 60 53 runs, and that was because Sri Lanka used up 27 minutes in the morning plus 10 minutes for the change of innings.
389 for 1 in 67 overs. Sehwag on 248, Dravid on 46. India trail by just 4 runs. Another 45 minutes left in the day's play and India has already scored close to 400 runs. Adding the 27 runs Sri Lanka scored this morning, there have been 416 runs already today in 72 overs. Phew!
15 overs to go today and Sri Lanka will barely get 10 in is my guess. Sangakkara will be happy to pick up the fine for slow over rate in return for not letting Sehwag continue to plunder runs.
I have stated this in the past and it bears repeating. Sehwag has the best temperament of any Indian batsman I have seen. If SRT had even a fraction of his temperament he would have been nudging higher milestones today. Sehwag is relentless about collecting runs once he is set and he plays to a plan of his own, completely throwing the oppositions plans to the dust.
4:52: Sehwag reverse sweeps Murali to reach the fastest 250 in Test history (breaking his own record) with that four to third man. Wowza! The scores are level. India Sehwag chased down 393 runs in less than 68 overs, setting the team up for a huge total here. Now a single to deep midwicket and India has the lead.
4:55am: Angelo Mathews pitches it short, Sehwag pushes it away to square-leg for another four. And it was a no-ball to boot. A quick single to mid-on takes India to 400. They scored 417 runs in a day in Kanpur just a few days ago and should overhaul it easily today. Dilshan pretends to misfield the last ball, hoping the duo would take a single to keep Sehwag off strike but they do not oblige him.
400 for 1 in 69 overs. Sehwag on 258, Dravid on 46. India lead by 7 runs.
5:00am: Sehwalk walks down and just chips it over Murali's head and gets a boundary straight back over the bowlers head. By the way, there are no close-in fielders of any sort around Sehwag. Prasanna Jayawardene must be a lonely man.
406 for 1 in 70 overs. Sehwag on 263, Dravid on 46. India lead by 13 runs.
5:06am: Russell Arnold says that in the days leading up to this Test he did not notice any of this aggressive batting in Sehwag's approach at the nets. Siva adds that Sehwag and Gary Kirsten have been spending a lot of time talking in the dressing room. I wonder what Gary could be telling Sehwag to do? Sehwag ends the over with a tired looking glide to the third man fence off Mathews.
412 for 1 in 71 overs Sehwag on 268, Dravid on 47. India lead by 19 runs.
5:09am: Sehwag jumps out to Murali, misses the ball and just barely edges it to third man for four. The man's got to be tired.
419 for 1 in 72 overs. Sehwag on 273, Dravid on 49. India has never scored so many runs in a single day's play (eclipsing the 417 scored in Kanpur in the previous Test) and they have done it in just 72 overs. India lead by 26 runs.
5:12am: Finally, Dilshan comes on to bowl. Dravid is one away from a 50 and he gets it with a simple flick to midwicket. First ball from Dilshan induces the edge from Sehwag and Mahela drops the catch. It hits him on the right hand before rolling away. I don't want to say I told you so, but I did so hours and hours ago when I beseeched Sangakkara to try out Dilshan to shake things up against Sehwag. The next ball he faces is hit off the leading edge. The 200 run partnership between the duo features exactly 50 runs from Dravid.
5:16am: Herath starts off with the perfect leg-spinning ball (off-spin for the left-arm bowler) as it lands in front of Dravid's feet and spins past the off stump. No harm done in the end. Sehwag defends and exchanges a big grin with Dravid. Dravid is still smiling during the mid-pitch between over discussion between the two.
432 for 1 in 74 overs. Sehwag on 277, Dravid on 55. India lead by 39 runs.
5:23am: Look! What do we have here?! A maiden for Herath. As you would have rightly guessed, he got to bowl to Dravid, who obliged him by defending every ball. Also, Sangakkara placed two close-in catchers, at short mid-off and short cover to trap the front foot punches. Playing for close of play, suggests Arnold.
5:25am: Sehwag is playing for the close of play in his own way, punching Dilshan off the backfoot, beating deep cover for a four. A single two balls later takes him past VVS Laxman's 281, an innings that spanned parts of three days. Sehwag has gone past him 3 times in his career now.
438 for 1 in 77 overs. Sehwag on 282, Dravid on 59. India lead by 45 runs. About 5 minutes to go for the close of play.
5:28am: Sehwag dances down and hits it one bounce to long-off for a risky single. Dravid takes two runs off the last ball, running hard even at the very end of the day. Sehwag has been on the field for every minute of the Test so far.
5:30am: Last over of the day coming up, for sure. Sehwag on strike to Murali. Sehwag hits it past the forward short-leg fielder and gets off strike. Surely, Dravid is going to play out this over and let Sehwag stay here till the morning, when he can come back refreshed and rested. Dravid is now portraying the role of the world's most proficient nightwatchman!
183 runs in this session for India in 34 overs. Murali ends the day with figures of 20-0-119-0. Sehwag remains not out on 284 (239 balls), Dravid on 62 (121 balls). India end the day at 443 for 1, a lead of 50 runs. Unimaginable! Incredible ! Unbelievable! 40 fours and 7 sixes for Sehwag. Sehwag scored 133 runs in the last session of play, after notching up 98 in the second one.
The two parnerships for India - 221 and 222*. Viru is also on the verge of another Test record - most runs in sixes and fours in a single innings. He already occupies 4 of the top 9 spots all-time.
Okay, I am tempted to sit down and figure out different ways of presenting how statistically astonishing this batsman is but it is getting to be a long night and I am sure my friends at CricInfo will have something for me by tonight. When they do, I shall link it for you. I shall go and catch a couple of hours of sleep now (if I can after that imperious batting display).
(Editor's note: From CricInfo comes an astounding stat that tells you everything you needed to know about how this Test series has progressed: Muttaiah Muralitharan has now bowled 69 consecutive overs without a maiden.)
