Tournment Ends

[SaiSrini]

In a way, its good that the wickets have fallen earlier than expected today for India. It will give them a chance to start bowling as early as possible and have a good shot at victory. 212 is the lead right now with 30 mins and a session to go. I guess if we can get 350 by tonight and either get all out or declare, we should be able to bowl at SL for two days and hope to get the win.

Laxman played a very poor shot.

 

[TumTum]

SL can still win this if they bat well.

 

[CaptainOZ]

791 wickets for Murali now.

 

[aditya123]

In a way, its good that the wickets have fallen earlier than expected today for India. It will give them a chance to start bowling as early as possible and have a good shot at victory. 212 is the lead right now with 30 mins and a session to go. I guess if we can get 350 by tonight and either get all out or declare, we should be able to bowl at SL for two days and hope to get the win.

Laxman played a very poor shot.

350 is a very long way away. We need Dhoni to tee-off and get the lead to 300 first. I think even the current lead should be enough because we`ve seen that runmaking is`nt a cakewalk as it looked like yesterday. It was just because we had Sehwag going for us that it looked like a dead track. We`ve had 6 wickets falling today for less than 200 runs! If India bowl like they did at Kanpur, we should win this test.

Whenever someone has looked to be positive on this wicket, they`ve got runs. If you get into a shell here, you`re bound to get out sooner or later.

 

[TumTum]

WTF the bat kept turning its back to the front after every block in that over, cricket keeps coming up with surprises.

 

[SaiSrini]

Sachin and Laxman got too slow today. Had they batted a little more positively, we would have had a bigger lead than what we have right now.

 

[King Cricket]

SL can still win this if they bat well.

Even if they bat superbly, they wouldn't have enough time to take ten Indian wickets. It's either India all the way or a draw.

 

[TumTum]

Sachin and Laxman got too slow today. Had they batted a little more positively, we would have had a bigger lead than what we have right now.

What more can you expect? Sachin had passed 50...

 

[aditya123]

Even if they bat superbly, they wouldn't have enough time to take ten Indian wickets. It's either India all the way or a draw.

Let us assume we get a lead of 300. If Sri Lanka bat out the whole day tomorrow and get 50 ahead themselves and come out and blast 150 on the last day to set India 220 odd in 2 sessions, they could stand with an outside chance of a win. I don`t see a draw happening here.

Sri Lanka will look to score fast and give themselves a chance to force a win since they are 1-0 down and will lose the series anyway even if they play out a draw.

 

[SaiSrini]

I dont expect a Sehwag'ish innings again on this pitch now. Its obviously turning and giving more zip to the spinners than what it did yesterday. If SL bat superbly, then it means India will also again bat very well to draw the game which will give them the series.

Right now, its either India win or a draw. SL win is a very very remote possibility (almost impossible).

 

[King Cricket]

Sachin and Laxman got too slow today. Had they batted a little more positively, we would have had a bigger lead than what we have right now.

We already have enough. Now we just need our bowlers to keep up the good work in the third innings. This pitch is definitely not flat, and it's favouring the bowlers quite a bit as we've seen this morning. On this pitch, taking ten Sri Lankan wickets in two days (assuming that we'll declare today or early tomorrow) wouldn't be a hard job for our bowlers.

 

[SaiSrini]

Let us assume we get a lead of 300. If Sri Lanka bat out the whole day tomorrow and get 50 ahead themselves and come out and blast 150 on the last day to set India 220 odd in 2 sessions, they could stand with an outside chance of a win. I don`t see a draw happening here.

Sri Lanka will look to score fast and give themselves a chance to force a win since they are 1-0 down and will lose the series anyway even if they play out a draw.

If SL can score that many runs on Day 4 and Day 5, India must do the same too which means SL would as well not set any target for India and get over with the game and series.

saisrini80 added 1 Minutes and 51 Seconds later...

We already have enough. Now we just need our bowlers to keep up the good work in the third innings. This pitch is definitely not flat, and it's favouring the bowlers quite a bit as we've seen this morning. On this pitch, taking ten Sri Lankan wickets in two days (assuming that we'll declare today or early tomorrow) wouldn't be a hard job for our bowlers.

I think SL will start batting today. I dont see Dhoni and Zaheer trying to survive too long and bat out the day. They will try to get as many runs possible in the final session and will throw their bats around. I hope we can get a 300 lead. That would be really good.

 

[aditya123]

We already have enough. Now we just need our bowlers to keep up the good work in the third innings. This pitch is definitely not flat, and it's favouring the bowlers quite a bit as we've seen this morning. On this pitch, taking ten Sri Lankan wickets in two days (assuming that we'll declare today or early tomorrow) wouldn't be a hard job for our bowlers.

Yes, to all those saying that the pitch is dead. 8 wickets fell on Day 1 and India have already lost 6 today in 2 sessions. Only 2 sessions of the `Madmax Monk` is what has taken India to this position and made the wicket look dead yesterday.

What this shows is that what we make of the wicket is mostly dependant on how the teams fare. Had Sehwag got out early and had India been bowled out for 450, we`d all be talking about how sporting this wicket is. Same with the Ahmedabad test. Had India not batted that well in the final innings (remember, we were battling hard to survive for 4.5 sessions there) or had India lost 9 wickets in their bid to survive the game at Ahmedabad, we`d all be hailing that as a classic test match. Same was the case with Cardiff during the Ashes test. The Cardiff test during this year`s Ashes pretty much followed the same path as the Ahmedabad test. England, in fact had to survive just the last day there to draw the game but some `not so great` batting by the Englishmen and 9 wickets lost during the course of the day made it a close draw and noone talked about that pitch.

Food for thought during teatime on Day 3.

 

[CaptainOZ]

Madmax Monk..... I like it! :laugh

 

[SaiSrini]

A little off the current topic, but something interesting
Mike Young to help India's fielding | Cricket News | India v Sri Lanka 2009/10 | Cricinfo.com

This is good development by the BCCI to bring Young to train the players for a few weeks. India does not boast of too many good fielders from the yesteryears (a few of the good ones are Ajay Jadeja and Azhar and they shouldnt be anywhere close to the team with their reputation). We need some foreign coaches, especially baseball players who specialize in fielding.