VVS Laxman’s match-winning innings secured victory for India in the third and final Test match at P. Saravanamuttu Stadium, Colombo.
India spinners came good in the second innings of the final Test match to put India in a winnable position. Sehwag led the way by picking the openers. Infact he was the best Indian spinner on view in this series.
India restricted Srilanka to 425 in the first innings. This was possible due to improved performance from Indian bowlers and aiding pitch. Sehwag scored a blitzkrieg century. Sachin, VVS Laxman and Raina played a good hand. Tail-enders played well to pass the Srilanka’s first innings score. Somehow Srilankan batsmen came a cropper against Indian spinners in the second innings. Indians started chasing the score badly. But Sachin and Laxman steadied the chase well. Then Raina ably supported VVS to see India through.
Brilliant Sehwag
Sehwag was brilliant throughout the series. Unfortunately he got out at wrong moment atleast couple of times; one in the second innings of the first Test and another in the second innings of last Test. Indian success these days are proportional to Sehwag’s success at the top. He came good with ball also. He was better than regular spinners.
Evergreen Master
Sachin become the most capped player in the Test Cricket in the third and final Test match of this series. He scored wonderful double century in the second Test match to save that match after Srilanka made a huge score above 600. He came with crucial contributions in both innings of final Test match in securing India a win.
Raina used the opportunity given to him very well. He became the latest Indian batsman to score debut century after Sehwag did in 2001. He came up with good scores in both the innings of final Test match and helping India to a series leveling victory. He may be suspect against short-pitched bowling. But he stands out from rest of the batsmen of his generation through sheer performance in all available opportunities. Hopefully he improves in each and every outing.
Lackluster Indian Bowling
Indian team is beginning to feel the after effects of Anil Kumble’s retirement. India’s bowling worries were compounded by Zaheer Khan’s injury as well. Harbhajan was very ordinary in the series. Fortunately he was injured and unavailable for the final Test match. Only few years back it appeared that we had bunch of good pace bowlers. But nobody is on the scene now. Irfan Pathan, Munaf Patel, Sreesanth and Ishant Sharma all promised very well. But no one among them established himself as the leading pace bowler consistently. Abimanyu Mithun was impressive in this series. I hope atleast he will establish himself as a strike force for a long run.
Muralidharan retired from Test Cricket in the first Test match of this series. He finished with 800 Test wickets. His record won’t be broken for years. Srilanka will miss him definitely. It was felt in the both innings of the last Test match. I salute this wonderful cricketer.
3 comments:
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Nice post, kind of drawn out though. Really good subject matter though.
Nice post, kind of drawn out though. Really good subject matter though.
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