Hosts India finished the opening day’s play of the first Test at Ahmedabad at an incredible 385 for 6 after being reduced to a disastrous 32 for 4 within the first hour of the match. Rahul Dravid proved his class yet again when the chips were down and partnered with Yuvraj Singh and Skipper MS Dhoni to steer India out of trouble. ‘The Wall’ – Rahul Dravid remained unfinished on 177 and MS Dhoni played a Captain’s knock to come up with his second Test hundred. Dravid also became the fifth player to cross 11,000 test runs during his big hundred.

MS Dhoni won the crucial toss which gave his team the opportunity to bat first on a good wicket. India stuck with a predictable line-up of seven batsman and four bowlers. Sreesanth had to sit out. Sri Lanka came up with some surprises with Nuwan Kulasekara and Thilan Thushara missing out. Chanadaka Welegedara and Dammika Prasad got selected ahead of them. But the biggest decision was to drop Ajantha Mendis and retain left arm spinner Rangana Herath.

Sri Lanka had a dream start in rattling the Indian top order with left armer Chanaka Welegedara swinging the ball both ways to make inroads. The 28-year-old Welegedera got an unsure Gambhir inside edging onto the stumps and then followed up with a late inswinger to trap Sehwag lbw. Three balls after Sehwag’s fall, Sachin Tendulkar got cleaned up by one that nipped back sharply to knock his off stump bail through the gate. And six balls later, VVS Laxman too disappeared to the dressing room after chopping a drive off Dammika Prasad onto his stumps. India were out of the Test Match it seemed with the score tottering at 32 for 4 in the 8th over. They were in the danger of getting bowled out very cheaply like before against South Africa at this same venue when they could put up just 76.

Fortunately for India, the most important batsman survived the early blows and it was none other than Rahul Dravid. Yuvraj Singh walked into the middle in a situation that wasn’t new for him. The left hander had already featured in a rear-guard action against Pakistan along with Sourav Ganguly when India faced the same kind of pressure. Yuvraj replicated the same fightback and along with India saw through the difficult first session. At Lunch, India had started to claw back steadily at 105 for 4 in 25 overs with Dravid on 45 and Yuvraj on 35.

After lunch, Dravid and Yuvraj eases past their fifties but their partnership was broken when the latter lobbed a simple catch to covers off Murali against the run of play. Yuvraj fell in the 37th over having scored 68 (from 93 balls with 13 fours). The left hander put on 125 runs for the 5th wicket with Dravid. Sri Lanka now had got back the chance of dismissing India inside the 220-mark. But that wasn’t the case with Skipper MS Dhoni continuing Yuvraj’s good work and giving the right kind of support to Dravid. India went into Tea smoothly without any further damage to 221 for 5 in 54 overs. Dravid was just two runs short of his century and Dhoni worked his way to nearly 30.

The final session was a repeat of the previous one with Dravid putting up another big partnership. The Sri Lankan spinners – Muralitharan and Herath failed to get any purchase off the wicket and that left the Indian pair to dominate them with ease. After an hour’s play, India was out of trouble completely at 299 for 5 in 70 overs with the bowlers getting tired totally. MS Dhoni got to his second Test match hundred but fell just moments before the close of play when he edged a cut shot off the second new ball to the keeper from the expensive Dammika Prasad. Dhoni got out scoring a well-paced 110 from 159 balls (with 10 fours and a six) and his partnership with Dravid was worth 224 runs!

India finished Day 1 safely at 385 for 6 with Dravid still holding fort and Harbhajan Singh batting out the last few balls quite sensibly. Dravid’s unbeaten 177 took just the 251 balls and was filled with 26 fours and a six over long on off Herath. Welegedara, who did all the damage in the first session had to settle with figures of 3 for 75 in 17 overs. Muralitharan and Herath who were expected to wrap up the Indian innings after Welegedara’s blows came a cropper.

? 2009, CricketMove.Com. All rights reserved. Partner with APakistanNews.com

Hosts India finished the opening day’s play of the first Test at Ahmedabad at an incredible 385 for 6 after being reduced to a disastrous 32 for 4 within the first hour of the match. Rahul Dravid proved his class yet again when the chips were down and partnered with Yuvraj Singh and Skipper MS Dhoni to steer India out of trouble. ‘The Wall’ – Rahul Dravid remained unfinished on 177 and MS Dhoni played a Captain’s knock to come up with his second Test hundred. Dravid also became the fifth player to cross 11,000 test runs during his big hundred.

MS Dhoni won the crucial toss which gave his team the opportunity to bat first on a good wicket. India stuck with a predictable line-up of seven batsman and four bowlers. Sreesanth had to sit out. Sri Lanka came up with some surprises with Nuwan Kulasekara and Thilan Thushara missing out. Chanadaka Welegedara and Dammika Prasad got selected ahead of them. But the biggest decision was to drop Ajantha Mendis and retain left arm spinner Rangana Herath.

Sri Lanka had a dream start in rattling the Indian top order with left armer Chanaka Welegedara swinging the ball both ways to make inroads. The 28-year-old Welegedera got an unsure Gambhir inside edging onto the stumps and then followed up with a late inswinger to trap Sehwag lbw. Three balls after Sehwag’s fall, Sachin Tendulkar got cleaned up by one that nipped back sharply to knock his off stump bail through the gate. And six balls later, VVS Laxman too disappeared to the dressing room after chopping a drive off Dammika Prasad onto his stumps. India were out of the Test Match it seemed with the score tottering at 32 for 4 in the 8th over. They were in the danger of getting bowled out very cheaply like before against South Africa at this same venue when they could put up just 76.

Fortunately for India, the most important batsman survived the early blows and it was none other than Rahul Dravid. Yuvraj Singh walked into the middle in a situation that wasn’t new for him. The left hander had already featured in a rear-guard action against Pakistan along with Sourav Ganguly when India faced the same kind of pressure. Yuvraj replicated the same fightback and along with India saw through the difficult first session. At Lunch, India had started to claw back steadily at 105 for 4 in 25 overs with Dravid on 45 and Yuvraj on 35.

After lunch, Dravid and Yuvraj eases past their fifties but their partnership was broken when the latter lobbed a simple catch to covers off Murali against the run of play. Yuvraj fell in the 37th over having scored 68 (from 93 balls with 13 fours). The left hander put on 125 runs for the 5th wicket with Dravid. Sri Lanka now had got back the chance of dismissing India inside the 220-mark. But that wasn’t the case with Skipper MS Dhoni continuing Yuvraj’s good work and giving the right kind of support to Dravid. India went into Tea smoothly without any further damage to 221 for 5 in 54 overs. Dravid was just two runs short of his century and Dhoni worked his way to nearly 30.

The final session was a repeat of the previous one with Dravid putting up another big partnership. The Sri Lankan spinners – Muralitharan and Herath failed to get any purchase off the wicket and that left the Indian pair to dominate them with ease. After an hour’s play, India was out of trouble completely at 299 for 5 in 70 overs with the bowlers getting tired totally. MS Dhoni got to his second Test match hundred but fell just moments before the close of play when he edged a cut shot off the second new ball to the keeper from the expensive Dammika Prasad. Dhoni got out scoring a well-paced 110 from 159 balls (with 10 fours and a six) and his partnership with Dravid was worth 224 runs!

India finished Day 1 safely at 385 for 6 with Dravid still holding fort and Harbhajan Singh batting out the last few balls quite sensibly. Dravid’s unbeaten 177 took just the 251 balls and was filled with 26 fours and a six over long on off Herath. Welegedara, who did all the damage in the first session had to settle with figures of 3 for 75 in 17 overs. Muralitharan and Herath who were expected to wrap up the Indian innings after Welegedara’s blows came a cropper.

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After a high scoring draw at Ahmedabad, India and Sri Lanka have moved onto Green Park in Kanpur for the second Test which begins tomorrow. Batsmen on both sides have ran into form and the onus now lies on the bowlers to take 20 wickets atleast this time. Harbhajan Singh and Muttiah Muralitharan could be feeling most of the heat in this Kanpur Test after a below par results at Ahmedabad.

The Green Park in Kanpur in general has been a batting paradise but every now and then the Curator had to come up with pitches that are tailor made to suit India. A turning track this time could prove to be a problem for India as they are up against Sri Lanka which has three world class spinners in Murali, Herath and Mendis. The pitch is already talked of taking turn from the third day or so. What it would need is better pace and bounce compared to the one at Ahmedabad so that the batsmen have lesser time to adjust when they do not pick the variations off the bowlers’ hands.

Toss will play a crucial factor in this Test and it is important that the team batting first has to make most by piling up the big scores and control the game thereafter. Sri Lanka are going to make one change atleast with fast bowler Dammika Prasad breaking down with a hamstring injury. The replacements for him could be Dilhara Fernando or Nuwan Kulasekara. There is enough pressure on Sangakkara to bring in Ajantha Mendis and there are only two ways to go about it – Sri Lanka play with just one pacer in Chanaka Welegedara and have three spinners or the other way is to drop Rangana Herath and replace him with Mendis.

The homeside could remain unchanged because of the nature of the wicket. Amit Mishra could still be retained despite a rank bad show in the first Test. Ideally India should bank on a pace attack against Sri Lanka and have Sreesanth to add fire along with Zaheer and Ishant. The Sri Lankan batsmen have shown that they are not so good at handling the short pitch stuff and at the same time have proved that they can toy with the spinners even in their sleep.

Live Scores along with Ball by Ball Commentary of this 2nd Test at Kanpur can be followed at www.cricketmove.com.

? 2009, CricketMove.Com. All rights reserved. Partner with APakistanNews.com

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s captain Kumar Sangakkara won the toss and elected to bat in the second and final cricket Test against New Zealand at the Sinhalese Sports Club here on Wednesday.
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Sri Lanka made three changes from the team that won the first Test in Galle by 202 runs, leaving out all-rounder Angelo Mathews, spinner Ajantha Mendis and seamer Nuwan Kulasekara.

They were replaced by batsman Chamara Kapugedera, seamer Dammika Prasad and left-arm spinner Rangana Herath. The Kiwis retained the same team that lost in Galle.

New Zealand: Daniel Vettori (capt), Tim McIntosh, Martin Guptill, Jesse Ryder, Ross Taylor, Daniel Flynn, Brendon McCullum, Jacob Oram, Iain O’Brien, Jeetan Patel, Chris Martin. 12th man: Daryl Tuffey.

Sri Lanka: Kumar Sangakkara (capt), Tharanga Paranavitana, Mahela Jayawardene, Thilan Samaraweera, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Chamara Kapugedera, Muttiah Muralitharan, Thilan Thushara, Dammika Prasad, Prasanna Jayawardene, Rangana Herath. 12th man: Ajantha Mendis.

Pakistan beat Lanka in final ODI, Mohammad Aamer and Naved-ul-Hasan took four wickets each Sunday to lead Pakistan to a 132-run win in the final limited-overs match against Sri Lanka.

Pakistan opted to bat after winning the toss and reached 279-8 in their 50 overs at R.Premadasa Stadium. The visitors then bowled out Sri Lanka for 147 in the 35th over.

Despite the loss, Sri Lanka clinched the series 3-2 with wins in the first three matches.

Aamer struck in the third ball of Sri Lanka’s innings, having Upul Tharanga caught at slip by Umar Akmal to make it 0-1.

Nineteen runs and three overs later, Sanath Jayasuriya made 6 before he was caught by Misbah-ul-Haq off Naved.

Captain Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene put on 35, but Sangakkara’s dismissal for 16 with the total on 54 triggered a collapse and Sri Lanka was soon 74-8 and facing the prospect of being dismissed for its lowest score against Pakistan.

Thilina Kandamby and Malinga Bandara shared 61 runs for the ninth wicket. Kandamby hit 42 not out, and Bandara made 31.

Aamer also accounted for Jayawardene, Chamara Kapugedera, Anjelo Mathews to finish with 4-28.

Naved’s wickets included Jayasuriya and Sangakkara and he finished with 4-44.

Earlier, Pakistan captain Younis Khan hit 76 and Misbah made 73 not out, putting on 83 off 86 balls for the fourth wicket.

Pakistan made a bad start when Kamran Akmal was wrongfully adjudged lbw by Sri Lankan umpire Gamini Silva on the first ball of the innings.

Television replays showed Akmal got an inside edge on the ball from seamer Nuwan Kulasekera before it hit his pad.

Younis joined Imran Nazir and added 45 runs for the second wicket before Nazir was lbw to spinner Ajantha Mendis for 35.

Mohammad Yousuf made 43 off 55 balls, hitting five boundaries. He was caught by Sangakkara off Jayasuriya with the total on 113.

Younis survived a confident appeal for a catch behind on 70. A furious Sangakkara challenged Silva’s decision and also had a brief on-field argument with Younis, which could lead to the two players being penalized by the International Cricket Council.

Seam bowler Dammika Prasad bowled Younis with a yorker to end his 100-ball innings that included five boundaries, leaving the score 196-4 in the 37th over.

That brought a mini-collapse as the visitors lost three wickets for 18 runs. But Misbah and Naved combined for a 60-run partnership off 56 balls to lift their side to a respectable score.

Misbah hit five fours in 83 balls, while Naved cracked two sixes and a four to score 34 from 39 balls.

Kulaskerea returned the best bowling figures for the hosts with 3-46.

COLOMBO: Pakistan skipper Younis Khan won the toss and elected to bat first in of the fifth ODI against Sri Lanka at the Premadasa Stadium here on Sunday.

Pakistan are unchanged for the game. Sri Lanka have made three changes as Jayasuriya, Dammika Prasad and Nuwan Kulasekara were included in the squad.

Teams:

Pakistan: Kamran Akmal†, Imran Nazir, Younis Khan*, Mohammad Yousuf, Umar Akmal, Misbah-ul-Haq, Shahid Afridi, Naved-ul-Hasan, Mohammad Aamer, Iftikhar Anjum, Saeed Ajmal

Sri Lanka: WU Tharanga, ST Jayasuriya, KC Sangakkara*†, DPMD Jayawardene, CK Kapugedera, SHT Kandamby, AD Mathews, KTGD Prasad, KMDN Kulasekara, CM Bandara, BAW Mendis