Kanpur: India Vs Sri Lanka 2nd Test Today, The first jolt to the Indian juggernaut came in the form of Virender Sehwag’s scalp as the batsman was out at 131 runs from just 122 balls while trying to whack another one out of the park.

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Muralitharan was his nemesis, with the tweaker finally getting rewards for his efforts of the day. However, Gautam Gambhir kept the tempo up, recording his 8th Test century in the process.

India were off to a great start with Sehwag and Gambhir hitting amazing knocks, reasserting the notion that they are the best opening pair in the world. Their stroke-play turned the scoreboard into a Tokyo taxi, with the total near the 250-run mark in a jiffy.

If the pre-lunch session had India stamped all over it, the post-lunch session was not much different either, barring the wicket of Sehwag.

It was an incredible session of play for India in the morning too, as the world’s most dangerous openers unleashed a flurry of boundaries on the islanders, rotating the strike at will.

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There have been two changes floated into the Indian side with S Sreesanth and Pragyan Ojha coming in for Ishant Sharma and Amit Mishra respectively. Sri Lanka too made a change to their line-up, bringing in Ajantha Mendis, the mystery spinner to have a three pronged spin attack.

India (Playing XI): Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, Yuvraj Singh, Mahendra Singh Dhoni(w/c), Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, S Sreesanth, Pragyan Ojha

Sri Lanka (Playing XI): Tillakaratne Dilshan, Tharanga Paranavitana, Kumar Sangakkara(c), Mahela Jayawardene, Thilan Samaraweera, Angelo Mathews, Prasanna Jayawardene(w), Muttiah Muralitharan, Chanaka Welegedara, Rangana Herath, Ajantha Mendis

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.

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Hosts India are under tremendous pressure to force a draw on the final day of the Ahmedabad Test. They have already lost the key wickets of Virender Sehwag and Rahul Dravid in the 45 overs of batting they had on the fourth day.

However, things do look bright for India with a second innings total of 190 for 2 at stumps today. Gautam Gambhir is unbeaten at stumps with a superb 70 and along with him is night watchman Amit Mishra who has shown good technique to kill some time on his own.

Sri Lanka resuming the fourth day’s play at 591 for 5 went to lunch without losing a single wicket again. Mahela Jayawardene went past 250 and Prasanna Jayawardene notched up his second test hundred. After lunch, Sri Lanka batted for less than hour to take the score to 760 for 7 before declaring their innings.

The lead the Sri Lankans settled for was a monstrous one of 334 runs. Mahela Jayawardene’s marathon knock came to an end when he danced down to hoick Amit Mishra but only to be bowled for a score of 275 (from 435 balls with 27 fours and a six). Mahela put on a new world record partnership of 351 with Prasanna Jayawardene who finished unbeaten on 154 (from 314 balls with 11 fours) at the time of the declaration.

India seemed to have got a bright start as they went to Tea at 77 for no loss but immediately at the start of the final session, Virender Sehwag went for an over confident slog sweep off Rangana Herath but only to get caught at mid on. Sehwag by then had stroked his way to 51 (from 67 balls with 7 fours).

The homeside recovered after losing Sehwag with Gambhir and Dravid batting with plenty of assurance and at the same time keeping the scoreboard busy. During the dying moments of the fourth day, Umpire Daryl Harper gave a well set Rahul Dravid lbw to put India back in trouble. Dravid (38 from 66 balls with 6 fours) shuffled across and missed an inswinger from left armer Chanaka Welegedara but the ball was angling down the legside from round the sticks.

Gambhir and Mishra batted through the remaining few overs to ensure that India went to stumps losing only those two wickets. The pitch still remains good for batting but Sri Lanka have two quality spinners in Muralitharan and Herath to sustain high amount of pressures on the batsmen during the final day. India first needs to wipe out the deficit which has come down to 144 runs.

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COLOMBO: Tillakaratne Dilshan broke a threatening 124-run partnership between Daniel Vettori and Jacob Oram as New Zealand attempts to salvage the second test against Sri Lanka on the fifth and final day Sunday.
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The New Zealand went to lunch at 302-7 and must now bat out two full sessions to force a draw and avoid a two-test whitewash, or score 192 runs for an improbable victory.

After resuming the final day at 182-6, Vettori and Oram and batted sensibly to add 118 more runs in the first session before Dilshan had Oram caught at extra-cover by captain Kumar Sangakkara in the last over before lunch for 56 runs.

Oram faced 148 balls and hit five boundaries in brining up his sixth test half-century.

New Zealand captain Vettori was unbeaten on 68 runs with Jeetan Patel on 1 at the break.

The dogged partnership between Vettori and Oram came in 228 balls and came after New Zealand coach Andy Moles on Saturday accused his players for getting out after good starts and not learning from their mistakes. He called for some “character and fight” from his batsmen on the final day.

New Zealand also enjoyed some luck after Vettori survived an edge to slip, then when Rangana Herath broke the stumps without the ball in his hand with Vettori still some distance to complete a run.

Herath grabbed four wickets on Saturday to carry Sri Lanka within sight of victory and has the team’s best figures of 4-107.

Sri Lanka declared its second innings on 311-5, helped largely by an imperious 109 from Sangakkara.

New Zealand was bowled out for 234 in the first innings in reply to Sri Lanka’s 416.

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka spinners Rangana Herath and Muttiah Muralitharan combined to take six wickets in dismissing New Zealand for 234 on the third morning of the second test on Friday, putting the hosts on course for a series sweep.

New Zealand, trailing 0-1 in the two-game series, resumed on 159 for five before losing their remaining batsmen for 51 runs as Sri Lanka forged a formidable 182-run lead.

Off spinner Muralitharan claimed 3-71 from 25.4 overs and left-armer Herath took 3-70 from 34 overs.

Sri Lanka reached the lunch interval on two without loss in their second innings with both Tillakaratne Dilshan and Tharanga Paranavitana on one not out.

Ross Taylor was New Zealand’s top-scorer with a three-hour 81 from 155 balls with 10 boundaries.

Brendon McCullum (18) was the first to fall in the morning as he edged Muralitharan to Mahela Jayawardene at slip, the former captain’s 150th catch in test cricket.

Herath then claimed the key scalp of Taylor, the right-hander edging behind.

New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori rallied the visitors briefly with 23, helping his team avert the follow on, before Chamara Kapugedera held onto a juggling catch at short leg off part-time spinner Tillakaratne Dilshan.

Herath and Muralitharan quickly mopped up the tail, with Jacob Oram out for 24 and Iain O’Brien lbw for four.