Sreesanth's five wrecks Sri Lanka

Indian cricket's prodigal son Sreesanth returned in style with a five-for to destroy the back of Sri Lanka's batting and give India their biggest ever lead against Sri Lanka on the third day of the second Test in Kanpur. For nine successive overs in the first session, and for seven on the trot in the second, Sreesanth ran in hard, hit the deck and found life in a slow pitch. Mahela Jayawardene and Prasanna Jayawardene offered some resistance with a 60-run partnership but both fell in the second session as India took a firm grip on the game.

Green Park was where Sreesanth played his last Test 19 months ago before he disappeared from the sports pages and became an occasional feature on Page 3. Today, he stormed back, lifting India with spells that read 9-2-28-3 in the first session and 7-2-18-2 in the second. Debutant Pragyan Ojha, who kept things tight with his classical left-arm spin, allowing MS Dhoni the luxury to attack from the other end, got the other big wicket of the post-lunch session when he beat Mahela in the flight and produced a mishit to mid-on. Ojha hastened the end of the Sri Lankan innings post tea by trapping Muttiah Muralitharan in front. Harbhajan Singh, who picked the last wicket to terminate the innings, too bowled couple of good spells in the day but it was Sreesanth who was the star of the attack.

His bowling was sublime through the day but the highlight was the delivery that gave him his fifth wicket, a peach that cut in from the middle stump line to take out the off stump of the clueless Rangana Herath. The celebration was muted: a folding of palms in prayer and gratitude, the right hand raised to accept the high-fives from his team-mates and the face slowly creasing into a smile. It wasn't dramatic, it wasn't the usual Sreesanth theatrics that make him perhaps the most complex cricketer in this side. Today, those signature self-exhortations at the top of the run-up were rarely seen, as was any special celebration after a wicket.


It was all about the bowling. If he troubled the batsmen with seam movement in the morning he found some reverse swing post lunch with the old ball and continued to harass the batsmen. He got the big breakthrough of the second session when he terminated the fighting partnership between the two Jayawardenes. Prasanna had taken an aggressive route, slog sweeping and driving the spinners and, though he faced Zaheer Khan, he didn't have to play Sreesanth till he reached 35. Sreesanth probed Prasanna with 11 testing deliveries that included leg cutters, inswingers and a lovely inswinging yorker but Prasanna stood firm. However, Prasanna chased the 12th delivery, a short and wide one, and got a thin nick through to the keeper.

That was a recurring theme. Sreesanth would severely test the batsmen with a cluster of good deliveries and would invariably pick up a wicket with one slightly wide from the stumps. His pace wasn't frightening (135 kmph was the average), there were no fiery bouncers and he didn't swing it around corners, but what he did was land ball after ball on a probing line and length and cut it either way just enough to test the batsmen. He had his share of luck too - two batsmen played on off the inside edge - and Sri Lanka's batsmen didn't tailor their techniques to the demands of the pitch.


Instead of playing as close to the body as possible on a pitch with variable bounce, the batsmen erred by playing away. Tharanga Paranavitana was set up by a bouncer that crashed into his shoulder before he pushed at one cutting away from him. Kumar Sangakkara, who faced 24 deliveries from Zaheer Khan today, fell in the first over he faced off Sreesanth. Sangakkara played out three straight deliveries but was lured into a cover drive by a full wide one and ended up dragging it on to his stumps. Thilan Samaraweera was the next to go, pushing hard and early at a length delivery cutting away from him.


Not everything went Sreesanth's way though. He produced an edge from his best delivery but it didn't get him a wicket. Mahela Jayawardene, on zero, pushed at one that cut away late and got an edge but neither MS Dhoni nor Sachin Tendulkar at first slip went for the catch. It was the keeper's catch. Jayawardene got another reprieve on 25 when he edged a late cut off Harbhajan Singh to first slip where Rahul Dravid couldn't hold on to a sharp chance. It didn't matter as Mahela couldn't carry on for long.

Centuries from openers Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag left India in control on the opening day of the second Test against Sri Lanka in Kanpur.

Gambhir hit a superb 167 and Sehwag overcame a tentative start to clobber a typically blistering 131, the pair adding 233 for the opening wicket on a placid surface.

Rahul Dravid then pressed home the advantage with an unbeaten 85 as India finished the day on 417 for two.

Sachin Tendulkar, who joined Dravid in the final hour, was 20 not out.

Kumar Sangakkara's depleted attack was hammered around the park as India's top order ensured there was no dramatic capitulation as in the first Test in Ahmedabad.

Sehwag was uncharacteristically scratchy in the first hour and was dropped by Mahela Jayawardene at first slip before he could get off the mark, before going on to dominate the opening stand.

He broke the shackles by driving Angelo Mathews for his first boundary in the 12th over and followed that with a pull to the midwicket fence in the same over.

There was no looking back thereafter as he quickly overtook Gambhir and reached his 16th Test century off just 97 deliveries by turning Muttiah Muralitharan for a boundary to fine leg.

Sehwag hammered Muralitharan for three consecutive boundaries as India sped past the 200 mark in the afternoon session and continued to accumulate runs at a breathtaking pace before Muralitharan made the breakthrough.

Sehwag drove at a delivery with a little more air and picked out Tillakaratne Dilshan at extra cover.

Gambhir, who had provided the early momentum, slowed as he neared his century but got there in style, skipping down the track to hit Rangana Herath for a straight boundary.

It was his eighth century and second in succession after a century in the second innings in Ahmedabad.

Together with Dravid, Gambhir added 137 for the second wicket, the run rate falling below five an over in the final session as Sri Lanka's bowlers brought some pressure to bear.

Gambhir was Muralitharan's second success on an otherwise poor day for Sri Lanka's bowlers, the off-spinner brilliantly latching onto a return catch.

Dravid had batted steadily, if slowly in comparison to the openers, but proved just as effective.

He reached his half-century - his 58th in Tests - by sweeping Muralitharan for a single.

Sri Lanka took the second new ball with four overs remaining but Dravid and Tendulkar played cautiously to finish the day unbeaten.

Ajantha Mendis, who took injured fast bowler Dammika Prasad's place in the side, conceded 87 from 19 overs while Herath - the third specialist spinner in Sri Lanka's attack - leaked 91 from 18 overs.

India force a draw after Gambhir, Tendulkar tons

AHMEDABAD, India — Gautam Gambhir made 114 and Sachin Tendulkar hit an unbeaten 100 as India batted out the final day to draw the first cricket Test against Sri Lanka here on Friday.

India easily wiped out a huge first innings deficit of 334 runs as they scored 412-4 in their second knock before the high-scoring Test was called off with six overs remaining on the fifth day.

Tendulkar, 36, set a new benchmark of 30,000 international runs at the start of his third decade in the game to frustrate Sri Lanka's bid to win their first Test on Indian soil.

Tendulkar, the world's leading Test and one-day scorer, reached the landmark when he turned Chanaka Welegedara to square-leg for a single to reach 35 soon after lunch.

He ended the match with a Test career tally of 12,877 runs, building on the 17,188 one-day and 10 Twenty20 runs he has scored since making his debut on November 15, 1989 against Pakistan in Karachi.

Tendulkar, who smashed his 43rd Test century, put on 66 for the fourth wicket with Gambhir and 137 for the unbroken fifth with Venkatsai Laxman, who returned unbeaten on 51.

Sri Lanka's bowlers struggled to cope with the batsman-friendly pitch on which 1,598 runs were scored at the cost of just 21 wickets over the five days.

World bowling record holder Muttiah Muralitharan failed to take a wicket in 38 overs which cost 124 runs and left-arm spinner Rangana Herath went for 2-97 in 40 overs.

"It was a bit disappointing to draw the game," said Sri Lankan captain Kumar Sangakkara. "It was a pretty flat track that did not have much for the bowlers.

"We were thinking positive on the final day and needed something to go our way but that did not happen.

"We did not gain any psychological edge. It's pretty Even Stevens going into the next match but I am happy the way the team played as a unit.

"There are a lot of positives to take from the game, like our batting and the bowling of Welegedara, who was told just before the toss that he was playing after the injury to Thilan Thushara."

Gambhir's seventh Test century was the third in successive matches this year after making 137 in Napier and 167 in Wellington on India's tour of New Zealand in March-April.

The Delhi opener kept vigil for six hours and 37 minutes when he attempted to loft Herath soon after lunch and holed out to mid-off.

Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni said he was delighted by the way his team fought back after conceding a huge lead.

"I am really proud of this achievement," he said. "We had to handle our nerves and that is what we showed. It was not easy to bowl on this wicket but our bowlers bowled their hearts out.

"I am not worried about our batting because we can handle any situation. We expected the wicket to have a bit more bounce for the spinners, but it favoured the batsmen all the way.

"I expect this series to be very close."

India made 426 in the first innings after being 32-4 within the first hour of play and Sri Lanka replied with a mammoth 760-7 declared, the highest total ever scored on Indian soil.

The second Test starts in Kanpur on Tuesday, followed by the third at the Brabourne stadium in Mumbai from December 2.

AHMEDABAD - Scoreboard at lunch on the third day of the first cricket Test between India and Sri Lanka at the Sardar Patel Stadium in Motera here Wednesday.

India first innings:

Gautam Gambhir b Welegedara 1

Virender Sehwag lbw b Welegedara 16

Rahul Dravid b Welegedara 177

Sachin Tendulkar b Welegedara 4

V.V.S. Laxman b Prasad 0

Yuvraj Singh c Dilshan b Muralitharan 68

Mahendra Singh Dhoni c Jayawardene b Prasad 110

Harbhajan Singh b Muralitharan 22

Zaheer Khan lbw Herath 12

Amit Mishra not out 7

Ishant Sharma st Prasanna b Muralitharan 0

Extras (b 2, lb 2, w 1, nb 4) 9

Total (all out in 104.5 overs) 426

Fall of wickets 1-14 (Gambhir, 2.5 overs), 2-27 (Sehwag, 6.1), 3-31 (Tendulkar, 6.4), 4-32 (Laxman, 7.4), 5-157 (Yuvraj, 36.1), 6-381 (Dhoni, 87.1), 7-389 (Dravid, 92.4), 8-414 (Khan, 101.2), 9-426 (Harbhajan, 104.1)

Bowling:

Chanaka Welegedara 22-4-87-4

Dammika Prasad 22-1-106-2

Angelo Mathews 12-1-50-0

Muttiah Muralitharan 25.5-4-97-3

Rangana Herath 22-2-79-1

Tillakaratne Dilshan 1-0-3-0

Sri Lanka: first innings (overnight 275/3)

Tillekaratane Dilshan c Dravid b Khan 112

Tharanga Paranavitana c Dhoni b Sharma 35

Kumar Sangakkara c Tendulkar b Khan 31

Mahela Jayawardene batting 86

Thilan Samaraweera c Yuvraj b Sharma 70

Angelo Matthews c Gambhir b Harbhajan 17

Extras (lb 10, w 2, nb 12) 24

Total (5 wickets in 96.2 overs) 375

Fall of wickets 1-74 (Paranavitana, 16.5 overs), 2-189 (Dilshan, 43.1), 3-194 (Sangakkara, 45.3), 4-332 (Samaraweera, 86.4), 5-375 (Mathews, 96.2)

Bowling:

Zaheer Khan 20-3-64-2

Ishant Sharma 21-0-83-2

Harbhajan Singh 26.2-3-99

Amit Mishra 24-1-107

Yuvraj Singh 5-1-12-0

Toss: India chose to bat

Umpires: Daryl Harper (Australia) and Tony Hill (New Zealand)

TV umpire: Amiesh Saheba (India)

Match referee: Jeff Crowe (New Zealand)

Yuvraj, Gambhir slip; Harbhajan back in top-10 of ICC rankings

Feisty off-spinner Harbhajan Singh was the lone Indian to make any substantial gains in the ICC one-day rankings, jumping 11 places to joint eighth in the bowling chart even as batting stars like Yuvraj Singh and Gautam Gambhir lost ground in the latest list.

Harbhajan, who picked up eight wickets against Australia in the seven-match series which India lost 2-4, shares the eighth spot with flamboyant Pakistani all-rounder Shahid Afridi, who scalped five against New Zealand in a three-match series against New Zealand in UAE. However, India vice-captain Yuvraj Singh leads the list of batsmen who failed to defend their rankings. Yuvraj, who started the series in second place, dropped five places to eighth, while opener Gautam Gambhir slipped four places to share the 19th spot with Sri Lanka's Sanath Jayasuriya. Among the fast bowlers, Australia's Doug Bollinger has rocketed 52 places to 69th after his nine wickets against India but Mitchell Johnson and Brett Lee and the Indian pair of Praveen Kumar and Ishant Sharma dropped down the rung. Johnson shares the 13th spot with South Africa's Johan Botha after dropping two places, Lee and Praveen have dropped six places each to 22nd and 24th respectively while Ishant has slumped nine places to 35th. Australia captain Ricky Ponting continued his upward movement in the batting list and after a productive series in India, in which he scored 267 runs, the right-hander has risen two places to fourth, the ICC said in release. Mike Hussey, who was the most successful batsman in India with 313 runs, has strengthened his second position. Along with top-placed Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who contributed 285 runs, Hussey is now the only other batsman with more than 800 ratings points. In the Rankings for ODI all-rounders, Australian Shane Watson achieved a career-best second spot after his player-of-the-series performance against India in which he scored 256 runs and took 10 wickets. Besides his 26th place in the batting table, the Queenslander sits 32nd in the bowling chart.

sparkle more than the gold

Sachin Tendulkar shows his frustration at being dismissed for 175 for India against Australia. Photograph: Dibyangshu Sarkar/AFP/Getty Images

A remarkable innings of 175 in 140 balls by Sachin Tendulkar proved in vain as Australia took a 3-2 lead in the series with a thrilling three-run win over India in the fifth one-day international in Hyderabad.

Chasing 351 for victory, the home team were bowled out for 347 with two balls left after the brilliant Tendulkar went past 17,000 ODI runs.

He and Suresh Raina (59) put on 137 for the fifth wicket but the debutant Clint McKay struck the all-important blow for Australia when he had Tendulkar caught by Nathan Hauritz.

Earlier, a maiden century by Shaun Marsh (112) and 93 from fellow opener Shane Watson helped the visitors compile an imposing total of 350 for four.

The sixth and penultimate match of the series is in Guwahati on Sunday.

india australia series 2009, 2nd odi highlights

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Gautam Gambhir hits his 2nd consecutive 50 against Australia in the 2nd ODI at Nagpur on 28t October 2009