Another belated post-weekend post, about another follow-on-inducing massacre.
Sreesanth came out with accumulated figures of 33 Ov, 8 M, 122 R, 6 W, 2nb. But more importantly, he tore the Sri Lankan top-order to pieces in the first innings, getting a five-for, four of them against notable danger-men, including Sangakkara. Not as present in the second innings, but that was largely because the second innings belonged to the spinners (and surprisingly, Sehwag).
I have to admit, I was really surprised to see the Sri Lankans come apart at the seams like this. They seemed to have everything together at Motera, their only problem was hyper-cautiousness, especially in their captain, and a penchant for preferring batting records to victory. To go from Motera to this is quite a puzzler.
And remind me not to doubt Kanpur groundsmen.
India 642
Sri Lanka 229 & 269
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Frankly, I thought the pitch was pretty bad. The Sri Lankans batted really really badly. Sehwag's strike rate is understandable, but when Gambhir chugs along at that pace, the pitch just isn't good. I was really surprised at the Sri Lankan batting, but I'm more surprised at the fact that they are no 2 in the rankings, despite never having won a SINGLE test in SA, Aus or Ind. How do you do that??
ReplyDeleteStatsguru
ReplyDeleteWell, those are their test records since the start of 07.
24 tests, 13 Wins, 6 draws, 5 losses
Wins recorded against Bangladesh, Pakistan, India, West Indies, New Zealand, England.
Losses were against Australia, India and West Indies.
They certainly don't travel worth a damn. It does seem awfully wonky to be able to be listed as #2 with no games listed against South Africa the current #1, only two matches (both lost, one a innings-spanking) against Australia, and a 2-2-1 record against India.
as i said current ranking system is more of stealth where you ranking goes up by the loss of other than the winning of yours... hence sl being no.2... (tho i am not justifying it...) :)
ReplyDeletethe problem with them is that if they dont get good start from dilshan there are not many enforcers in the middle... and i am surprised by the approach of sangakkara who despite having all the stokes in the book always manages to dig a hole for himself as well as team by just blocking and blocking one end...
the ball by which sree got dilshan out was a beauty considering the pitch was getting low and slow... he was bowling tight lengths... reverse swinging both ways but was let down by indifferent zak... but sl were so conscious against him that when spinner came they thought they can easily score against then and threw their wickets away...