India vs Sri Lanka

Suffice to say, India has now rather definitively proved that Sri Lanka has no business sitting in the # 2 position on the ICC Test Rankings.

Decent performance in the first match, but two follow-ons in the succeeding matches?  Time for some serious self-reflection for Sri Lanka.

Chris Gayle

It's safe to say that Chris Gayle now knows exactly who Bollinger is.

Too much slogging, Gayle, not enough batting; who do you think you are, Sehwag?

Sreesanth the Bloody

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

West Indies: Where to start...

Sorry I'm late to get on the topic but, busy weekend.

Well, that was rather cruel and unusual.  The pitch was lively enough for both sides, and on the third day you could see these terrifying longitudinal cracks in the pitch, like giant San Andreas fault lines.  The lack of Jerome Taylor beyond a nine-over contribution no doubt hurt as well.  But even those factors can't excuse a three-day slaughter. 

From what I could tell, the West Indies were simply in a ODI mindset.  As thrilling as the opening overs of the West Indies innings were, it wasn't test cricket and it wasn't being mindful of the pitch or the opposition.  With fifteen wickets falling on one day, they were certainly dismissed in an ODI fashion, and in doing so deprived me of my sunday afternoon viewing.

Chanderpaul probably stands out as the biggest disappointment.  Effectively the anchorman of the West Indies order, the calypso reply to Dravid, in the last outing with the Australians he batted an average of like five hours per innings.  A score of 2 & 2 makes it nearly impossible for the WI batting order to make the necessary chase.  Add into that the fact that Gayle and Chanderpaul racked up 3 of 4 referrals, all on exceptionally plumb decisions...

All in all, the Windies had two shining points, Adrian Barath's century performance, and Kemar Roach's bowling.  Both of these look like players who will go places if given the chance.

On the downside, the rest of their bowling was ho-hum, their star bowler couldn't bowl, their top order was brittle, their middle order was brittle, their lower order was brittle, their discipline with the referrals was lax and they simply couldn't perform on a lively pitch. 

Australia 480/8d
West Indies 228 & 187 (f/o)

Well don't I look like a twit?

Here I was saying wilderness and draw draw draw when Sreesanth was cavorting about the pitch claiming wicket after wicket.

Guess that proves how much of a pessimist I am.  Of course, I don't imagine that there were too many people, after that greek-tragedy-we-know-as-Motera who were expecting a follow-on after seeing the Indians amass over 600 runs.  But still.

Either way, impressive as hell!

West Indies Bowling

Well, good start for the West Indies bowlers, Roach's outswingers and Taylor's inswingers confounding and picking up the wicket of Watson for a duck.

Had a nice run spurt but it's looking like they've just pinned us down again... last three overs for one run.

Update 1:
Oh bloody hell, Punter.

And this is why Australia has to bat all the way down to 10th man.

2nd Test at Kanpur

Okay, a disclaimer first: I'm short on sleep and between coffees!


So, what will we have today, a pitch that could double as the taxiway of Kanpur International Terminal that looks like they picked it up from the salt-flats and sprinkled yellow food dye on it, or a pitch that might even have a little green, a bit of a root system, maybe some cracks on the fourth and fifth day.  Something that won't inspire the bowler's to take the cherry and instead of bowling it, try and use its seams to slit their wrists.

India will be taking to the 2nd Test the knowledge that their batters CAN all fire together, that their pace attack is decent and their spin attack is toothless.  I know, I'm as bewildered as the rest of you.

Sri Lanka, on the other hand, will know that they by rights should have had that match, but essentially they hyper-cautioned themselves out of the match.  Poor reading of the pitch, hyper-defensiveness and slow batting did them in.  All the double and triple-centuries in the world can't win a match for you if you take too long.  At least they can console themselves with another half-dozen milestones and records.

Big news of course it that Dhoni will be able to play and Prasad will not.  Prasad may not have been the spitfire Welegedara was, but he was still a very big part of their attack and I suspect his absence will be sorely felt.

I'm not going to hazard a guess at a result to this mathc until I see how the pitch starts to play.

Update 1:
India will bat first.  Pitch is said to be more bowler friendly (as if anything could be less friendly than Motera).  Anyway, this is good news to be starting the day with.

Update 2:
Freesanth and Ojha???

Update 3:
This is starting to look ugly, with a sky-high run rate no less.

Update 4:
So will Dhoni be aiming for a score of 761?

Update 5:
Good lord, they're all out, where did that come from??