India's win on the fifth day of the third test of the 3 match series which concluded on 7thAugust 2010 was nothing short of a miracle. To begin with India had already lost 3 wickets before the start of fifth days play of which two were crucial ones and while was of the match winner Sehwagthe other one was of match saver Rahul Dravid.
After having been pushed on to the backfoot even before facing a delivery on fifth day, Indians would have hoped for night watchman Ishant Sharma to wear out the bowlers for an hour or so so that the specialist batsman to follow are protected from fresh bowlers early in the day but the loss of Ishant Sharma early in the day worsened the day for India pushing them to deeper trouble at 62 for 4 and a Sri Lankan win a foregone conclusion considering treacherous fifth day subcontinental pitches and India's poor history in low to medium run chases.
It is here that Sachin Tendulkar's brilliance came to the fore. Having successfully anchored a run chase of 387 against England in December 2008 many would have thought it would be difficult to expect Sachin Tendulkar to do it yet again and while Sachin could not finish of the task he ensured that India were safe and well in the hunt after forging a partnership of 109 with V V S Laxman. After the fall of Sachin's wicket India needed 80 odd runs to win which was not that difficult considering that Laxmanwas well set on 50 odd with skipper Dhoni to follow even if Laxman himself or inexperienced Raina were to get out. However that was not to be as Laxman and Raina played positively and in the end India cooasted towards a comfortable win.
Indians probably were fired up with Lankan skipper Sangakkara's comments that they did not deserve to be number one team in the world and that could be the reason they managed to win when they were down and out and looking towards a 2-0 humiliation. V V S Laxman unbeaten century is easily his second most valuable innings after that epic 281 against Australians which changed his fortunes as well as Team India's fortunes. While V V S Laxman played a dream innings and was deserving of the Man of the Match Sehwag's contribution should not be forgotten because it was he brought India back into the match with a century and crucial breakthroughs. Sachin too played a crucial hand in both the innings forging a vital partnership with Sehwag to put India on even terms in the first innings and taking India to safety in the second innings for Laxman to finish of the things. Sachins monumental match double century in the second test set up things for India because his match saving effort ensured that India stayed in the hunt for a series levelling win. Ranina too made the most of his chances playing crucial knocks in both the innings.
Sangakkara once again played spoilsport blaming his batsman for the loss and though Sri Lankan top order failed, the tail enders contributed magnificently to put up a total from where Sri Lankans should have coasted to a easy win. It is to India's credit that V V S Laxman took away the match from Sri Lanka with a magnificent innings with the company of Sachin who set up the match for India. It is high time that Sangakkara show some sportsman spirit and give credit to India on a well deserved win.
As far as Team India are concerned they seemed to have got to a pressure situation these days, a positive pressure at that where they fear losing their number one ranking should they lose matches, and that has helped the teams cause because they won a match which is nothing short of a cricketing miracle.