INDIA Vs SRILANKA

THIRD TEST: DAY 1

The third test began on Wednesday(dec 2 ) at Brabourne Stadium,Mumbai. The visitors won the toss and decided to bat first in a track that had everything. The  seamers got extra bit of bounce and the spinners extracted lot of turn today. Only one change is made in both the teams. MUrali  vijay was the replacement for Gautham Gambhir  and Nuwan Kulasekara was in and Mendis was out of the Srilankan team.

Srilankan Batting:

Srilanka began their batting with their usual specialist openers Dilshan and Parnawithana. This pair started their innings in a beautiful manner and scored quick runs. Parnawithana scored a wonderful   half century and then later he was caught in the slip by Dravid. After the dismissal of Parnawithana the Srilankans didn’t have a big partnership as Sangakkara, Jayawardana and Samarawera failed to get a huge score. But DIlshan was the lone man stood at that time.. Then he got a good partner (Angelo MAthews).These two started scoring runs at a good run rate. Dilshan then with his wonderful stroke reached his century and then lost his wicket due to poor umpiring. Then Mathews and prasanna Jayawardena built a strong partnership. Then Prasana  lost his wicket and in quick succession Kulasekara and Herath lost their wickets. AT the end of todays  play Mathews was still at the crease and the Srilankan total was 366/8. The pick of the Srilankan batsman was Dilshan(109). And the other batsmen who contributed greatly were Parnawithana(52) and Mathews(86 not out).

Indian Bowling:

Indians began their bowling with Zaheer Khan and Sreesanth. The Seamers were able to extract bounce from the track but they didn’t  attack the batsman . The performance of Sreesanth who was the hero and the man of the match of last match was disappointing , because he struggled with his line. Many of his deliveries went towards the pads and hence made the batsman free his arms and got punished. These deliveries  relieved the pressure of the batsmen. Sreesanth bowled a good spell after the lunch in which he grabbed the wicket of Jaywardena. The spinners HArbhajan Singh and Pragyan Ojha were consistent with their line and lengths. Particularly Harbhajan bowled well, especially to right handers. The wicket takers were Harbhajan(4 wickets), Pragyan Ojha(2 wickets), Zaheer Khan and Sreesanth 1 wicket each. The pick of the bowlers was Harbhajan.

The first and the second session of play belonged to Srilankans and the final session in which 4 wickets fell belonged to Indians. Overall the first day of play belonged to Srilankans as they have scored a huge score of 366/8. They certainly have the upper hand. Indians on the other hand would be looking to restrict Srilankans to a score less than 400.