India dominate day two in Kanpur

Zaheer Khan made an early breakthrough as India gained the edge on the second day of the second Test against Sri Lanka in Kanpur.

India's batsmen enjoyed another fruitful day with Rahul Dravid (144) claiming his 28th Test century, while VVS Laxman (63) and Yuvraj Singh (67) both hit half-centuries.

Sri Lanka however, fought back with left-arm spinner Rangana Herath claiming five wickets - his fourth five-wicket haul in Tests - as India, 417 for two overnight, were bowled out for 642 in the final session.

Fast bowler Zaheer gave the home side a superb start with the ball, removing the dangerous Tillakaratne Dilshan for a first-ball duck, but Sri Lanka recovered to reach 66 for one at stumps with Tharanga Paranavitana and Kumar Sangakkara both on 30.

Dilshan attempted to flick the first ball from Zaheer to fine leg, but the leading edge ballooned to Pragyan Ojha - who was winning his first Test cap - at mid-on.

But Sangakkara and Paranavitana battled hard against a strong attack from India as they finished the day with nine wickets intact.

India had begun the morning cautiously with Dravid and overnight partner Sachin Tendulkar (40) carefully negotiating the bowlers in the first hour.

Dravid, resuming from 85 at the start of the day, was lucky to survive an inside-edge which flew perilously close to leg stump and away for a boundary, his first scoring shot of the day.

It was the only false stroke from Dravid as the 36-year-old went from strength to strength and reached his century with a straight drive past fast bowler Chanaka Welegedara.

The middle-order batsman, who went past Allan Border's mark of 11,174 runs in Test cricket, fell just before lunch when left-arm spinner Herath palmed a shot from Laxman onto the stumps at the non-striker's end and caught Dravid backing up too far.

Tendulkar had already departed inside the first hour in the morning, a victim of Ajantha Mendis.

Mendis should have had Tendulkar's scalp earlier than he eventually did but watched disappointed as Dilshan grassed a catch at mid-wicket as the batsman attempted a lazy on-drive.

Tendulkar then hammered Mendis for a six but was snaffled at he attempted to hit one too many over the top, failing to clear Thilan Samaraweera at deep mid-off.

Laxman, who had added 47 for the fourth wicket with Dravid, was then joined by Yuvraj and the two hammered Sri Lanka's bowlers around the park as they built another fruitful partnership.

Laxman, who was briskly off the mark, reached his 41st Test half-century with a single off Muttiah Muralitharan and went on to add 102 for the fifth wicket with Yuvraj.

He fell while attempting to force the pace, stepping out to hit Herath over the top, but only picking out Dilshan at mid-off.

From 613 for four, India's innings then unravelled with Herath taking centre stage.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Harbhajan Singh were bowled through the gate, both falling just before the tea interval.

Herath then returned from the break to snare Zaheer, caught at slip by Mahela Jayawardene, and Sreesanth, trapped in front, in one over to wrap up India's innings.

In between those dismissals, Yuvraj, who had reached his eighth half-century in Tests, was skittled by Mendis, the batsman attempting a pull only to be caught by Sangakkara at midwicket.

Herath finished with figures of five for 121 from 33 overs.

Thilan Thushara ruled out of India tour

Thilan Thushara, the Sri Lankan fast bowler, has been ruled out of the ongoing three-Test series in India because of a shoulder injury. He will be replaced by Dilhara Fernando, who is expected to join the team on November 18.

"Thilan Thushara will return to Sri Lanka due to a shoulder injury, and he will not be match fit for approximately two to four weeks," Sri Lankan Cricket said in a statement. "Dilhara Fernando will replace him."

Thushara hurt his shoulder after crashing into Kaushal Silva during training on Sunday and the injury did not heal in time for him to play the first Test in Ahmedabad. The decision to replace Thushara with Chanaka Welegedara was taken five minutes before the toss.

The expected duration of Thushara's recovery will rule him out of the one-dayers and Twenty20 internationals that follow the Test series. Fernando's call-up meant that he would fly to India earlier than planned for he was part of the limited-overs squads. Nuwan Kulasekera is the other reserve fast bowler currently in the Test squad.

Tendulkar, Gambhir, dead pitch frustrate Sri Lanka

India 426 (Dravid 177, Dhoni 110, Welegedara 4-87) and 341 for 4 (Gambhir 114, Tendulkar 100*) drew with Sri Lanka 760 for 7 decl. (Jayawardene 275, Prasanna 154*, Dilshan 112)


Sachin Tendulkar, Gautam Gambhir, and a dead Ahmedabad pitch (21 wickets and seven centuries in five days) put paid to Sri Lanka's dream of a first Test win in India. Gambhir played out 110 deliveries for 40 runs, and Tendulkar 211 for 100 runs; both of them looked entirely at home in the role of saving a Test, not letting dot balls affect their minds.

By the time the final session of the match arrived, the only question left unanswered was whether Tendulkar would get to his 88th international century. Kumar Sangakkara didn't seem pleased with being kept on the field in the mandatory overs while Tendulkar moved towards the ton. The bowlers started bowling way outside off stump, and Tendulkar retorted in his own inimitable manner. He walked across to a delivery so wide it would have been called in an ODI, and flicked it to the square-leg boundary to get into the 90s. He had to work similarly hard for the rest of the runs too. As soon as he got there, the captains agreed to call off the match with six overs still to go.

Sri Lanka started the day 144 ahead, and needed eight Indian wickets to force a result, but met a docile pitch and determined batting. The only break in concentration came in the second session when Gambhir stepped out to launch Rangana Herath out of the ground, and ended up losing his wicket. That was not before he had reached his seventh century: four of them, including his last three, have come in the second innings, two of them in match-saving scenarios. He now averages 59.55 in the second innings, against 54.22 overall.

Sri Lanka were not helped by the hamstring injury to Dammika Prasad, who didn't bowl in the first session, and Muttiah Muralitharan's ineffectiveness: he didn't take a wicket in 38 second-innings overs. Previously Murali had gone wicketless in the second innings of a match only six times; the most he had bowled in such scenarios was 17 overs. Their problems on the unhelpful pitch were summed up by how Amit Mishra, nightwatchman from yesterday, got to his personal best score and frustrated them for 26 deliveries on the fifth morning.

Gambhir, at the other end, was in his Napier-like mode from earlier this year, when he batted 643 minutes for 137 runs to save the Test. Even today, he was not interested in scoring, or in other words he didn't let being stuck at one end bother him much. Angelo Mathews bowled well in Prasad's absence, hitting good lengths consistently, getting some of them to stay low and getting the odd one to seam away off the rare crack on the pitch. But Gambhir took most of the strike to him, playing 30 consecutive balls from Mathews for no run in the first hour, certain in his judgement outside off, and coming forward to straighter deliveries to negate the odd shooter.

Against spinners, Gambhir preferred to stay back, or jump out of the track and get close enough to the delivery. He did pull out the big hits in the 90s, as he is used to doing because he prefers to get the 90s done with quickly. He took 61 deliveries to move from overnight 74 to 90, but then hit three boundaries in six balls to reach his century quickly. And then scored two runs in 25 deliveries. The approach in the 90s was similar to that in Napier, when he stepped out and lofted Daniel Vettori and Jeetan Patel for fours in consecutive overs.

Post lunch, when Gambhir played his only rash shot, he left the saunter towards safety in Tendulkar's hands. Tendulkar had started off fluently, driving Murali against the spin for two boundaries, and punching Mathews for one, and once he got comfortable in the middle he too opted to play for time. Between them Gambhir and Tendulkar played out 24 overs. The latter had reached 32 off 75 deliveries, and slowed down even more after that.

Sri Lanka tried one of the last rolls of the dice, taking the new ball and getting Prasad to bowl despite the injury. But neither Prasad nor Chanaka Welegedara could find enough from the pitch to disturb Tendulkar or VVS Laxman. For a while Tendulkar shut shop completely, scoring three runs in 26 deliveries. By that time he had reached 30,000 international runs, and it seemed torturous to make the fast bowlers keep bowling on this pitch.

The spinners came back on, the match started moving towards a slow draw again. By tea Tendulkar had crossed 50, India had erased the deficit, and Tendulkar and Laxman had played out another 24 overs. Post the interval, both Tendulkar and Laxman batted with more intent, in the knowledge that the game had been saved. Sri Lankan bowlers tried various angles of attack, but there was little left to play for, and both the batsmen duly reached personal milestones.

Jaywardenes break 72-year-old world record

Sri Lankan batsmen Mahela Jayawardene and Prasanna Jayawardene today broke a 72-year-old world record for the highest sixth-wicket partnership in Tests by putting on a 351-run stand against India on the fourth day of the first cricket Test here.

Mahela and Prasanna, who came together yesterday, went past the 346-run stand that was put together by Australian great Don Bradman and Jack Fingleton against England in Melbourne in 1937.

The Sri Lankans` stand was broken after Mahela (275), who completed his double ton yesterday, was dismissed by Amit Mishra while trying to loft the the leg-spinner over cover only to have his stumps rattled.

Before going back to the pavillion, Mahela also completed his 9000 runs in Test cricket to become the ninth highest run-getter in the format.

Gambhir keeps Sri Lanka at bay

Sri Lanka gave themselves a minimum of 134 overs and an ample cushion of runs to try and register their first Test win in India, but the Ahmedabad pitch got deader and deader every passing minute. Gautam Gambhir got into one of his long-innings mode, reminiscent of his match-saving effort in Napier earlier this year, but Chanaka Welegedara brought Sri Lanka right back with Rahul Dravid's wicket 15 minutes before stumps.

Sri Lanka seemed a little unsettled by a charmed innings from Virender Sehwag who survived his own ambitious mindset to score an aggressive half-century. The Sri Lankan fast bowlers failed to replicate the swing they got in the first innings, and apart from a few moments of indiscretion from Sehwag it seemed Sri Lanka would spend the day without a wicket.

Sehwag escaped three chances before his eventual dismissal, in the final session. In the first over he edged a no-ball, in the second another edge flew between keeper and slip. He went on to take a suicidal run off a back-foot punch straight to mid-on, and then cut and edge past slip a ball too full in the last over before tea. For the while Sehwag stayed in the middle, India hardly resembled a side trying to save the match, scoring at five an over, but it did work in India's favour. Kumar Sangakkara made the same mistake as MS Dhoni, and set defensive fields too soon. Twenty-seven singles in those 17 overs that Sehwag batted, and none of the bowlers could settle into any rhythm.

In between, for a brief while approaching tea, Sehwag did tighten up his game, leaving balls outside off, defending with soft hands, looking to run singles and alternate strike. In other words, he started to look more like Gambhir, who desisted from playing too far outside off, kept the big shots out, and drove only when close to the pitch.

Rangana Herath may have got Sehwag's wicket to a slog-sweep, but both he and Muttiah Muralitharan failed to trouble Gambhir and Dravid. The ball turned, but slowly. Both Gambhir and Dravid looked to play them as late as possible. Even if they did play back to a fullish delivery, there was enough time to recover. Every now and then Gambhir would step out, and drive from out of the rough, but wouldn't give the ball any time to spin.

In 15 overs of spin bowling, the two added 41, without giving any of the close-in fielders any chance. Sangakkara went back to Dammika Prasad and Chanaka Welegedera. Prasad beat Gambhir with late movement right away, and five overs later Dravid too poked outside off. Just before stumps Sri Lanka got lucky when Welegedera got Dravid with a late swinging delivery from round the stumps. The ball seemed headed down the leg side.

Nightwatchman Amit Mishra and Gambhir saw out the remaining 15 overs, without incident. And without incident went the first half of the day. India started the day waiting, nay hoping, for a declaration from Sri Lanka, but the Jayawardenes accumulated ruthlessly, scoring at close to four an over, almost making sure Sri Lanka would not have to bat again. Along the way Prasanna went past 150, his second Test century, Sri Lanka registered the highest total in India, Mahela reached 250 in the innings and 9000 Test runs, and their 351-run partnership was the new world record for sixth wicket.

India took the new ball as soon as it was due, but the going seemed all too easy for the batsmen. Without taking risks, they kept getting boundaries, as the bowlers again failed to hit the same areas consistently. Zaheer Khan bowled off a shorter run, Ishant Sharma's pace wasn't up there - an edge that he induced when Prasanna was on 99 died on the keeper - and although the field setting suggested India wanted to stop the singles, the boundaries made up for it.

The game stayed on auto-pilot until the declaration came 11.4 overs into the second session. India had spent more than a day without a wicket, and looked it. The Jayawardenes didn't have to resort to frenetic hitting to go past their milestones. Mahela's innings - although never challenged by India once he got in on the second evening - stood out for how he maintained focus and didn't make any outright mistake until he finally missed an attempt at a big shot against Amit Mishra, who toiled for 58 overs for that lone success. A double-century came for Mishra, while Harbhajan came up just short, going for 189 in his 48.4 overs. India, in scoring 426 in their first innings, hit 59 fours and two sixes; Sri Lanka 71 fours and two sixes in 760. The statistic showed the difference in mindset of both teams when they came out to field.

Dilshan ton leads confident Sri Lankan reply

Tillakaratne Dilshan became the first Sri Lankan to score a century in India since 1997 (and fifth overall), to go with Sri Lanka's good bowling start to the second day, but India clawed their way back in the final session through a rousing spell by Zaheer Khan followed by some testing spin bowling. Mahela Jayawardene and Thilan Samaraweera signalled the return to Test-match mode: they defended watchfully, and waited for bad deliveries, which was hardly the case in the first five sessions. Through that spell of play, they also ensured Sri Lanka held the upper hand.

The highlight of the day, though, was Dilshan's remarkable knock. It was not all slam bang: his boundary shots were blocked by India, but he displayed the other aspect of his game - placing the ball and scampering through for runs. It was an equally smart bowling effort in the morning session that took India's last four wickets for 41, crucially Rahul Dravid for no addition to his overnight 177.

It seemed MS Dhoni thought Dilshan played only one game, and gave Zaheer Khan a deep point, a deep fine leg and a deep square leg in the first over. Zaheer started with three back-to-back bouncers, hitting the batsman with one of them. But Dilshan refused to be rattled, twice in the first three overs taking singles hitting marginally to the right of Ishant Sharma at mid-on.

Tharanga Paranavitana got a major share of the strike during a 74-run first-wicket partnership, and although not entirely convincing he was effective in punishing width, which he got enough of. Both Zaheer and Ishant managed to disturb him, but never consistently attacked the area around and just outside off stump. When Ishant got three consecutive deliveries to land on middle and leave off, the third one got an edge and with it the first wicket.

Dilshan, at the other end, hardly looked in any discomfort. The mix of patience and urgency proved effective. He didn't get frustrated by good shots fetching him just singles; rather he started manufacturing couples. The in-and-out field suddenly stopped making sense. He went the first 18 balls without a boundary, then hit two in two balls just before lunch, and then faced another 24 balls without a boundary. It didn't reflect in his strike-rate, though: Dilshan had reached 26 off 44.

Zaheer and Ishant bowled good spells after lunch, and while given due respect they were not allowed to settle into rhythm. The spinners were both attacked in their first overs: Harbhajan Singh went for seven in his first over, Amit Mishra was stepped down to and carved for two boundaries in his first.

Kumar Sangakkara got a few loose deliveries to get into the act smoothly, even as Dilshan played the more unconventional shots - the inside-out drives against Harbhajan's offbreaks. Zaheer came back for a spell before tea, and was welcomed by a drive through extra cover and a clever nudge to the third man boundary, which took Dilshan to 78 off just 87 deliveries. The first ball he faced after tea summed up his innings. He stepped out to Mishra who bowled from round the stumps, was beaten in the flight, yet he made room and drove him through extra cover: intent, resourcefulness, and natural skill all in one shot. This century was his third 50-plus score in three innings in Ahmedabad.

After tea, Zaheer found immediate results. Dilshan looked to hook but was cramped by the angle from round the stumps, Sangakkara hooked but found that the ball was still climbing as it reached him. Two wickets fell for five runs, and Harbhajan and Mishra came back looking more menacing, against batsmen who were prepared to defend.

Both spinners found turn and bounce, six runs came in five overs, and Jayawardene had to step out and loft Harbhajan for a six. Both spinners attacked, both batsmen defended resolutely. Harbhajan looked like he would find a gap between Samaraweera's bat and pad, but the batsman kept getting his bat down in time. Mishra drew an edge from Jayawardene with a googly that jumped, but it flew wide of slip. Harbhajan went round the stumps, creating lbw shouts, close but not close enough.

In between both the batsmen demonstrated good footwork. Samaraweera stepped out to get within smothering reach, or creating a driving length. Jayawardene late-cut Harbhajan from round the stumps, after being beaten twice by topspinners. Slowly - only 120 came in the last session after 155 came in 34 overs before that - the 85-run unbeaten partnership left India frustrated.

The confident batting reply was set up by some smart tactics by Sangakkara in the morning session. Chanaka Welegedara got the big wicket of Dravid early, but Harbhajan and Zaheer got four quick boundaries and threatened to run amok. Sangakkara immediately went in for an in-and-out field, drying up easy boundaries, making the tailenders play normal cricketing shots. The spinners stayed patient, and the last three wickets came swiftly.

No Thushara or Mendis, India bat

India's first Test in more than seven months began on a good note: MS Dhoni won the toss and chose to bat on a good, hard Ahmedabad pitch, "very different from the one we last played on". The last Test that Dhoni referred to was the one against South Africa, when India were shot out for 76 on the first morning.

Dhoni also suggested his team would have to change the mental approach to batting, this Test coming after 17 continuous ODIs and five Twenty20s for them. The India XI, though, wore a settled look; Sreesanth and Pragyan Ojha sitting out, and as expected the two Tamil Nadu back-up batsmen not getting a look in.

Sri Lanka, even though they have played regular Test matches and risen to No. 2 in the rankings, were looking to win a Test in India for the first time. They started off with a slightly strange selection: Nuwan Kulasekara and Thilan Thushara, their two successful fast bowlers, were not on the final list, neither was Ajantha Mendis. Dammika Prasad and Chanaka Welegedara, total experience of four Tests between them, were to take the new ball, and left-arm spinner Rangana Herath playing in place of Mendis.

India 1 Gautam Gambhir, 2 Virender Sehwag, 3 Rahul Dravid, 4 Sachin Tendulkar, 5 VVS Laxman, 6 Yuvraj Singh, 7 MS Dhoni (capt/wk), 8 Harbhajan Singh, 9 Zaheer Khan, 10 Ishant Sharma, 11 Amit Mishra.

Sri Lanka 1 Tharanga Paranavitana, 2 Tillakaratne Dilshan, 3 Kumar Sangakkara (capt), 4 Mahela Jayawardene, 5 Thilan Samaraweera, 6 Angelo Mathews, 7 Prasanna Jayawardene (wk), 8 Dammika Prasad, 9 Chanaka Welegedara, 10 Muttiah Muralitharan, 11 Rangana Herath.