India wins at Motera; Sri Lanka at Galle

Even Duncan Fletcher has to get right at some point of time – as India made a winning start to the 4 test series – it was not the pitch that did the trick nor the bowling duo who struck gold.  Pragyan Ojha’s nine-wicket match haul and R Ashwin’s four wickets saw them seal the result pretty early. The seamers supported them well and the Mumbai wicket should probably allow Zaheer Khan and Umesh Yadav to get into the match a little bit more.

the way Alastair Cook and Matt Prior battled on day 4, made it appear that a draw was in possible realms…….. but that ended early on 5^th day morning and Indian new opening pair of Virender Sehwag and Cheteshwar Pujara went in undue haste marginalizing the small target with the loss of a solitary wicket.  “I don’t even want to see this wicket. There wasn’t enough turn and bounce for the spinners. Hopefully in the coming matches we’ll see the wicket turn, right from start, or as soon as possible so that the toss doesn’t become vital,” Dhoni said.  There appears nothing wrong in the Home Captain’s wish that pitches help the home team, which is how it happens when we are on tour..

There is news that the Second test will be at Mumbai on 23^rd Nov as scheduled; there were concerns that the Test, which starts on Friday, might be moved to Kolkata following the death of Shiv Sena founder Bal Thackeray.  Reports suggest that Mumbai is  getting back to normal on Monday, after the cremation of Thackeray the previous day, as the Shiv Sena clarified that it had not called for a bandh - a period of inactivity - in his honour.

The extract of scorecard for the First Test reads :  India 521 for 8 dec (Pujara 206*, Sehwag 117, Swann 5-144) and 80 for 1 (Pujara 41*) beat England 191 (Ojha 5-45) and 406 (Cook 176, Prior 91, Ojha 4-120) by nine wickets ~ it also tells that India is 1-0 up. Sehwag, a batsman who knows no fear, and who clearly could not care less whether he added a bit of red ink to a formidable Test record, was caught on the boundary trying to hit Graeme Swann for six, Pujara,  added some more runs to his first innings double and is yet to be dismissed.  Earlier Matt Prior and Cook put on 157 runs – only 16 runs in the morning of 5^th day and thereafter the English line up crumbled. 

Elsewhere at Galle, Lankans who are quite formidable in their backyard beat New Zealand by 10 wickets in a low scoring match.  The scoreline is : Sri Lanka 247 (Mahela Jayawardene 91, Mathews 79, Southee 4-46) and 93 for 0 (Karunaratne 60*, Paranavitana 31*) beat New Zealand 221 (McCullum 68, Flynn 53, Herath 5-65) and 118 (Flynn 20, Herath 6-43) by 10 wickets

Kiwis continued their worries against spin as Rangana Herath was again the wrecker-in-chief, continuing his incredible run in Galle, and finished with 11 wickets in the match. Both his hauls of ten wickets or more in a Test have come in Galle, where he's picked up 46 in eight games at 20.30, including five of his 12 five-fors.   The debutant Dimuth Karunaratne who had a duck in his debut outing collected a 50 to have some credit. 

with regards – S. Sampathkumar.