Indian tour to Sri Lanka started on a not-so-encouraging note with a drawn practice match and some stale performances from the bigwigs. The practice match was touted as the perfect break from the hectic T20-ODI schedule India has been playing for the last three months and to get into the groove of test match game. Injured stalwarts like Sachin Tendulkar, Zaheer Khan and VVS Laxman and the slap-gate star Harbhajan Singh were expected to regain the tempo they had lost sitting out of the games for quite sometime now.

The Indian bowling attack to start out with was commendable. Some tight bowling by Anil Kumble (3-30), Zaheer Khan (2-35) and Harbhajan Singh (2-52) showed that the Indian side can be sure of its bowling attack in the matches to follow. However the batting front was quite a flop show when tycoons like Dravid (5), Gambhir (4) and Laxman (0) fizzled without any fire. The relief came in with Tendulkar’s and Dinesh Karthik’s performances who scored 69 and 58* respectively. Harbhajan struck again in the second innings with 2-53 while Anil Kumble not coming for bowling was quite an eyebrow-raising surprise. Gautam Gambhir made up for his flop show in the first innings by a blazing 60 in the second. Sadly, that was the only notable performance while Sehwag stumbled with his game both the times (27 and 14).

Coach Gary Kirsten is, however pleased with the performance and defended Anil Kumble’s decision of not bowling in the second innings giving fitness reasons. He also felt that Sachin had had enough practice on field and hence did not need to bat in the second innings. In Karthik’s opinion, India generally starts a big tour in this manner and then slowly catches rhythm.  

India ought to beware of Chamara Silva who has been in a superb form scoring 68 and 59*. Ajantha Mendis is a respectable threat to the already tottering Indian batting line-up. Sachin Tendulkar will look forward to be the highest run-scorer in test cricket, the record of which he’s short by 172 runs. Indians have a task to shine their bad record in Sri Lanka with this test series. India has not won a single test match in Sri Lanka in the past 15 years. With this form and style, however, it is evident that India is up for some stiff competition here.

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3.25 Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."

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