Sri Lanka steady after Dilshan blow

Posted by rukshanshamilk Friday, December 4, 2009


Lunch Sri Lanka 393 and 84 for 1 (Paranavitana 42*, Sangakkara 22*) trail India 726 for 9 dec by 249 runs

Tillakaratne Dilshan copped a second consecutive umpiring howler but Tharanga Paranavitana and Kumar Sangakkara saw through the rest of the session, adding 55 runs and, more importantly, playing out 22.1 overs. Not without anxious moments, though, as Harbhajan Singh got the ball to turn and bounce alarmingly.

Dilshan looked to play a game that doesn't come natural to him, padding away the big offbreaks from Harbhajan. Arguments will abound if that was the right way to go about it but Dilshan was not allowed to make his own mistakes. In the sixth over of the day, he was given lbw while padding up to a sharp offbreak easily missing leg stump.

Harbhajan bowled smartly thereon and the two left-hand batsmen batted smartly too. He mixed pace, trajectory, line, angle, and beat the batsmen with all three variations. But Sangakkara and Paranavitana didn't let him have a consistent go at either of them, taking quick, sharp singles. Three of his subsequent overs in that spell featured plays and misses, all four featured singles.

Paranavitana seemed more at home than Sangakkara, who looked for the getaway sweep shot against Harbhajan and almost got out twice. Even at 98kph, Harbhajan got sharp turn. Although he didn't show much of the doosra, Harbhajan kept the batsmen guessing with topsinners from round the stumps.

While good with defence and not playing away from the body, every now and then Paranavitana did keep hitting the aggressive shot for release. Especially against Pragyan Ojha, whom he lofted for three boundaries to the on side.

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