 Muthiah Muralitharan became only the first bowler in the history of Test match cricket to get to 800 test match wickets as India were beaten by ten wickets
by Sri Lanka. The first Test match at Galle that had seen one day of the
game abandoned due to rain, had the Indians capitulating twice to the pair of
Muralitharan and the man of the match Lasith Malinga.
Earlier, the Sri Lankan batting had been instrumental in getting the Indians
to struggle from the word go, as they managed to pile up more than 500 thanks
to Malinga and Herath's half century in the end. Earlier, Tharanga Paravitana
and Kumar Sangakkara had both smashed centuries.
However, despite losing the game, captain MS Dhoni was straightforward in explaining
hwhat went wrong with the Indian side. He said that the bowling was inexperienced
and was not expected to do as well, but it was the batting that let them down.
He said that the defeat was due to the lack of partnerships that the side managed.
He also said that the side did get hold of some partnerships but each time they
would look to develop them into something big, the Sri Lankans would come out
with something special.
The Test match will also be special for another reason. Muralitharan went on
to pick his 800th wicket in international cricket as he had Pragyan Ojha edging
one from the bowler to the slips, where Mahela Jayawardene held on to
a neat catch. That was the final wicket to fall for the Indians as well as they
rolled over to a ten-wicket loss.
Dhoni was also impressed with Lasith Malinga who bamboozled the Indians
with his slinging action. Dhoni acknowledged that Malinga's biggest strength
was his ability to swing the ball both ways, without any perceptible change
in the bowling action.
Dhoni did not attach any of the blame to his batsmen, some of whom played some
really rash strokes. In the first innings, the likes of Sachin tendulkar,
VVS Laxman and Harbahajan Singh were all guilty of playing rash strokes.
He also said that the pitch was a difficult one to bowl on and it had taken
the bowlers of the calibre of Murali and Malinga to exploit it.
It remains to be seen whether the Indians go into the second game with any
changes to the side. the second Test match at Colombo starts from Monday.
|
