With Munaf Patel again being sidelined, it goes to show that Dhoni does not have any faith in him and that he is adamant in not choosing him. Why was he chosen by the selectors in the 1st place? If Salman But could do by ignoring Md Yousuf for the 2nd match against England, he will not be favoured for the next tour, leave alone captaincy...
In a much improved bowling performance, the Indian seamers got decent movement off the deck
Both Ishant Sharma and Abhimanyu Mithun derived movement off the deck, beating the bat by consistently bowling at a length and drawing the batsmen forward. The visitors were deprived of their most experienced bowler, Harbhajan Singh, but Ojha troubled the batsmen by varying his lengths, getting the ball to grip and surprising the batsmen with disruptive turn. Mishra was less effective, his variations in flight and pace and relatively lesser spin failing to measure up to what his partner managed.. Pragyan Ojha extracted both turn and bounce to often unsettle the Sri Lankan batsmen. If this turn and bounce were to offer on day1, imagine with the likes of Randiv and Mendis, India can be routed.
Thilan Samaraweera, backed up by Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara, kept the hosts on track in their attempt to post an intimidating score on a surface that looks good to produce an outright result. Sangakkara, after his initial assault against Mishra, was troubled by Mithun. He played across the line to edge one short of Rahul Dravid, and was dropped by Raina at third slip when Mithun attacked from round the wicket. He overcame those lapses early enough, driving Mithun imperiously for two fours, including one on a bent knee, his trademark shot. If India does not do the damage control by removing the 2 not out batsmen within the 1st hour session, Sri Lanka will have only one direction before them - win by a handsome margin.
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