India vs Sri Lanka - First test match
Venue: Sinhalese Sports Club ground, Colombo.

Sri Lanka won the toss and chose to bat.
Sri Lanka 1st innings total: 600-6 declared

India 1st innings total: 223
India 2nd Innings total: 138

Match result: Sri Lanka won the match by an innings and 239 runs.

Match Summary:
India crashed to an innings and two hundred and thirty nine runs defeat in the first Test against Sri Lanka at Colombo, which was the third worst defeat in its test match history.

Again it was the spin pair of Muthaiah Muralitharan and debutant Ajantha Mendis, who did the damage on the Indian batting line up for the second time in the match. The Indian team, otherwise considered to be the toughest and most capable of playing quality spin, managed to score a paltry 138 runs in its second innings.

On day 4, India went to the match trying to stay afloat and avoid a follow-on for which it had to score 242 runs. But, wickets tumbled and by lunch India was back to play their second innings after being enforced the follow-on.

The second innings was more disastrous than the first. The spin partners seemed to be more accurate with Murali attacking and Mendis controlling the run flow on the other end. None of the Indian batsmen looked comfortable, all failing to read the line of the deliveries.

Sehwag was given out as per the review system decision, that was implemented on a trial basis for the test series. Sehwag incidentally became the first player to be adjudged out under the new system.

Laxman, promoted up the order did less to contribute after his magnificent half century in the first innings. Tendulkar became the second candidate for the review system and Gambhir was out stumped, by a beautiful delivery of Muralitharan. Next was Ganguly gone caught at second slip, while Dravid’s wicket was yet another review system declaration. Karthik was out caught by wicket keeper Jayawardene of a Muralitharan delivery, to give the bowler his 65th five wicket and 21st ten wicket haul.

For India, Gautam Gambhir top scored with 43 and the Murali-Mendis combination shared 10 wickets for Sri Lanka. Their overall tally in the match was an awesome 19 wickets.

Muralitharan walked away with the Man of the Match award, his 19th in his illustrious career. Mendis’s contribution of 8 wickets for 132, was noted as the best performance by a debutant for Sri lanka in test match history.

Via:
Cricinfo

Picture: Google