26 July 2008Sri Lanka made full use of the Umpire Review System to thrash India by an innings and 239 runs on day four of the first Test at the Sinhalese Sports Club in Colombo.India were bowled out for 223 in their first innings and 138 in their second innings in reply to Sri Lanka's 600 for six declared.
Resuming the day on 159 for six, captain Anil Kumble was Mendis' first victim of the day, trapped in front, Harbhajan Singh was caught by Malinda Warnapura off of Muralitharan for nine and Zaheer Khan was trapped in front by Mendis for one.
VVS Laxman, who hit 56 from 118 balls and Ishant Sharma, who scored 13 from 54, then put on 35 runs for the last wicket before Laxman was bowled by Mendis, who finished with four for 72 to Muralitharan's five for 84.
After five overs of seam bowling, Mahela Jayawardene handed the ball to his spinners and Muralitharan quickly had Sehwag trapped in front for 13, after a review, to complete what has been a miserable Test match for the opening batsman.
VVS Laxman, promoted to number three in the order, was trapped in front by Mendis for 21, before Sachin Tendulkar was caught sweeping by Tillakaratne Dilshan for 12 after a review.
Three wickets fell for eight runs prior to tea with Gautam Gambhir brilliantly stumped by Prasanna Jayawardene off of Muralitharan for 43, Saurav Ganguly (four) well caught at slip by Dilshan off of Muralitharan and the fall of Rahul Dravid (ten), who was caught by Warnapura via an inside edge onto his pad, which needed a review, saw the players leave the field for tea.
Little time was required after the break for Sri Lanka to wrap up the match, Muralitharan having Dinesh Karthik (nought) and Anil Kumble (12) caught by Mahela Jayawardene and bowled respectively while Mendis finished with four for 60 by bowling Zaheer Khan for three and Harbhajan Singh for 15.
Muralitharan finished with six for 26.
Warnapura, Jayawardene, Thilan Samaraweera and Dilshan all scored centuries in Sri Lanka's score over days one, two and three.
© Cricket World 2008
My Opinion: I feel that the Indian team seems to be overconfident, and as a result of this , at times they seem to under-estimate other teams. They should change their attitude and value themselves a little less, which might inspire them to produce better results.
