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Blog Time: THE TEST SERIES

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India has won the test series 1-0. Well honestly I expected a score of 2-0 in India’s favour. India declared both innings in the third and final match of the three match test series. The fact that they declared showed the incredible confidence they had in themselves. Sri Lanka managed to pull a rabbit out of the hat and made their way to a draw. In fact for a teeny tiny moment, they looked like they had their eyes on a win. The TV channel kept saying that India needs five wickets to win. And then towards the end they said SL needs so many runs to win. That was quite scary for a bit except that there really was not much time.
In the end, I am sure many Indian die-hard fans were disappointed. An Indian victory was very much on the cards. In the eyes of many, India lost.


So here’s what happened. India came in to bat and they did bat marvellously. 536 for 7. And then declared. Virat Kohli’s 243 along with Murali Vijay’s 155 took the total off the charts. Sri Lanka came in and they did alright. 373 all out. They had two centurions as well. Angelo Mathews and Dinesh Chandimal. The Delhi wicket was not hard a surface to bat on. When India came back second round, they wanted to make sure they had a win. They declared after a point giving Sri Lanka a target of 409 runs to win.
Sri Lanka came back big time on the fifth day. They did not lose wickets and gave it their all to bat their way through. After hitting a fabulous 119, Dhananjaya de Silva retired hurt just before tea time. Roshen Silva and N Dickwella were inspired enough from this to carry on the baton and take the team through the day. The match was drawn.

While India might have equaled the record for most consecutive series win, I am still a tad disappointed we let this win slip. Personally, I was at rank 2 on the third day of the match. My lineup did really really well. Sri Lanka hitting back hurt me too on the Fantain lineup. They lost just two wickets in 87 overs. No one expected that for sure. After winning the second test match by an innings and 239 runs, this was definitely a let down.


Well, with the ODI beginning on 10th December and preparations for South Africa has started, there is a lot of cricket to look forward to. Virat Kohli, who has been adjudged both man of the match as well as man of the series has been rested for the ODI Series. Well rumour mills are going wild and ringing all kinds of wedding bells on his behalf. Time will tell if there is any truth to that story. But they do make a very nice couple, don’t they? Go team #Viruksha.


We at Fantain are looking forward to bringing you more joy as well. Keep looking at this space for what’s coming up.
Indu

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