You superstitious loon

Yesterday, with the score at 267-4, I chatted with Homer for a bit, exulting in the good position India were in. As we talked four wickets fell. We agreed our chatting had caused the collapse and promptly clammed up. Today, as I put the last post up, Strauss was dismissed by Sreesanth.

Why does cricket tempt me with belief in superstition?

Two bits of gratuitous advice for Trent Bridge

In no particular order: Bring back Sreesanth; set attacking fields for Harbhajan (including a silly-point, a backward short-leg and a silly mid-off).

Oh, what the heck, one more: stand up to Praveen Kumar.

How appropriately fourth-day

This has been an interestingly old-fashioned test in terms of scoring rates. New Zealand made 258 on the first day; the two teams combined for 270 runs on the second; and then, on the third, India made their own 258. Wickets too, have fallen in old-fashioned fashion: test cricket likes its first innings to be completed by the third day so that things can get nicely cooking on the fourth and fifth day. In keeping with that, India are batting with just one wicket left, striving to push this rather unlikely 86 run lead into the ever-more respectable territory (as of now, it is up to 101, which is handy, even while not as threatening as the one that looked possible when Sehwag and Gambhir had put on 160 for the first wicket).

Much depends now, on whether India are capable of taking 10 Kiwi wickets quickly and cheaply enough to give themselves a chance of winning. In my mind, that equation works out to: don't take more than 100 overs to dismiss New Zealand. The numbers work out then. A significant postponement beyond that will make the run-chase a bit more of a stretch.

Meanwhile, what about Harbhajan Singh the batsman? Already the highest run-getter in this series, he is on 99, looking for his second ton. And he's done it with a quick single, followed up by a typically flamboyant celebration and a hug-laden encounter with Sreesanth. An almost perfect 10th wicket partnership.

The Sri Lankan BP XI likes our new bowling attack

Phew. That scoreboard from India's tour match against the Sri Lankan Board President's XI does not make for pretty reading. When all the caveat-raising has been done and dispensed with, there are the numbers: 432/4 off 88.5 overs. With Zaheer and Sreesanth injured the shape of India's pace bowling attack for the tests isn't too clear, but even the spinners have combined to further obscure the picture, for Mishra and Ojha have spent down 50 overs for 253 runs and five wickets.

As far as slow starts go, this is a classic. For the Indians, that is.

Sreesanth turns the screw

Well, this is the second time in a few years that I've gotten up in the morning to find out that Sreesanth has bowled India to a match-winning position. The Kanpur pitch suddenly doesn't look like a road, does it? 13 wickets on the third day, after 2 on the first and 9 on the second. And wonder of wonders, we actually have an enforced follow-on on our hands.

Those early wickets by Sreesanth in the morning made the rest of the day into a classic struggle against a big scoreboard in which the batsmen eventually came out distinctly second-best. Sri Lanka's second innings, and the Jayawardene runout, showed that the pressure has built up to very uncomfortable, and indeed unbearable, levels.

Cliches about prodigal sons aside, this return by Sreesanth is very impressive. He hadn't earned his selection but he sure has earned a spot in the eleven by this performance.

India v. Sri Lanka, Second Test kicks off

Right. So, Ishant Sharma and Mishra are the victims of the call for bowler's heads to roll. Ojha and Sreesanth are the lucky entrants. I won't pretend to be too knowledgeable about Ojha's recent form but as far as Sreesanth goes, he's lucky to be in there. Not that I mind excessively; Sharma has been as blunt as a roadside barber's razor for a while. But Mishra's dropping is painful. He bowled on a dead pitch and his captain didn't know how to set fields for him. Not a very good way to groom a young leggie. But hopefully the Gavaskar-Shastri combine in the comms box will be pleased with this particular pound of flesh.

Sri Lanka have dumped a quick (Prasad) and brought in Mendis. Three spinners is a lot, even in India, and in a strange way, its an acknowledgment of the first test mistake and a selection forced by injury

India win the toss and bat. Here we go, with a single off the first ball.

Serendip to the rescue

Sri Lanka's tour of India is off to a very soggy start. Two days play washed out and it's not clear there will be any play on the third. Thus, the Lankan lads are looking at going into the first test, which starts on the 16th, without any match practice. Two factors combine to make this not into a terribly big deal: tour matches don't seem to have the importance they used to (not in the kind of international calendar we have these days) and the Sri Lankan team is visiting from, well, Sri Lanka, and not England (conditions won't be so terribly unfamiliar to them). They will back their spinners to cause discomfort to the Indians (despite Mendis' decipherment, I'd be very surprised if he is not played with due respect), and they have the bats to exploit the conditions.

Yet, despite this fit with local circumstances, which has also existed in tours previously, Sri Lanka have not won a test in India. This is a rather strange business. The problem, of course, is that they are playing India in the same conditions, which fact suddenly dispels some of the strangeness of this particular achievement. But it does add a little spice to the proceedings, already enlivened by Sangakkara's channeling of the 'final frontier' in his pre-tour interviews.

For their part, the home side is up to it's usual tricks of over-inflated squads with curious selections (Sreesanth, really?) and dubious scheduling decisions (I'd much prefer if tests were only allocated to the big five of Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Kolkata and Chennai). Now that Dhoni has lost some of his aura (despite this year's loss of aura in one-day internationals, it will, willy-nilly, infect perceptions of him in test cricket as well), his moves might be watched just a little more closely.

I, for one, am intrigued. My personal battle with the timezones lies ahead.