Live Score card of India Vs. Sri Lanka at Rajkot!

After a one-sided Test series and an even Twenty20 contest, during which flat pitches and big bats rendered the spinners ineffective, India and Sri Lanka embark upon a five-match ODI series beginning in Rajkot. Chastened by a 2-0 defeat in the Tests, Sri Lanka have a shot at redemption during this final leg of the tour.

The focus will be on Kumar Sangakkara and how he backs his talk with leadership and runs - he did thump exceptional fifties in the Twenty20s. The most interesting sub-plots of the series, though, should be the return of Zaheer Khan to 50-over cricket, and Sanath Jayasuriya's expected move down to the middle order. Jayasuriya's equation in the middle order - where he has not batted regularly since the early 1990s - and his role with the ball as Sri Lanka nurse Muttiah Muralitharan back will be crucial if Sri Lanka are to compete with India. For Sri Lanka these five matches provide an opportunity to assess their one-day prospects and identify areas they need to work on. Match preview by cricinfo

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Live Score card of India Vs. Sri Lanka 3rd day of the final test!

The 3rd day of final Test Match of the Sri lanka tour of India is scheduled in between India and Sri Lanka today at Brabourne Stadium, Mumbai, on December 04, 2009.

Arguments about Muttiah Muralitharan's declining effectiveness can wait for another time. This was a day instead to marvel at the magnificence of a man who defies any sort of categorisation or pigeon-holing. Cricket is a non-contact sport, but watching Virender Sehwag bat is as visceral an experience as watching Muhammad Ali dominate the ring in his prime. On Thursday afternoon, Sehwag toyed with the greatest offspinner to play the game as though he were some glorified net bowler. He might as well have been, as India overhauled Sri Lanka's total of 393 in 67.5 overs. But for back spasms that restricted him to a more mortal scoring-rate in the last half hour, Sehwag might have become only the second batsman after Sir Donald Bradman to score 300 runs in a day.

Each monumental Sehwag innings has left a trail of destruction in its wake. At the MCG in 2003, it was Stuart MacGill's turn to look like a pie-thrower as he galloped to 195 in just five hours. In Multan, Shoaib Akhtar was reduced to feeble sledges. Sehwag's response was just to compare him to a beggar. In Chennai against the best Australian side ever, he careered to 155 on a pitch where few others had managed any sort of fluency. In front of the imposing Galle Fort last year, he dictated the course of a Test with an innings that combined absolute control and appetite for destruction with admirable restraint. Article by Cricinfo.

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Live Score card of India Vs. Sri Lanka 2nd day of the final test!

The second day of final Test Match of the Sri lanka tour of India is scheduled in between India and Sri Lanka today at Brabourne Stadium, Mumbai, on December 3rd, 2009.

India's opening combination had changed, but the Kanpur story seemed to be repeating itself as M Vijay and Virender Sehwag launched into the Sri Lankan bowlers after India had taken 27 minutes to take the last two wickets on the second morning. Angelo Mathews raced from 86 to 98 in no time, but having endured anxious moments on that score, he ran himself out when coming back for the second run that would have got him a maiden hundred.

Vijay, playing his second Test, both because of Gautam Gambhir's unexpected absence, started positively, flicking Chanaka Welegedara over square leg in the first over. Vijay dominated the strike in the first three overs, and when Sehwag got a full over to face, he started with an on-drive off Nuwan Kulasekara, wide of mid-on.

Whatever little swing the new-ball bowlers got had disappeared by then, and Sehwag unleashed an array of cuts, cover-drives, on-drives and flicks. The only blip after that came when Welegedara got one to seam away from him in the ninth over. By then both openers had reached 20, and India 41. With Vijay batting sensibly, but not slowly, it hardly seemed Gambhir was missing.

Sehwag soon overtook Vijay and widened the gap between the scores. Rangana Herath, bowling before Muttiah Muralitharan, was not welcomed kindly. Sehwag lofted him for a six in the first over, chipped him over mid-off when he saw a long-on in place, and then Vijay cover-drove him for four in the next over.

Kulasekara came back for another spell but didn't have an impact. Herath, meanwhile, was hit for another six, and Sehwag reached his fifty off 54 balls. It was a sign of the times that when Murali came on to bowl, in the last over before lunch, he had a long-on in place. As if to reiterate his presence, Vijay drove the last ball before the interval, against the spin, for a four that took him to 38. The article source by Cricinfo

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Live Score card of India Vs. Sri Lanka 1st day of the 3rd test!

The 3rd Test Match of the Sri Lanka tour of India is scheduled in between India and Sri Lanka today at Brabourne Stadium, Mumbai, on December 2, 2009.

Test cricket returns to a stadium originally designed to be the Lord's of India, which retained the exclusivity of Lord's but lost touch with the common man somewhere down the line. It houses the Ranji Trophy in its foyer and is built for storytelling, from the one when Abbas Ali Baig was kissed by a fan during an innings to the legendary Vijay Hazare-Vijay Merchant "rivalry" back in the day, and many in between.

The world has changed and the Brabourne Stadium has lost its prime position in the Mumbai hierarchy but what it hasn't lost is its sense of occasion. Should it be a mere coincidence, then, that India go in to the match with a chance of becoming the No.1 Test team for the first time ever, at a ground where more than 50 years ago they came agonisingly close to their first Test win when the umpire removed the bails with 90 seconds left on the clock and India six short of the target set by West Indies?

Sri Lanka have never played here, nor have they ever won in India. They are the second-ranked team in the world. Sri Lanka are struggling, Muttiah Muralitharan is struggling, their first-choice pace bowlers are down with injuries. Take out Bangladesh, and 12 of Sri Lanka's last 14 Test wins have come at home. Sri Lanka need to win this one, and justify their No. 2 ranking. The Preview by cricinfo

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