Hosts India are under tremendous pressure to force a draw on the final day of the Ahmedabad Test. They have already lost the key wickets of Virender Sehwag and Rahul Dravid in the 45 overs of batting they had on the fourth day.

However, things do look bright for India with a second innings total of 190 for 2 at stumps today. Gautam Gambhir is unbeaten at stumps with a superb 70 and along with him is night watchman Amit Mishra who has shown good technique to kill some time on his own.

Sri Lanka resuming the fourth day’s play at 591 for 5 went to lunch without losing a single wicket again. Mahela Jayawardene went past 250 and Prasanna Jayawardene notched up his second test hundred. After lunch, Sri Lanka batted for less than hour to take the score to 760 for 7 before declaring their innings.

The lead the Sri Lankans settled for was a monstrous one of 334 runs. Mahela Jayawardene’s marathon knock came to an end when he danced down to hoick Amit Mishra but only to be bowled for a score of 275 (from 435 balls with 27 fours and a six). Mahela put on a new world record partnership of 351 with Prasanna Jayawardene who finished unbeaten on 154 (from 314 balls with 11 fours) at the time of the declaration.

India seemed to have got a bright start as they went to Tea at 77 for no loss but immediately at the start of the final session, Virender Sehwag went for an over confident slog sweep off Rangana Herath but only to get caught at mid on. Sehwag by then had stroked his way to 51 (from 67 balls with 7 fours).

The homeside recovered after losing Sehwag with Gambhir and Dravid batting with plenty of assurance and at the same time keeping the scoreboard busy. During the dying moments of the fourth day, Umpire Daryl Harper gave a well set Rahul Dravid lbw to put India back in trouble. Dravid (38 from 66 balls with 6 fours) shuffled across and missed an inswinger from left armer Chanaka Welegedara but the ball was angling down the legside from round the sticks.

Gambhir and Mishra batted through the remaining few overs to ensure that India went to stumps losing only those two wickets. The pitch still remains good for batting but Sri Lanka have two quality spinners in Muralitharan and Herath to sustain high amount of pressures on the batsmen during the final day. India first needs to wipe out the deficit which has come down to 144 runs.

Tags: India Vs Sri Lanka, Indian Cricket, Mahela Jayawardene, Prasanna Jayawardene, Sri Lankan Cricket