Going into Day 5 with 8 wickets in hand, India got two big partnerships to ease through a draw. Gautam Gambhir who resumed this morning at an overnight score of 74 saw India through the first 45 minutes of play along with night watchman Amit Mishra. It was the first 45 minutes of play that did India in during the first day’s play and the second day’s play when they had lost four wickets each.

Mishra, the night watchman hung in pretty well to the crease before getting out to a brilliant diving catch at leg gully by Dilshan. After his exit, Sachin Tendulkar joined Gautam Gambhir and the pair took India safely to lunch and in the process reducing the deficit to 78. Gambhir worked his way to a 7th test century as well.

Early in the post lunch session, Gautam Gambhir (114 from 230 balls with 13 fours) fell to an ambitious lofted shot off Rangana Herath to gives hopes of a Sri Lankan victory. However, the new man in VVS Laxman found no trouble at all in handling the Sri Lankan spinners and pacers to put up a solid partnership with Tendulkar. The two right handers saw their team through to Tea with still six wickets in hand and India got into a slender lead of 7 runs.

Tendulkar and Laxman batted on and on in the final session to force a draw. Sri Lanka too had given it up as they no longer had any close in fielders. Sachin Tendulkar (100* from 211 balls with 11 fours) helped himself to a 43rd Test hundred and Laxman (51* from 160 balls with 5 fours) got his 40th fifty before the match ended. India finished at an impressive fourth innings total of 412 for 4. Sri Lanka could take only the two wickets in the entire day’s play! Former Sri Lankan Captain Mahela Jayawardene was named as the Man of the Match for his knock of 275.

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.

It was a terrible day for the Indian bowlers with only two wickets to show for their hard work. The overnight batsmen – Mahela Jayawardene and Samaraweera saw through the first hour of play to shut the door on any chances of an Indian win by reducing the deficit under 100. India finally got the breakthrough in the 87th over when Yuvraj Singh at squareleg took a sharp catch offered by a pull shot from Samaraweera (70 from 145 balls). At the stroke of lunch, Mahela Jayawardene lost Angelo Mathews when the all-rounder was wrongly given caught at short leg off Harbhajan Singh.

Sri Lanka went to lunch at 375 for 5 which provided India the chance of cutting down on a possible lead. However, the pitch was too flat for taking wickets in a hurry and the Indians were defied by yet another big partnership with Mahela Jayawardene remaining as the cornerstone. Along with Prasanna Jayawardene, he defied the Indian bowlers in the post lunch session and the post tea session. The visitors now call the shots in this match and have forced India into a position where they can only fight for a draw.

The visitors wrapped up the Indian innings in the first session by taking the last four wickets for 41 runs in just under 15 overs. Rahul Dravid, the hero of Day 1 couldn’t add a single run to his overnight score of 177 as he was comprehensively bowled by an inducker from left armer Chanaka Welegedera. Harbhajan Singh and Zaheer Khan then managed to steer India past the 400-run mark. Both these useful lower bats couldn’t last long enough to trouble the Lankans and India had to settle with a first innings total of 426.

The Lankan openers – Dilshan and Paranavitana saw through the testing period before lunch and after the break batted confidently. India had to work very hard to get its first wicket which came through a brilliant diving catch from MS Dhoni. Paranavitana (35) was the man to be dismissed off an outswinger from Ishant Sharma in the 17th over having put 74 on the board with Dilshan. That was the only success for India in the afternoon session as Dilshan and Sangakkara took charge to consolidate Sri Lanka to 155 for 1 at Tea.

The final session saw Dilshan bring up his 10th hundred and India was in serious trouble as the attacking right hander was looking to plunder the bowling further. However, Zaheer Khan got rid of Dilshan at the right time and also removed Kumar Sangakkara in quick succession. Dilshan (112 from 133 balls with 12 fours) got out miscuing a pull while Sangakkara (31) hooked one to fine leg. Sri Lanka were now under pressure at 194 for 3. The tails were up for the Indian bowlers but the experienced duo of Mahela Jayawardene and Thilan Samaraweera eased through the tricky situation to take SL to safety at stumps. Sri Lanka have finished the day at 275 for 3 in 70 overs with a healthy run rate of 3.92.

MS Dhoni won the crucial toss which gave his team the opportunity to bat first on a good wicket. India stuck with a predictable line-up of seven batsman and four bowlers. Sreesanth had to sit out. Sri Lanka came up with some surprises with Nuwan Kulasekara and Thilan Thushara missing out. Chanadaka Welegedara and Dammika Prasad got selected ahead of them. But the biggest decision was to drop Ajantha Mendis and retain left arm spinner Rangana Herath.

Sri Lanka had a dream start in rattling the Indian top order with left armer Chanaka Welegedara swinging the ball both ways to make inroads. The 28-year-old Welegedera got an unsure Gambhir inside edging onto the stumps and then followed up with a late inswinger to trap Sehwag lbw. Three balls after Sehwag’s fall, Sachin Tendulkar got cleaned up by one that nipped back sharply to knock his off stump bail through the gate. And six balls later, VVS Laxman too disappeared to the dressing room after chopping a drive off Dammika Prasad onto his stumps. India were out of the Test Match it seemed with the score tottering at 32 for 4 in the 8th over. They were in the danger of getting bowled out very cheaply like before against South Africa at this same venue when they could put up just 76.

Fortunately for India, the most important batsman survived the early blows and it was none other than Rahul Dravid. Yuvraj Singh walked into the middle in a situation that wasn’t new for him. The left hander had already featured in a rear-guard action against Pakistan along with Sourav Ganguly when India faced the same kind of pressure. Yuvraj replicated the same fightback and along with India saw through the difficult first session. At Lunch, India had started to claw back steadily at 105 for 4 in 25 overs with Dravid on 45 and Yuvraj on 35.

After lunch, Dravid and Yuvraj eases past their fifties but their partnership was broken when the latter lobbed a simple catch to covers off Murali against the run of play. Yuvraj fell in the 37th over having scored 68 (from 93 balls with 13 fours). The left hander put on 125 runs for the 5th wicket with Dravid. Sri Lanka now had got back the chance of dismissing India inside the 220-mark. But that wasn’t the case with Skipper MS Dhoni continuing Yuvraj’s good work and giving the right kind of support to Dravid. India went into Tea smoothly without any further damage to 221 for 5 in 54 overs. Dravid was just two runs short of his century and Dhoni worked his way to nearly 30.

The final session was a repeat of the previous one with Dravid putting up another big partnership. The Sri Lankan spinners – Muralitharan and Herath failed to get any purchase off the wicket and that left the Indian pair to dominate them with ease. After an hour’s play, India was out of trouble completely at 299 for 5 in 70 overs with the bowlers getting tired totally. MS Dhoni got to his second Test match hundred but fell just moments before the close of play when he edged a cut shot off the second new ball to the keeper from the expensive Dammika Prasad. Dhoni got out scoring a well-paced 110 from 159 balls (with 10 fours and a six) and his partnership with Dravid was worth 224 runs!

India finished Day 1 safely at 385 for 6 with Dravid still holding fort and Harbhajan Singh batting out the last few balls quite sensibly. Dravid’s unbeaten 177 took just the 251 balls and was filled with 26 fours and a six over long on off Herath. Welegedara, who did all the damage in the first session had to settle with figures of 3 for 75 in 17 overs. Muralitharan and Herath who were expected to wrap up the Indian innings after Welegedara’s blows came a cropper.

The India-Sri Lanka Test Series which starts tomorrow is not going to lack any entertainment for sure. The Indian team has an exciting batting line-up which begins with Virender Sehwag at the top, the three experienced guns in Dravid, Tendulkar and Laxman followed by the young Yuvraj and Dhoni. Partnering Sehwag is one of India’s underrated player in Gautam Gambhir who has played a couple of great knocks against Australia and New Zealand. The Sri Lankans are exciting in their own right because of the three superb spinners in Muralitharan, Ajantha Mendis and Rangana Herath. It is a pity if one of Mendis and Herath is going to sit out in the match.

The contest between the Sri Lankan spinners and the Indian batsmen will be a mouth-watering one. The Indian bowling attack will rely on Harbhajan Singh as usual though he should be getting decent support from Amit Mishra. I expect Harbhajan Singh to take most of his wicket with the sptting top spinner that perfectly lands on the seam. Well and Zaheer Khan makes a comeback into international cricket and will most probably have Ishant Sharma as his new ball partner. As India tends to play with six batsman plus the wicket keeper batsman, the talented Sreesanth might be cooling his heels in the dressing room.

The first Test is at the Motera in Ahmedabad which traditionally takes spin. The pitch at Motera has also been on the drier side which means that the conditions are conducive for reverse swing. Motera wicket has also been traditionally slow and low as the match progresses. The Indian pace attack here scores over the Sri Lankans in this regard. Nuwan Kulasekara did superbly against Pakistan in Sri Lanka but will his swing bowling be effective against the technically sound Indian batsmen remains to be seen. Sri Lanka could also take India’s route of playing it safe by having 6 batsmen in the side.

Sri Lanka have never won a Test Match in India and their bowlers have struggled to take wickets on the generally good better batting tracks here compared to what it is back home. The pressure will be on them really to keep the heavily talented Indian batting down. At the same time, their batsmen led by Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene have to ensure that they get the big scores and not get out after getting a start.

CricketMove.com will be providing the Live Scorecard of this India Vs Sri Lanka 1st Test along with Ball by Ball Commentary.

India Test Squad : MS Dhoni (Captain and Wicket Keeper), Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma, Sreesanth, Pragyan Ojha, Amit Mishra, Murali Vijay, S Badrinath

Sri Lanka Test Squad : Kumar Sangakkara (Captain), Tillakaratne Dilshan, Tharanga Paranawithana, Thilan Samaraweera, Mahela Jayawardene, Angelo Mathews, Thilina Kandamby, Prasanna Jayawardene (Wicket Keeper), Kaushal Silva (Wicket Keeper), Chanaka Welegedara, Muttiah Muralitharan (Vice-Captain), Thilan Thushara, Nuwan Kulasekara, Rangana Hearth, Ajantha Mendis, Dammika Prasad

The Sri Lankans are led by Kumar Sangakkara while the Board President’s team which comprises of only youngsters is led by Rohit Sharma. The Lankans play the first Test match from the 16th at Ahmedabad.

Mumbai this afternoon is supposed to host the 7th and final ODI between India and Australia as well, this match is in the newly built DY Patil Stadium and its difficult to see it happen! The seventh ODI is scheduled to begin at 2:30 in the afternoon.

The 26-year-old Sreesanth has been selected ahead of Ashish Nehra who had decent success in his ODI comeback. Sreesanth, however scores over the other bowlers because of a combination of pace, swing and seam. The Kerala pacer has this gift of bowling with a totally upright seam unlike many other bowlers. He now joins Zaheer Khan and Ishant Sharma as the third pacer in the squad. Zaheer Khan comes back into international cricket after a lay off due to a shoulder injury. Batting wise there are no surprises really other than the presence of two reserve players in Murali Vijay and S Badrinath, both from Tamil Nadu.

India has picked three spinners with Hyderabad’s young left armer Pragyan Ojha joining the duo of Harbhajan Singh and Amit Mishra, who are both certain to be in the playing XI. The first two Tests are at Ahmedabad and Kanpur while the third and final Test is at the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai.

India Test Squad : MS Dhoni (Captain and Wicket Keeper), Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma, Sreesanth, Amit Mishra, Pragyan Ojha, Murali Vijay and S Badrinath.