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.

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 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.