Sehwags milestone and Sachins miss.
With India reeling at 181 for 5 following on at the end of the fourth day of the First Test Match being played at Galle, Sri Lankans definitely have the upper hand and only a miracle can save India from losing the First Test. If Indians lose the Galle Test they in all probability will lose the series because subsequent to Muralitharan's retirement from Test Matches after the Galle Test, both teams do not have the bowling fire power to skittle out the opposition twice in a match and the end result may be 1-0 in Sri Lankas favour.
However Indians had their share of success in the match in the form of milestones and near milestones. In the first innings Sehwag's century was the 20th of his Test Career and he became the only the 33rd player in the history of Test Matches to achieve this milestone. Now Sehwag has the distinction of scoring more centuries than cricketing greats like Clive Lloyd, Dilip Vengsarkar, Adam Gilchrist and Mark Taylor. Sehwag's tally comfortably exceeds that of so called greats like Michael Artherton and Marvan Attapattu. However Sehwag should consider his 109 as a failure because Sehwag has a big reputation of getting big hundreds once he is past the three figure mark and that too at a scorching pace. The fact that Sehwag took 118 balls which is considered very fast by international standards is a failure by the very high standards he set for himself. If Sehwag had got a really big hundred then it would have been a different ball game as India would not have found in the same situation following on to save the match and series. Sehwag now has three consecutive centuries in consecutive tests and eight consecutive fifties in consecutivematches which is a high level of consistency by any stretch of imaginations and considering that he gets his runs at a scorching pace his feat is exceptional and there is nobody more deserving in world cricket to be ranked number one than Sehwag.
While Sehwag got on to a important landmark Sachin missed one by a mere 16 runs. Had Sachin scored a century that would have placed him on par with South African run machine Jacque Kallis, Mohd Yousuf and our own Gautam Gambir with five centuries in consecutive tests, and exceeded only by Don Bradman who had six centuries in consecutive tests. Sachin still can console himself with the fact that he got out on 84 to Malinga, a bowler whose action is more suspect than the legend Muralidhran. If Sachin and Dravidwho are known for possessing the best technique in the world are to be repeatedly bowled for ducks by Malinga, they could not be faulted as it is impossible for any batsman in the world to find out where exactly the ball would finally land as Malingla slings the ball from awkwardangles and even somebody like Sunil Gavaskar who comfotably handled West Indians quicks at their menacing best would have found Malinga difficult to handle. It is no wonder that commentators all round the world jokingly refer to Lasith Malinger as Slinger Malinga but if one were to look at it from a serious angle, Malinga should be asked by ICC to remodel his bowling action and asked to bowl in the same way as bowlers over the years from Kapil Dev to Wasim Akram or a Pollock or Mc Grath used to bowl.
Indians in all likelihood are bound to lose the Test Match unless Laxman and Dhoni get involved in a dream partnership something which happened in Eden Gardens between Laxman and Dravid against Steve Waughs Aussies, but what will hurt India is the fact that of the 15 wickets they lost so far incluing a run out, 11 wickets of them fallen to the duo of Muralidaran who was never free of controversy in his career and Malinga who is a slinger.
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