Ind SL T 3 Day 3 Stumps: No Early Declaration After Stupendous Batting Baffling

It was a day of anti climax and paradox. First, Virender Sehwag missed a milestone. Then, the Indian batsmen got into the act to push India along. But the session with seven wickets down raised more questions than answers as fans waited for India to force Sri Lanka to press the panic button even as Dhoni was keen to get his century at the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai on the third day.
Perhaps Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the Indian captain, was planning a slow death for the team from the Emerald Isles. After all, why India did not declare and chose to bat out the day belies reason, albeit that the Indian captain was apparently looking at getting his third Test century. That is the only plausible reason given that he did not hang around after his century to push the lead to 350.
Either way, from the highs of the Sehwag madness yesterday to watching Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, V.V.S Laxman, all make half centuries pushing the Indian total into the realm of the unachieved - 726 for nine, the highest first innings total since Sydney 2004.
The Indian captain did hang around, and pressed the accelerator towards his century in the latter half of his innings, but one had the feelings, things had practically come to a grind, even though Pragyan Ojha and Dhoni added fifty-three runs for the final wicket.
While the argument that India still have two days in hand is all fine, but putting the opposition under duress could have perhaps used a half hour from stumps. As it turned out, just three overs were available to India to snag a couple of wickets and give Sri Lanka a sleepless night with a deficit of 333.
Sri Lanka managed to see off the three overs without too much drama even as India introduced Harbhajan Singh. But Sri Lanka’s innings will need to be a lot healthier at stumps tomorrow than the eleven for no loss overnight if they are to stay in the game.

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