Hockey players up in arms against coach Brasa

New Delhi, Nov 18: A rattled Hockey India (HI) president A K Mattoo is flying down to Pune following a reported revolt by senior players spearheaded by deposed captain Sandeep Singh against coach Jose Brasa.

The seniors are apparently unhappy with the way the Spanish coach is going about his job. Sandeep, who has pulled out of the camp complaining a back problem, seems to differ with Brasa over drag-flicking.

Lanka ride on Jayawardene’s double ton to take control

Ahmedabad, Nov 18: Mahela Jayawardene gave a fine exhibition of skill and temparament to score a crafty unbeaten 204 as Sri Lanka took tight control of the first cricket Test by taking a commanding 165-run first innings lead against a defensive India here today.

Jayawardene anchored the innings brilliantly to notch up his 27th Test century and his sixth double ton, and found an able partner in Prasanna Jayawardene (84 not out) as the visitors pushed the hosts on the backfoot by reaching a mammoth 591 for five at close on the third day.

It turned out to be a hard grind for the Indians as the Lankans capitalised on a good batting strip at the Motera stadium to consolidate the position on a day which again saw more than 300 runs being scored. Resuming at the overnight score of 275 for three in reply to India’s 426, the islanders lost the wicket of Thilan Samaraweera (70) and Angelo Mathews (17) in the pre-lunch session but the two Jayawardenes put on a marathon undefeated 216-run partnership to put Sri Lanka on course for their first Test triumph on Indian soil.

India fightback to save Test after Lankan run feast

AHMEDABAD: India fought back gallantly in their bid to save the first Test but were still not completely out of danger after Sri Lanka piled up the agony on the hosts with a record-breaking run deluge on Thursday.

After being buried by a massive 334-run first innings lead mainly built around a world record sixth wicket partnership between Mahela Jayawardene (275) and Prasanna Jayawardene (154 not out), the Indians reached 190 for two in their second innings at stumps on the penultimate day, still trailing by 144 runs.

The hosts still have a daunting task to prevent the Lankans from recording their first Test triumph on Indian soil as they have to bat out the entire last day on a Motera track which was expected to deteriorate and assist the spinners.

But the Indians have an experienced batting line up and should fancy their chances of saving the match which has turned out to be a nightmare for the bowlers.

Gautam Gambhir (74) and night watchman Amit Mishra (12) were at the crease at stumps on a day which saw Mahela and Prasanna breaking the 72-year-old world record for the highest sixth-wicket partnership in Tests by putting on a 351-run stand.

The home team first lost Virender Sehwag (51) and then Rahul Dravid (38) was distincly unlucky to get a dubious leg before decision at the fag end of the day.

Sri Lanka's mammoth lead also left the hosts with the monumental task of batting out for a minimum of 135 overs and for more than four and a half sessions, to save the opening match in the three-Test contest.

The 32-year-old Mahela also set a slew of records during his marathon innings. He became the joint highest individual scorer against India in this country and the fourth to compile a 250-plus knock in the latter's backyard and also crossed the 9000-run milestone.

Resuming at his overnight 204, the elegant Mahela continued and Prasanna who notched his second Test century, continued to pile frustrate the Indians and thereby surged to the sixth-highest Test tally ever, the list being led by their own world record tally of 952 for six declared in Colombo 12 years ago.

The Lanka reply was also an apt rejoinder to India's record score of 676 for seven scored against them at Kanpur in 1986. The previous best total by any visiting team in India was 652 for seven declared by England in January, 1985.

All the four frontline Indian bowlers gave away over 100 runs each, with Zaheer Khan being the most economical and impressive with 2 for 109.

The spinners were far from impressive. While Harbhajan Singh gave away 189 runs for his two wickets, hardly looking menacing, leggie Mishra was even more pathetic and went wicket less after conceding 203 runs in a marathon stint of 56 overs.

In the morning, Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni's ploy of taking the third new ball immediately after play started today did not pay dividends as the two Jayawardenes easily saw off the new ball duo of Zaheer Khan and Ishant Sharma.

The duo's massive and morale-destroying partnership reached the 300-mark in 510 balls before Mahela completed his 250 with a single off the totally non-penetrative Harbhajan Singh in 400 balls. Later he became the ninth batsman in the world to reach 9000 runs.

Spinners Harbhajan and Amit Mishra who hardly made any impression gave away over 370 runs for a lone wicket in combination.

TOI