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India have run away with the game already with a score of 307 for 1 in 59 overs at Tea time. Gautam Gambhir is unbeaten on 140 from 173 balls (with 13 fours) and is getting solid support from Rahul Dravid who is on 32 (from 62 balls with 3 fours). The homeside had only lost the wicket of Virender Sehwag in the post lunch session but not before he had put on a blazing 233 for the first wicket.
The hosts resumed the afternoon session at 126 for 0 with Sehwag on 70 and Gambhir on 50. Sehwag continued to bat with total freedom to get to his 16th test hundred in 97 balls. Gambhir followed that up by reaching his 8th test hundred. Sehwag had hit a hat-trick of boundaries in an over from Muralitharan. Against the run of play in the 42nd over, Sri Lanka got a huge relief when Virender Sehwag failed to keep a drive on the up along the groung to get caught at covers. Sehwag had raced away to 131 from 122 balls with 18 fours and 2 sixes. Sehwag and Gambhir have created a new record for the highest opening partnership for India against Sri Lanka which was previously held by Navjot Sidhu and Manoj Prabhakar.
After Sehwag’s fall, Rahul Dravid fresh from his 177 found batting pretty easy at this Green Park as well. He played plenty of backfoot drives to move onto 32 and help Gambhir take India past 300. The two batsmen are in an unbroken partnership of 74 for the second wicket. The previous highest amount of runs scored in a day’s play at Kanpur has also been overtaken by India today and that too in just two sessions.
Muralitharan continued to get hammered by both Sehwag and Gambhir and his figures are 1 for 73 in 12 overs. Incidentally it is also his first wicket of the series! Mendis has been taken for 65 in his 12 overs while Herath has started to bowl a restrictive line outside leg to Dravid and has repaired his figures to 0 for 61 in 11 overs. The afternoon session produced 181 runs in 32 overs at the loss of Sehwag’s wicket. There are still 31 overs left in the day’s play.