India 1-up in the Test Series

The opening day of the test match belonged to Sachin, who recorded the highest number of Test centuries surpassing his guru Sunil Gavaskar, the second day belonged to Murali, who ran through the Indian batting, but towards the end of the same day, “45 minutes of madness” can be regarded as the main cause of our defeat. That collapse was indeed the turning point of the game, after Sri Lanka was strongly placed to obtain a big first innings lead, but instead ended up with a 60 run deficit. Nevertheless, Sri Lanka could have salvaged a honouable draw if a repeat performance of the first innings had been avoided. Towards the end of the fourth day Sri Lanka looked to be in a promising position, but once again hand over the advantage to India with yet another collapse akin to the first innings.

I am failing to comprehend not one, but two batting collapses in the Sri Lankan middle order. It’s unimaginable how the susceptible middle order has failed time and time again. After Muralitharan changed the odds in favour of the Lankans, it is expected of the batsman to diligently consolidate the position. True that Murali just got a solitary wicket in the 2nd innings, but that’s understandable, after all he’s no superman.
Had the middle order delivered instead of faltering in two crucial occasions, the match would have been easily saved, or even won.