India on course for the No.1 position - Mumbai third day

The main interest in the first session today was whether Sehwag would complete his third 300 and continue towards Lara's record. After adding 9 runs, Sehwag was dismissed by Muralidharan - he later remarked that he was happy with 293!!! All hopes of the crowd went down immediately. Murali must have thought that this was his lucky day and would have harbored thoughts of a big haul of wickets which finally came true - well, a haul of four against India in India is a big one for Murali by his standards.

After Sehwag's dismissal, normal cricket resumed and it was clearly evident that the pitch was not so great for batting. Thanks to Sehwag's pace, the Indians still had a chance to bat on the pitch at its best. Even then, the bowlers were able to strangle the new batsmen at the crease. Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman scored half-centuries without carrying on further. The runs scored today was in stark contrast with what was achieved yesterday. Whatever rate it was, the fact that the Indians were spending time at the crease must have delighted MS Dhoni.

The pitch was playing true even in the morning and MS Dhoni must have thought about playing the entire day and take a lead of close to 300 over the Lankans. The pitch would then do its bit on the last 2 days thereby giving the Indians the match and the series. He had to do the staying part with the help of the last man, while scoring his 3rd century - his sixes helping him in no small margin. MSD has the Midas touch going and I am sure if he buys a Lotto ticket, he will win even a billion dollars.

The Sri Lankan bowlers bowled well, especially Herath (though he was luckless). Murali finally picked up wickets that would have comforted him after the thrashing he received the previous day. Sangakkara was clueless and it seemed that he was wishing the T20 and ODI series started earlier than scheduled. He must be hoping for the men in his team who have scored 1000 runs already in this year to do an India (in the first test) - Samaraweera, Dilshan, Jayawardene and himself are going to be key.

The Session Dashboard has Sri Lanka gaining points today thanks to the wickets taken. Overall, the Indians have a huge lead in the test match that Sri Lanka will take a bit to negotiate. Do expect the spinners to come to the fore tomorrow - interesting day tomorrow. Dont be surprised if the match is over on the fourth day itself - the Lankans wilted to pressure in the second test, they can do it again.Bayliss has bravely mentioned that his team is confident of scoring 400 - brave words!!!