At Rajkot last Tuesday Sri Lanka proved to the Cricket world that they are second to none, despite having to bowl on yet another Indian belter.

Speaking to some of our bowlers now on tour in India, they state the obvious, “The pitches are a bowler’s night mare”. Kumar Sangakkara endorsed these views during the presentation ceremony; at Rajkot, of course he phrased it more diplomatically.

Sad that Sri Lanka fell short by just three runs, as they lost wickets during the run of play. Many views come in from all quarters when a game is concluded in close contention. One of them, conveyed to us by an ardent fan was worth penning down.

The depth overs bowled by Ashis Nehera and Zaheer Khan consisted of around 4 to 5 Yorkers, in an over. The gentleman who requested me to keep his name anonymous stated that Mathews, Kandamby and even Samaraweera should have stood just outside the batting crease to score off the Yorkers that could be made into a full toss, taking into account the pitch condition, but also by doing so you negate any possible reverse swing.

Tomorrow is another day for the visitors. A great opportunity to correct whatever mistakes they made, in that big run chase, come back strong, with a positive frame of mind and beat the Indian’s in their tailor made batting pitches.

Sri Lanka will miss the services of Murali and Dilhara.

Dilhara was very impressive in the run feast game at Rajkot. Thank God he has got over the no ball forbear, he is bowling quick and seems much focused. Tendulkhar will remember the delivery that nipped back, to have him cleaned up neck and crop, while Dhony the Indian skipper would have been vary of Dilhara if he was playing tomorrow.  Dhony who was looking good for a big hundred was deceived by a Dilhara slower ball. The Indian’s are well aware of what Dilhara can dish out on his day.

Sri Lanka will be hoping for Lasith Malinga’s recovery from flu. With the illness to Malinga and Injury to Fernando and Muralitheran, The visitors are certainly vulnerable in the bowling arena. The batting seems to be clicking, except Jayasuriya’s role in the middle order. Trevor Bayllis, will be busy doing overtime, trying to bring in sanity to “running between the wickets”.

The home team is on cloud 9, and why not. They won the Test series with a fair share of luck thanks to the umpires; they squared the T20, chasing big totals in front of their big home crowds and came out trumps in the first ODI, saved by the bell of course. Their bowlers are injury free, and the batting looks so very awesome, so much so, they are now rated as the best batting side in the world, especially on the belter pitches of India.

The Indian pitches are 90 % batsman friendly and only 10 % to poor bowlers. On hind sight who wants to be a bowler in India? The pitches are so batsman friendly, why be a whipping boy? Indian young hopefuls will want to emulate their batting hero’s especially on home soil, because they are the ones in the lime light. Take into account the ongoing series so far. Out of six completed games  5 players of the match awards have gone to batsman and just one to the poor relation,” the bowler”.

Vidarbha cricket stadium in Nagpur, relatively a new venue will host her second one day international tomorrow. This Stadium can accommodate around 45,000 spectators. India and Australia locked horns on the 28^th of October this year in a day night game. The home team beat Australia by 99 runs. India made 354 in their allotted 50 overs. MS Dhoni 124, Gautam Gambir 76, Suresh Raina 62 Not out and run Machine Sehwag 40.

The whipping boys for this game from down under were Mitchell Johnson, Ben Hilfenhaus, Peter Sidle, Nathan Hauritz, Shane Watson and new baby Adam Voges.

Andy Atkinson the ICC curator told the Sri Lankan media in an open forum, that the Ideal one day wicket would be a 70-30 pitch in favor of the batsman.

Let’s hope that Mother Nature will stay good for yet another run feast at Nagpur.