India Sri Lanka third test drawn. Sri Lanka retain the Rubber they won in 2010.
Colombo, 1 April 2013: Third Test between India and Sri Lanka drawn. Replying to India's first innings score of 1002 / 4 Declared, Sri Lanka made 1278 / 3 at Tea on Day-5. This is the 14th successive drawn test between the two countries since the Candy Test win for Sri Lanka in 2010.
Play was called off because all the Indian bowlers were exhausted. Ishant Sharma, Harbhajan Singh and Pragyan Ojha were admitted to a Colombo Hospital for saline infusions. Harbhajan Singh, who went wicket-less in the series announced his decision to retire from Test Cricket from the hospital bed.
Virendar Sehwag set a new record for bowling maximum number of overs in an innings by a non-regular bowler. His figures of 57-0-209-0 were the most economical in the test.
Mahela Jayavardene broke his own record for the highest score in a test innings. He had made 416 in the previous drawn test at Candy. Here he scored 432 not out with the help of 57 fours and 7 sixes.
This is the first occasion when three batsmen scored over 300 runs in a test. Earlier Sehwag had scored 307 and Kumar Sangakkara had made 301 before he was run out by India's fifteenth man Amit Mishra. India had 4 substitute fielders on field for most part of day-5.
India made a request to the Umpires to allow anyone from the galleries to field for them. Umpires did not allow this request. But they allowed Coach Gary Kirsten to substitute for substitute fielder Murali Vijay who collapsed at the long-leg boundary.
Sri Lanka Captain wanted the Umpires to allow India to use their substitute bowlers to bowl so that Mahela could complete his 500. But the Umpires refused citing the ICC guidelines which allowed only the first 11 players to bowl.
Jayavardene won the Man of the Match award. He was also declared the Man of the Series for scoring a monumental 1013 runs in the 3 test series. This is an all-time record. He also held three catches that were offered by Indian batsmen in the whole series and was declared the Best Fielder.
Sachin Tendulkar added 2 more centuries to his kitty to record 63 Test hundreds. His tally of runs now stands at 17683 runs form 198 Tests. Cricket enthusiasts are now waiting eagerly for his 200th test. He is expected to reach the milestone against Sri Lanka later this year at Kanpur on 9 May 2013.
Suraj Randiv won the Best Bowler of the series for picking up 6 wickets in the series. This is the first time a bowler has managed to take more than 5 wickets in a 3 test series between India and Sri Lanka since Muralidharan retired in July 2010.
Zaheer Khan who missed the entire series due to a groin injury, announced his retirement from his home in Mumbai. He made a passionate plea to the ICC to allow substitute bowlers to bowl in Test matches to prevent further bowler burnouts.
He cited the premature retirements of Srisanth, R. P. Singh, Munaf Patel and R Ashwin after the previous India - Sri Lanka series. He also pointed out Lasith Malinga's decision to play only T-20 Cricket in future; which was due to repeated injuries suffered playing Test Cricket on subcontinental pitches.
Sunil Gavaskar, Ravi Shastri, Gary Kirsten and Arjuna Ranatunga have extended strong support to Zaheer Khan's suggestion. But Bishen Singh Bedi pooh poohed this suggestion and said bowlers were getting lazy these days. He said Harbhajan' s retirement was good riddance of a Chucker. He wanted the ICC to order bowlers to bowl without bending arms, legs or any part of their anatomy in future.
Sanath Jayasuriya made it clear that he was not going to retire any time soon and will play on till his body permitted. He said he was hopeful of making a comeback during the next series to be played in India. He expected his experience to come handy on a tough tour of India.
Who will retire first? Rahul, Sachin or Sanath ? Log onto our website and cast your votes. Or Type (RAH)
I'm happy for Randiv.
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