India emerged as the top Test Playing Nation after Team India thoroughly outplayed visiting Sri Lanka in the recent three-Test series taking the 2-0 victory. The other Test was drawn. India beat Sri Lanka by innings in both the second and third Test.

India bowled better, batted best and fielded much better than their opponents and deserved their wins. In that process some records were broken and one narrowly missed.

Virender Sehwag, the twice triple centurian missed his third triple hundred and a new world record by just seven runs. He was out at 293 in the third Test though ensuring yet another innings win for India. Sehwag was adjudged, rightly, as not only the Player of the Match but Player of the Series also, for his total of 491 runs from four innings for an average of 122.75.

The next best was the old warrior Rahul Dravid with two centuries and a total of 433 in four innings for an average of 108.25. Dhoni came up with two centuries in two Tests and Tendulkar with one proving that he is still a force to be reckoned with. Opener Gambhir played in only two Tests (three innings) with two centuries and a total of 282 runs. He was the sheet anchor while saving the first Test along with Dravid and Dhoni when Sri Lanka scored 760 runs in the first innings and India made only 426 and played out the match for 412 runs losing only 4 wickets. .

Sri Lanka did have four centurians but despite scoring a huge total in the first Test could not force a win. India managed to draw it with a stonewalling effort that saw the best of Gautam Gambhir and Rahul Dravid, Dhoni, Tendulkar with centuries, and Sehwag and Laxman scoring their fifties.

Actually it was 32 for 4 for India in the first innings of the first Test and then India managed 385 runs on the first day itself. It was their record for most runs in a day. Dravid and Dhoni and then Gambhir and Tendulkar saved India and forced a draw. Sri Lanka had broken the record for most runs in a day by a side visiting India, and most runs in an innings by any side in India. [Gambhir did not play in the third Test to attend to his sister's wedding.]

In the second Test India scored 642 runs with Gambhir 167, Sehwag 131, Dravid 144 and useful knocks by Laxman and Yuvraj Singh. Herath took 5 wickets for 121 runs. Sri Lanka could only reply with 229 and 269 when Sreesanth bagged five wickets in a fiery spell; Bhajji and Ojha took 2 wickets each to add to the visitors' misery.

The Indian batsmen mastered the world's best spinner and the highest wicket taker, Mutthiah Muralitharan, who went wicket less in the second innings of the first Test India while conceding 124 runs. In the second Test he could take only two wickets at the huge expense of 175 runs. In the third he took four wickets but had to concede 195 runs, not a flattering record for the great bowler.

Apart from the five centurians - Gambhir, Sehwag, Dravid, Tendulkar and Dhoni, Yuvraj also played useful innings in three innings of 23, 67 and 68 runs. Laxman had 51, 63 and 62 in three innings; he was unlucky to be out for naught in one.

The newcomer M. Vijay deputizing for Gambhir in the third Test scored an impressive 87 runs to make it 221 run for the first wicket with Sehwag who continued with another double century partnership with Dravid 237 runs. Sehwag was unlucky to go at 293 runs, just short of 7 runs to set a new world record of three triple hundreds to beat Don Bradman and Brain Lara who also had two double hundreds (Lara with 400 not out) to their credit.

[Bradman is no more and Lara has retired, and so Sehwag has a few more years to go for the new record but then he has to start from one to accomplish it. However, his aggregate was enough for being named Player of the Series and his aggressiveness and stroke play have endeared everyone.]

In the third Test India ran up a huge score of 726 to completely demoralize Sri Lanka who replied with 393 and 309. Actually when Sri Lanka had scored 393 in the first innings it looked as if the Test will result in a draw. However, the Indian batsmen scoring faster put up a huge total and the bowlers forced Sri Lanka to give up for 309 runs in the second innings. For India it was gratifying to have the first two wickets yielding two double century partnerships, a feat not common these days.

No doubt a couple of umpiring blunders went against Sri Lanka but overall, except in the first innings of the first Test, Sri Lanka was outplayed. The tourists could not register their first Test win in India even after more than two decades.

The inconsistency showed in Sri Lanka side though Mehela Jaywardene scored a high 275 and his brother Prasanna contributed 154 not out in their huge 760 runs first innings total in the first Test. Dilshan, the opener, scored centuries in two Tests and Captain Sangakkara made 137 in the third. Mathews was unlucky to get out at 99 in the first innings of the third Test - he deserved a century, but these are the glorious uncertainties of Cricket.

And then, Sri Lanka had miserable fielding with many catches being dropped giving Indian batsmen the chance to score freely. The dashing Sehwag was let off a couple of times. In contrast, Indian fielding was much better, a fact Captain Dhoni made sure to hammer in his remarks at the end of the match.

Though India has now topped the Test ranking, the honor may be short-lived as the country is not playing more Tests than their closest rivals South Africa and Australia. India will play only two Tests in the next 11 months and might be overtaken by the others.

There must be some way to have at least half a dozen Tests in a year for the major Test playing nations to score enough points. However, as they say it's the money- game and Tests are not that profitable as the One Dayers and Twenty20 matches.

In any case, the real game, as the stalwarts still maintain, is Test cricket and one hopes that the highest cricketing organizations in India and the other countries would make more Tests possible.

12/10/09