Sachin Tendulkar scored his fifth Test double century to help India to 669-9 at the close of play on day four of the second Test against Sri Lanka.

He put on 256 runs for the fifth wicket with Suresh Raina, who scored a debut ton in India’s reply to Sri Lanka’s first innings score of 642-4 declared.
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Dubai: India may have flopped in the opening cricket Test against Sri Lanka but opener Virender Sehwag held on to the number one spot, while Sachin Tendulkar gained a place to be seventh in the latest ICC rankings for batsmen issued on Friday.

Sehwag, who scored 109 and 31 in the Test which India lost by 10 wickets, has opened up a 14-point gap over second-placed Kumar Sangakkara.
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Pakistan captain Salman Butt has rated the England team as relatively better opponents than the Australians.

Butt said that the series against England will be a lot tougher, and every player will have to raise the level of his game.

“I think England are better than Australia. Each member of their team knows what is demanded from them and they are better-equipped to deal with the playing surfaces,” a newspaper quoted Butt, as saying.
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Colombo: Aggressive start from Suresh Raina and Sachin Tendulkar on the fourth day of the second Test at Colombo saw India past 400 runs in the sixth over of the morning.

India look on to build unbeaten 141-run partnership between Sachin Tendulkar and debutant Suresh Raina on day 4 to register a comeback in second Test against Sri Lanka. Still trailing by 260 runs in first innings, India’s first target will be to score 60 runs to avoid yet another embarrassing follow-on in the current Test series.
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A run feast at Colombo was what served to the Indian camp as the Sri Lankan openers provided a blazing start and toiled the Indian bowlers hard to pass through the gates. It was yet again Dilshan pressing the accelerator to get Sri Lanka to a flyer and then Sangakara and Paranavitana carried the innings in complete authority and style.

Taking on a weak Indian bowling Dilshan dispatched Sharma for four consecutive boundaries, thereby took complete command early in the innings. Mithun proved to be a bit inexpensive as he troubled Paranavitana, but soon faced the leather when bowling against Dilshan. Dilshan with some sheer brilliance went to notch his fifty by guiding Harbhajan to the point boundary in his very first over. Dilshan seemed to notch a big one, but Ojha bowling with a short extra cover man removed the danger man.

Ojha slightly tossed up and Dilshan came down the track and slammed it straight to Laxman. Dilshan nearly missed a ton, but Laxman taking a sharp catch relieved the Indians. But, from then it was the lefty’s who made life difficult for the bowlers. The deck not offering much movement and neither any swing combined with poor length from the bowlers, Sri Lanka batted with ease.

Sangakara exhibited some great counter attack and Paranavitana exhibited pure timing and class. In a lifeless track and unthreatening bowling, the duo continued to enjoy their batting and posed some serious problems ahead of the Indian captain. Harbhajan leading the attack had a huge responsibility on his shoulders, but though bowling consistently couldn’t get a breakthrough.

Ishant Shrama and Mithun constantly bowled away from the angle there by caused no problems for the batsmen.  Sangakara constantly whipped and pulled and with positive attitude batted steadily till he edged Mithun in his late 90’s.That was where the Indians started to apply pressure, but then he used his feet extremely well and sashayed down the track to craft Sehwag  to the mid on boundary to bring his 23rd Test ton.

Coming to Paranavitana who started a bit patchy, found his feet soon and laid a solid platform along with Sangakara. After getting beat a couple of times to Mithun, he opened up against Ishant and played some lovely crispy drives. Often taking quick singles and rotating strikes constantly, anchored the innings firmly.

With not much trouble, Paranavitana went to score his second successive hundred, just ahead of Sangakara. Just aiming to get a big one, he fell to an inside edge of Sharma after Tea. India needed to capitalize and pick another couple before end of day’s play, but Jayawardene with some solid defense and tactical shot selection remained firm along with Sangakara.

Dilshan nearly missed a ton, but Parnavitana along with Sangakara laid a solid platform to fumble the Indians. Jayawardene is standing firm in his favorite ground and it’s once again Sri Lanka on the advantage after flipping of the coin which went in their way.