Indias Target in perspective

India's target of 499 seems huge. Of course, India's own poor batting performance lead to them having such a huge target to chase. But lets actually see what's happened in the past in the fourth innings.

At least on one occasion, England has scored 654/5 in the fourth innings of the test match against South Africa. They were chasing 696 in the 1938-39 series and ended just 42 short. Two centuries and one double century was hit in that epic innings of 218.2 8 ball overs.

Apart from that great effort, there have been 13 other occasions where a team has scored 400 or more runs in the fourth innings, with 3 leading to victories.

Only in this decade did Sarwan and Chanderpaul hit centuries to score 418/7 against - guess who - Australia to win the match. The bowling comprised of McGrath, Gillespie, Lee and McGill. Just a month back, Sri Lanka, lead by a wonderful knock by Sangakkara, scored 410 against Australia and got into 96 runs of victory. Don't forget that India's chase of 406 against the West Indies in Port of Spain is legendary.

Thats not a lot, but enough precedent to go after this target whole heartedly and see if they can get across. Its time to make fresh history....

ps: If they don't make, hope they don't make it to the list of highest margin of victories.

Jayawardene overtakes DeSilva

Jayawardene is currently batting on 213* against England with Sri Lanka placed at 499/7. After this century, which is his 21st, he broke the Sri Lankan record of maximum test Centuries. The earlier record was held by Aravinda DeSilva (20). Other SriLankan high century scorers are Sangakkara and Attapatu ( both 16).

Player	Mat	Inns	NO	Runs	HS	Ave	100	50
DPMD Jayawardene (SL)	93*	151	11	7247	374	51.76	21	30
PA de Silva (SL)	93	159	11	6361	267	42.97	20	22
KC Sangakkara (SL)	71*	116	9	6032	287	56.37	16	24
MS Atapattu (SL)	90	156	15	5502	249	39.02	16	17

The world wide record is of course held by Sachin Tendulkar with 37 centuries. Other highlights of Jayawardene's career has been making 374 against South Africa, which is the fourth highest score in a test Innings. He also shared a World record partnership 624 for the 3rd wicket with Sangakkara in the same match. That partnership of 624 is still the highest ever test partnership for any wicket and the first and only partnership of over 600 in the history of Test Cricket.