2nd Test, SL vs NZ: Samaraweera fights back for SL on Day 3

A record seventh-wicket partnership between Thilan Samaraweera and Suraj Randiv helped Sri Lanka to avoid the follow on against New Zealand on the third day of the second Test at P. Sara Oval on Tuesday.
But Sri Lanka, after reaching 225 for 6 when stumps was called early for bad light, still trailed the tourists by 187 runs on the first innings. New Zealand made 412. Middle-order batsman Samaraweera was unbeaten on 76, and Randiv not out on 34 for his best score in Test cricket.Together they have shared 97, a record for the seventh wicket at P. Sara Oval, improving on the 80-run stand between Mahela Jayawardene and Prasanna Jayawardene in a win against India in 2008. Samaraweera came in when Angelo Mathews fell in the morning on 103 for 5 and showed no discomfort despite batting with a split webbing between his middle and ring fingers on his right hand. He faced 156 balls and hit five fours so far in his 30th half century.
New Zealand opted for the second new ball soon after it was available, but the batsmen survived the brief spell before Kiwis captain Ross Taylor was forced to bring on the spin bowlers due to the deteriorating light. Sri Lanka avoided the follow on when Samaraweera scored a boundary off an edge that flew over the slip cordon off the bowling of Trent Boult.
Play was suspended 90 minutes before scheduled due to bad light. Earlier, Tim Southee picked up both overnight batsmen in the morning session after Sri Lanka resumed on 43 for 3.
Opener Tharanga Paranavithana, after more than three hours at the crease, was caught behind for 40 off 112 balls at 102 for 4. He'd been dropped in the slips by Taylor on 32. Mathews went two overs later for 47, just before lunch, when he edged to the slips and Martin Guptill took a great one-handed diving catch.
Wicketkeeper Prasanna Jayawardene came in and barely survived a stumping off his second ball faced. He was the last wicket to go, after lunch at 128 for 6, caught in the deep when he top edged an attempted sweep off spinner Jeetan Patel on 12. Southee was 4 for 51 by day's end.
Sri Lanka lead the two match series 1-0 following their ten wicket win in Galle.

Aussie press hails South Africa after Adelaide draw

Australian media Tuesday praised the rearguard action by South Africa to save the second Test and said their survival will feel like a win going into the third and deciding showdown this week.
Debutant Faf du Plessis batted throughout the final day for a defiant unbeaten century to guide the Proteas to a thrilling draw in Adelaide, spending almost eight hours at the crease in a feat of physical and mental endurance."No faffing about from Du Plessis," said the Sydney Morning Herald, with cricket writer Malcolm Knox saying the match had everything bar a winner.
"Or maybe not," he added.
"South Africa's survival will certainly feel like a win as they go into Friday's decider, while Australia's failure to dismiss them in 148 overs will deflate their self-belief beyond quick repair."
The Australian newspaper called Australia's inability to nail the win an "heroic failure" while praising the contribution from Du Plessis, who was at the crease for 464 minutes and faced 376 balls in his draining 110.
"One of the joys of Test cricket is when a player explores the limits of their capabilities, proves something they always wondered if they could do, finds a reserve hidden even from themselves," the paper's Gideon Haigh wrote.
"Faf du Plessis discovered some things about himself in this marathon Test match in Adelaide - as have his opponents."
Sydney's Daily Telegraph also praised Du Plessis' "dogged debut" while bemoaning Australia's inability to find a consistent top order.
While David Warner got a century in the match, Ed Cowan, Rob Quiney and Ricky Ponting all struggled, with the run-scoring burden being shouldered by Michael Clarke and Mike Hussey.
Quiney was dropped for Perth after making a pair of ducks with Shane Watson returning.
The Telegraph's cricket writer Malcolm Conn said the top order was not sustainable as it was.
"The bottom line is Australia need to find a more functional and stable top order than the one which has left them three wickets down for under 100 on 16 occasions in the past 16 Tests," he said.
Australia must win the series in Perth, which starts Friday, to take the world number one ranking from South Africa.

Indian selectors fail to take tough calls

India witnessed one of their most embarrassing defeats in recent times at home – in fact just their seventh on Indian soil in the last decade – by going down by ten wickets in three-and-half days to England in Mumbai on Monday. And what was the reaction from the selectors? A day later, they retained 15 players from the squad that was humiliated at the Wankhede Stadium for the third Test in Kolkata starting December 5.
This despite how India, having asked and received a turning and bouncing track, and then having gained a massive advantage by batting first, failed miserably. Their spin trio of R Ashwin, Pragyan Ojha and Harbhajan Singh came second to the England pair of Monty Panesar and Graeme Swann. Their batsmen also did pretty badly, with only Cheteshwar Pujara showing the temperament to face the guile of the English spinners.So what does his retention indicate? That there are no other suitable replacements in India? That Harbhajan is good enough to hold his place in Kolkata? Or that he has been retained in the side with the idea being to give him a farewell 100th Test on a ground where he demolished the Steve Waugh-led Australia, picking up 13 wickets in the match, including a hat-trick, over a decade ago? Whichever way you look at it, the selectors seem to have compromised on the outcome of the series, which was seen as one of 'revenge' by many including leading Indian players.
Sachin Tendulkar, the run machine of the Indian cricket, has been visibly uncomfortable against both fast men and spinners in his last few Tests, getting bowled and lbw to deliveries which he would send to the boundary with ease in his heydays. He has failed to reach 30 in his last six Test innings, and four of his five dismissals have been bowled. Yet despite a string of low scores and mediocre batting, why have the selectors still persisted with a 39-year-old veteran whose reflexes have gone down? Again, it appears a compromise.
It's difficult to change an entire squad in the middle of a series, and one defeat does not call for wholesale changes. But at the least the selectors needed to accept that there are problems within Indian cricket, needed to show that between the five of them, and with inputs from the team staff, they were capable of showing a little reaction. Not reacting at all has only highlighted an apparent stubbornness within Indian cricket to acknowledge glaring deficiencies.
Whether the selectors have spoken to Harbhajan or Tendulkar or Gautam Gambhir, who despite making a 65 - the highest in India's second innings - didn't evoke much confidence while facing England's seamers outside his off stump, or Yuvraj Singh, whose frailties against quality spin was once again exposed, or Zaheer Khan, who like Harbhajan have already passed his prime, is not known. But it is highly unlikely, keeping with tradition and rhetoric.
Ajinkya Rahane and Murali Vijay, who are much more agile than most of the Indian fielders on the field for the first two Tests, have been overlooked consistently, despite scoring heavily in domestic cricket. Are the selectors trying to make more Subramaniam Badrinaths and Manoj Tiwarys, who have been selected numerous times but didn't get their deserved chances?
There are questions aplenty, and the selectors would be doing a favour to millions of Indian cricket fans by answering at least some of them. Alas, for the time being, they have put India in jeopardy going into the last two Tests of what was a much-awaited series.