I've no problem with someone hitting through the line to a half-volley or long-hop: four balls deserve to go for four, and the risk should be minimial because lateral movement and uneven bounce can be either countered or smothered.

My objection are {a} to Test technique based on looking to force the ball rather than to work with the pace that is on the ball; and {b} to players trying to play forcing shots to good balls.

Sehwag sets himself for bad balls. His backlift is high, he looks to play the ball low on the bat and he positions himself to swing through the line. To me, a good batsman sets himself, instead, for the good balls: he works on being in position to cope with the great deliveries by minimising the backlift, playing the ball high on the bat, and getting into a good position to either defend or leave.

I accept that a genius like Lara could (at his best) cope exceptionally well with top deliveries despite having a rather high backlift and playing the ball too low on the bat. I don't see Sehwag as any such genius.

Well, I think we can agree to disagree, and you do make some valid points. But the impression that's sometimes given of Sehwag is that all you need to do is pitch it in line and he'll get out, when I think his defence is good enough to cope with good balls. Sure, he might be vulnerable to good fast swing bowling, but then so is Ponting, and indeed most batsmen. Either way, you certainly can't complain about his results.

EDIT- as to his hitting on the bottom of the bat- it occurs to me that he might have come up with it as a method to compensate for his hitting through the line, in order to be in more control of the shot. If so, then he can't be as brainless as Geoff Boycott accuses him of being!

Just when India looked in a strong position, 2 quick wickets do a lot of damage!!!. Dravid looks woefully out of form and short of confidence. Wonder if it wouldve been better to have laxman bat at number 3 with the kind of form he showed in the last test?

Sehwag gets another splendid test hundred. It was amazing seeing him smack Vaas out of the park in the second ball he faced after a 3 hour rain break. He followed it up with a superb drive down the ground to reach his 100.

News Edit: India falling apart Tendulkar and Ganguly gone. India reeling at 178-4 and they were 167-0!!! I find them in similar predicament to England what a poor batting display by the illustrious middle order. Laxman and Sehwag to the rescue act yet again!!! I think are in serious contention of losing the match and thus losing the series in Galle itself. How Pathetic...!!!!

Sehwag made this look so easy and greats like Sachin and Dravid failed. I think it might be the right time for Dravid to consider retirement. The wall has a hole now.

Sehwag on the other end does not look bothererd by all the wickets. He just scored 13 off a Mendis over. What a player.

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Stumps...stopped early for bad light. India 214/4. Sehwag remains unbeaten on 128 off 122 deliveries. Given the pitch condition, 400 will be a very good first innings total. With some company from Laxman, Sehwag can achieve that by lunch tomorrow....provided it does not rain anymore.

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What about Ganguly? Got out chasing a ball he had no business to flirt with, just should've left it alone instead of trying to defend it.What a poor shot in such a pressure situation

Dravid looks very low on confidence right now and his indifferent form isn't helping him either, he couldn't pick Mendis and was lunging forward trying to reach the pitch of the ball. By the way his was a dodgy decision as the ball brushed the helmet of the fielder in his attempt to catch it and that should be ruled not out, the fielder wasn't honest to point it out as well. Dravid wouldve been ruled not out had he reviewed but I dont think he was aware it hit the helmet. Anyway I'd like to give him some more time before dropping him and potientially bring the in-form Laxman into the number 3 slot instead of exposing Dravid at crucial junctures where he gave the opposition a chance to sneak into the game instead of helping capitalize on a great start by the openers.

He is playing magnificently in a world of his own while the rest are struggling in another. I think his attitude wouldve calmed Laxman's nerves who would otherwise be under some pressure after the batting collapse. I was frustrated at times by his indifference to the match situations, it proved effective this time around though.!!! I hope he can go on for a bit to take india to a safer situation.

Realistically DK I didn't see demons in the pitch for a batting collapse which we saw today, nor was there any unplayable bowling which we got on a regular basis during the first test. But given the present match situation, I'd take a 1st innings score of 400. I think for that Sehwag and Laxman have to stick around for quite a while, I dont think we can rely too much on Kartik and his 'maverick' style of batting. Frankly I dont even know what he is doing in the team after he kept so poorly last match, shouldve got Parthiv into the team, who btw is miles ahead of Kartik in batting abilities and claims to have improved on his glove work.

They took Kartik because he was more experienced?? Even a kid would know better than to try that meaningless shot in the 1st innings of the last match. He hardly faced Murali or Mendis last match to claim Parthiv might not be comfortable against them. What a goof up by the team management having Kartik play this match after a disastrous first game, I fully expect him to drop a few more and add to our woes again.

The Wall is more or less destroyed now. Dravid is finished as an international batsman and so are Tendulkar and Ganguly. Laxman, too, is on the borderline. It is time for the Indian selectors to breed in youngsters.

If some one had told me 15 years back that Indian batsmen would struggle against spin, I would have laughed.

You know Django I made that mistake once with Ganguly thinking he was finished as an international player during 2005. All of us know what happened after that. Its hard to believe that are the same batsmen who were playing during the australian series what 6-7 months ago? Dravid scored a crucial 93 in that perth test, Tendulkar and Laxman had good knocks in that series. Ganguly played really well as recently as the 3rd test against SA on a difficult pitch just 2 months back, but the way he got out today was pathetic.

I think Dravid needs time for some soul searching and a county stint maybe a great way to do that. Tendulkar always struggles as soon as he's come out of an injury, but gave away his wicket to a innocuous Vaas delivery.

But you're right though, we really need to start phasing out the old timers and start grooming the youngsters as they wont last beyond another 2 seasons or so.

Murali took 8 wickets in an ODI match against India at Sharjah in what was one of india's worst ever ODI defeats and this was about 6-7 years ago if I remember correctly, so not a recent phenomena by any means.

I know what exactly your saying and not to give lame reasons for a pathetic batting display, the srilankan spinners bowled really well in tandem and they are by no means the orthodox type of spinners you normally see. Also to be fair to the Indians, the Pakistanis too capitulated after the Lankan spin duo bamboozled them in the Asia Cup. I guess its a warning bell to teams playing the Lankans home or away in future to be really watchful of the spin twins and come prepared with definite strategies on tackling them.

Mendis really has that ability to pick wickets with his accuracy and many variations and makes a very potent combination with Murali, and once you get into a defensive mode against them(like we did first test), its like committing suicide. Very rarely have I seen Indian batsmen being so circumspect against spinners and that might just be causing their downfall. It was sad that they didn't learn even after Sehwag and Gambhir showed them today the right way of playing against the duo. Murali is never happy when he is hit to all corners of the park and Mendis seemed to be short of ideas when Sehwag picked him and came down the track and smacked him, infact this strategy even made Murali and Mendis bowl short at times.

Sachin Tendulkar has scored 4 centuries and seven half centuries in the last seventeen matches. Most of them have come in Australia and England on foreign pitches. He is far from finished.

Ganguly has scored runs since his comeback. But his last three centuries have come against Pakistan at home on absolutely flat wickets and one against Bangladesh. Made two half centuries against Australia and two against England.

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