INDIA VS SRI LANKA SERIES ---- TURNING POINT
Butter fingers
Sri Lanka had four centurions in the first innings of the series - and all four got reprieves well before they had put 600 on the board. Mahela Jayawardene and Thilan Samaraweera were dropped, Malinda Wanapura caught off a no-ball, Tillakaratne Dilshan got a decision overturned in his favour, though the review was doubtful. In all, the four scored 339 runs after the reprieves - and that was only the tangible effect they had.
Sehwag comes and goes
For the first five overs of India's first innings in the SSC Test, it seemed the match - affected by rain and a docile pitch - was headed only one way: a draw. Certainly no danger for India. It was Virender Sehwag who made things look like that, scoring 25 runs in the first five overs. But when he hooked Nuwan Kulasekara to a waiting fieldsman at deep backward square leg, little did he know what was coming up next. An innings defeat.
Mendis arrives ... and destroys
India's collapse started with Sehwag, but Ajantha Mendis' first wicket - Rahul Dravid, out bowled - had a psychological effect on the Indian middle order that plagued them the rest of the series. That devastating carrom ball was perhaps the biggest turning point of the series. Mendis was no longer a mythical mystery spinner but a destroyer in flesh and blood, and India didn't know how to handle him.
Sehwag applies himself, but the umpires don't
In the second innings at the SSC, Sehwag looked more circumspect, more responsible, but was undone by a poor (given the amount of replays available) decision to give him out lbw. Another collapse, which would become a feature of Indian batting, ensued and the last nine added 113.
Gambhir and the middle order desert Sehwag
With Sehwag playing perhaps the innings of his life, and Gautam Gambhir supporting him, India looked like getting to a big total in the first innings of the Galle Test. Gambhir got out with the score at 167 and in no time India were reduced to 178 for 4. VVS Laxman held his end up and put on 100 with Sehwag, but the next collapse featured six
