Sydney 2012: Into Day Four

Well, we almost got it right yesterday when I opined:

So it's down to how well Wade can bat with the tail this morning, and how long the whole operation can last once we've got past lunch, if, indeed, we get that far. 

We didn't, as it turned out, get to lunch, and as things started to happen in a flurry in the last session there was a strong likelihood we wouldn't get into Day Four, but that's getting ahead of the developing narrative.

Wade did his job with the support of the tail, something that looked fairly dodgy at first, but resuming at 6-342 another 42 with Siddle (a 77 run partnership, tick there), with Starc and Lyon not chipping in with much (when Lyon went it was 9-393, with the lead on a mere 99) it looked like we were in for a tough run in the second half of the match.

Wade farmed the strike rather well, Bird stuck around the way Starc and Lyon didn't and with thirty-odd needed for the century he managed it thanks to a mix of riding his luck and a bit of judicious hitting. Impressive. The 148  run lead was a bit better than I'd expected.

I wasn't surprised to see Clarke signalling them in shortly thereafter, and wouldn't have been surprised if he didn't, since there was possibly only one ball in it. The timing of the declaration meant there were four overs before lunch, and I wasn't quite sure what was going on as Karunaratne had a go and Dilshan seemed to be taking his time. It was 0-18 at lunch with Karunaratne at 17 and Dilshan still to get off the mark.

And through the first hour after lunch it looked like we were going to be chasing a reasonable target batting last. Dilshan went with the total on 24, caught low down by Hughes at third slip, and seemed reluctant to depart and at drinks they were still one down and about half way to wiping out the deficit.

At that point, I reckoned there was a reasonable chance we'd be chasing around 200, but shortly after tea (1-130 off 31 overs) the wheels fell off. Strange.

It started when Karunaratne was given out caught behind, and didn't refer the decision, despite Jytawardene's suggestion that he do so. Had he done so, he would have stayed, since there was no forensic hot spot on the bat and they don't use the snickometer in the DRS. There was a definite ping on the snicko, he knew he hit it and that, it seemed, was that.

But things turn on little bits like that. They hadn't wiped out the deficit at that point, and once they had Thirimanne went hooking into a well set trap in the deep with the total on 155, making it effectively 3-7. Samaraweera was caught in the deep off Lyon three runs later and with Matthews run out and Jayawardene caught at slip things were looking far better than they should have been at 7-202, effectively 7-54, and when they went off at stumps that lead had crept out to 77.

So here we go into what must certainly be the last day with two things to look forward to.
Actually, make that three.

First, how long do Chandimal and Herath stick around? Hughesy's tip is that we'll be chasing around 120.

Second, can we do it? Chasing 120, I think we can. Have the lead blow out to 150 and it starts to get dodge. Make it 175 and I've got my doubts and 200 is where I'm starting to concede a considerable degree of difficulty.

Third, I see Mr Inverarity is announcing the squad for the first round of one-dayers, which is going to very interesting indeed. The call of Sunday morning yard duty, however, rules out too much in the way of speculation...