Can Mumbai reduce Gayle to a sideshow?

Big Picture

In the circus that is IPL 2011, Mumbai Indians have been the trampoline artistes. They soared through the first half of the season, putting more than daylight between themselves and the rest. Then they lost steam, and began hurtling towards terra firma. At one point they even had to deal with the possibility of missing the play-offs but, almost inevitably, they bounced back with two nerve-shredding wins against Kolkata Knight Riders.

Trampoline acts are fine, but can get repetitive after a while. Meanwhile, Royal Challengers Bangalore have provided real entertainment in their corner of the circus, led by the ringmaster Chris Gayle. He has done everything for them - he has twirled his whip to tame the wildest bowling attacks, and he has juggled batting and bowling duties without breaking a sweat, all without losing the inimitable strut and swagger that are part of his persona. He has rarely failed to entertain this season, and Chepauk will love to be regaled one final time on Friday evening. If Gayle's still in town on Saturday, though, they won't be rooting for him. Chennai Super Kings are already in the final, and will have the crowd behind them for the big game.

This virtual semi-final can best be seen through the prism of various mini-battles that will make up the contest: the battle of the tenses - the present, Tendulkar v the future, Kohli; the battle of the storms - Gayle v Blizzard; and the battle of the coloured caps - Gayle v Malinga. On a flat track, and in humid conditions that could herald a dewy night, the battle that matters most could be when the coin is spun.

Sri Lanka rebuild after England strike back

The opening stages of the first Test continued to be closely fought as Sri Lanka refused to buckle despite favourable conditions for England's pace bowlers. The home side clawed back ground with a wicket apiece for the dangerous James Anderson and Chris Tremlett, but Thilan Samaraweera survived some tricky moments to lift Sri Lanka to 207 for 4 at lunch on the second day.

The visitors hadn't added a run to their overnight score of 133 for 2 when England made the first breakthrough of the day as Mahela Jayawardene edged Anderson to Andrew Strauss, who held a superb catch diving to his right behind second slip. The wicket was brought about by trademark swing bowling from Anderson who began by probing Jayawardene's outside edge with a series of outswingers before bring one back into him. Jayawardene tried to drop his hands but couldn't react in time.

Runs continued to be hard to come by as Anderson strung together four testing maidens and Stuart Broad was a little more threatening than the first day as he located a better length although he remained inconsistent. Broad was replaced by Tremlett, the pick of the quicks yesterday, and he immediately had the batsmen in two minds with an awkward length.

He struck Paranavitana a painful blow on the inner thigh which required some attention from the physio and in his next over Tremlett found his inside edge to end a determined 191-ball innings. In the previous over against Broad, Paranavitana had survived a huge appeal for lbw which Strauss opted not to review and it was again the right decision with not enough of the ball hitting leg stump to get it overturned.

Paranavitana had only managed to add eight to his overnight total but had shown the same good judgement and resilience that characterised his effort on the opening afternoon. However, it was due reward for Tremlett who continued to look dangerous and benefited from a hint of uneven bounce when he struck Samaraweera a nasty blow on his arm.

Samaraweera lived a little dangerously as he played away from his body but also collected some confident boundaries including a straight drive off Anderson. Whenever the England bowlers strayed onto his pads he was quick to pick them off although he wasn't far off edging to third slip when the ball just eluded a diving Alastair Cook. Still, it was comfortably Samaraweera's best effort on British soil having failed to reach double figures in his previous four Test innings.

Prasanna Jayawardene, batting a place higher than normal at No. 6 to allow Sri Lanka to field five bowlers, accompanied Samaraweera until lunch with a sparky innings that kept the scoreboard ticking over. He twice gained boundaries to third man through the slip cordon but batsmen deserve some fortune when the ball moves and the fifth-wicket stand was worth a valuable 48 by the interval.