Out of the subcontinent

Two Test matches started overnight, England v Sri Lanka and West Indies v India.

Given that the teams from the subcontinent are playing away from home, it goes without saying that they are both struggling in their respective matches.

TRENT BRIDGE: Sri Lanka, as usual, lost an early wicket before Kumar Sangakkara combined with Upul Tharanga for a stand of 82, before an unfortunate decision by umpire Hair terminated Sangakkara's innings. From there, the rest of Sri Lanka collapsed as they suddenly found themselves at 105 for 6, a loss of 5 wickets for just 21 runs. The lower order again outscored the specialist batsmen as they carried their team to a decent 231. With Kevin Pietersen likely to score at least half of that, Sri Lanka will hope for a much better batting display in their second innings.

ST. JOHN'S: On a traditionally flat wicket, India went into the match with just 4 bowlers. Irfan Pathan and Harbhajan Singh, among India's most experienced bowlers, were bizarrely left out of the team. The wayward VRV Singh and Sreesanth were selected in their positions. Even though the West Indies are rated 8th in the world in Test matches, their bowlers do have a bit of potential. Corey Collymore and Dwayne Bravo impressed in Australia, and Fidel Edwards is too sharp for some of India's batsmen. Dave Mohammed, the chinaman spinner, gave the Indians plenty of trouble in the final ODI, and Ian Bradshaw impressed in New Zealand. All in all, this bowling attack is full of potential. This showed - India was 235 for 9 at the end of the day - and they scored at the blistering run rate of 2.67. Rahul Dravid, evidently lacking form, top scored with 49 from 173 balls (1.7 runs per over) before Collymore put him out of his misery. All of the batsmen, except for Wasim Jaffer, made a start but were unable to convert it into anything meaningful. India will hope that the likes of Munaf Patel and Anil Kumble can do similar damage in the West Indies' innings.