The fatal full toss, and the animated celebrations

Siddarth Ravindran at the Shere Bangla National Stadium13-Mar-2012

The full toss
A low-profile tournament, an easy-paced subcontinental pitch, an opposition missing several frontline bowlers. Perfect for Sachin Tendulkar to end the wait? No. He was surprised by a high full toss from Suranga Lakmal in the sixth over, handing a catch to cover. Perhaps Lakmal was carried away by the manner of that wicket, as he bowled a slew of full tosses throughout his spell, without further success.

The message
Much was made of Tendulkar's search for a 100th hundred now lasting a full year, but Gautam Gambhir has been century-less in international cricket for even longer, stretching back to December 2010. After 41 overs in Mirpur, both Virat Kohli and Gambhir were on 99, and you'd have expected that of the celebrations to follow, Kohli's would have been the more expressive. Instead, it was Gambhir who went ballistic - an aggressive fist pump followed by plenty of screaming and pointing towards the dressing room. That's sort of becoming a trend in this tournament, with Tamim Iqbal also celebrating similarly two days ago after reaching his half-century.

The miss
Gambhir wouldn't have had the chance to send that message to the dressing room, if Dinesh Chandimal had hit the stumps when Gambhir was on 94. A notoriously poor runner, he has been run out 16 times in ODIs already, and would have been for the 17th when he set off for a single after tapping the ball towards short cover. Gambhir was way out of his crease when Chandimal swooped in and let fly from close range, but missed. It was the second reprieve Chandimal handed to Gambhir, after shelling a tough low catch at long-on early in the innings.

The adjustment
After timing one straight to the mid-on fielder and then hitting the stumps with a straight drive, Gambhir needed to try something differently. For the next pitched-up delivery from Nuwan Kulasekara, he merely stepped away from the pitch of the ball and opened up the shoulder slightly. The little movement helped him to his first boundary, a beautiful on-drive past mid-on's right hand and Kulasekara's left. More than the timing or placement, it was the adjustment that caught the eye.

The shot
Mahela Jayawardene routinely makes batting look effortless, and on Tuesday, there was another demonstration of that skill. In an hour of stylish strokeplay that even Indian fans wouldn't have minded too much, Jayawardene rarely resorted to brute force, instead relying on timing and placement. Picking out the highlight of his 59-ball 78 is tough, but it was probably a perfectly placed on-the-up extra cover drive off Vinay Kumar in the 10th over.