Aussies put up a fight

Looks like South Africa have fight hard to claim the top rankings in Tests , when Australia were 38/3 and Steyn and co jagging the ball around I didn't think Australia will make at least 350 , but thanks to Marcus North and Mitchell Johnson they scored 466 and also put South Africa under pressure by taking three wickets for less than 100 runs. If they can dismiss SA under 350 they have a pretty good chance of pulling this off. But as they have shown in Australia this SA team doesn't go down easily so it will be an intriguing contest to watch. Its matches like this that keeps test cricket alive and it was good to watch a proper test match after watching the Karachchi farce.

Kiwis make use of home conditions

Unlike the Sri Lankans who handed the one day series to India on a platter by creating flat pitches , The Kiwis have prepared pitches with a bit of swing and bounce and so far they seem to be working for them. Sure they were not so seamer friendly as the last time India toured , but still it had enough in them to check powerful Indian batting line up. If they keep preparing pitches like this then there is a good chance that they will win the one day series as well.

Pakistan's fear of losing

The first test ended in a draw , it came to life in the final two sessions thanks to some reckless stroke play by the Sri Lankans but the final result was expected by everybody. Everybody and there dog is criticizing the curator for making such a flat pitch but Pakistan is lucky that they were provided a flat pitch because in a more bowler friendly pitch Pakistan would have a hard time winning especially with there rookie attack.
On the other hand Sri Lanka have a bowling attack that is suited for most conditions. Chaminda Vass was the only bowler who managed to consistently swing the ball. Dilhara hussled the batsmen with his pace and bounce which none of the Pakistani pace men were able to do. And despite being such a slow pitch Murali and Mendis bowled there hearts out and created oppurtunities. So I think in a more fair pitch Sri Lankans have more than a fair chance of winning.

Why Sri Lanka lost the India series

Sri Lanka lost another home series , although we did have some oppurtunities and failed to capitalize on them it's fair to say that India played far more superiour cricket than us. Lots of reasons contributed to the loss but one of the main reasons was the state of the pitches. And although playing at home Sri Lankans hardly had that advantage because flat batting friendly wickets were provided , and the Indian batsmen made full use of it.
Sri Lanka's home superiority was built on slow low turners. We always had Murali and players like Dharmasena , Chandana and now Mendis to support him. Then there was the part timers like Aravinda , Jaysuriya ,Dilshan and Mubarak who took care of another few overs. When Sri Lanka won the world cup in 1996 out of the 50 overs 37 were bowled by Spinners. It was a similar story in home games as well. Sri Lankans were famous for the choke , tight overs bowled quickly by spinners speeds up the game without the opposition realizing it.
Sadly in the last few series we never had that advantage. In the England series there were seaming conditions and it was pretty much the same when the Indians came last time. This time flat pithches were produced where Murali and Mendis were used more as controlling options. Despite having best two spinners in the game we were producing flat pitches making the Indians jobs that much more easy. We could never match the Indians with there batting fire power , but we could easily match them in the spin department and by producing flat belters we handed the series to the Indians.