IndianBox

Colombo, Aug. 24: For the second time in the series, the Indian new ball bowlers proved unplayable. A track which played dead for most part of the Indian innings came alive in the latter half, as the fast bowlers sliced through the Sri Lankan batting like knife through hot butter. The hosts were stymied in their own conditions as the Indian attack pushed the Lankans into a far corner, but Mahela Jayawardena came out counter-punching and almost snatched an improbable victory at the R.Premadasa stadium on Sunday night.

Riding on half-centuries from Mahendra Singh Dhoni (76, 80b) and Suresh Raina (53, 80b), the Indians put up a competitive 237/9 in 50 overs and it turned hugely combative as the Lankans seemingly made a mess of the chase, losing five of their batsmen with just 58 on the board in the 17th over.

The Indians had worked their way from 91/4 to their eventual total and Lankan skipper Jayawardena replicated his counterpart’s good work with a magnificent 94 (110b) to take his team to the threshold of victory. Unfortunately, he fell nearing the target to end the Lankans’ hopes.

Praveen Kumar and Zaheer Khan had made most of the conditions and struck in tandem in the evening and before you could say Jack Robinson the Lankan top-order had vanished. The hosts, who threatened to make a match of it during a fighting 81-run eighth-wicket partnership between Jayawardena and Thilan Thushara (30, 55b) were finally bowled out for 204 to hand the Indians a 33–run victory and a 2-1 lead with two matches to go in the series.

But much of the Indian victory was owed to Dhoni and his two valuable associations for the fifth and sixth wickets which shaped the Indians’ recovery.

The skipper added 54 for the fifth with Raina and a busy 67 off 66 deliveries for the sixth with Rohit Sharma to lead the charge after opting to bat first. Having made a bold gamble of going in with three medium-pacers and one spinner, Dhoni had to justify his decision but it looked like a good toss to win as Virat Kohli looked in pleasing touch early on.

Though the Indian openers were a study in contrast with Gautam Gambhir prodding around uncharacteristically, Kohli made up for it. As luck would have it, the youngster fell to a good piece of work in the field by Chamara Silva who ran him out with a direct hit at the non-striker’s end.

Gambhir’s tenure ended when Nuwan Kulasekara trapped him in front and with Yuvraj Singh, pushed up to No 3, also falling to medium-pacer, the visitors were in a spot of bother at 62/3. The tensions heightened as S. Badrinath, promoted up the order, perished after an unconvincing stay to Ajantha Mendis.

The key to the Indians’ recovery, however lay in the manner they tackled Mendis and with Raina leading the way, the mystery spinner’s threat was thwarted.

Unlike in the latter part of the innings, there wasn’t much by way of assistance from the track and Mendis, who claimed 3/56 in ten overs, did come in for some rough treatment.

Just when the partnership between Dhoni and Raina, who pulled Mendis for a superb six over square-leg, appeared to gaining momentum, the left-hander fell, albeit to a run out, following a bit of hesitancy in responding to Dhoni’s call for a quick single. It actually brought about the most fruitful partnership for the Indians. Rohit, who is deceptively slow, joined forces with his skipper and the twosome baulked the Lankans as Dhoni completed his 23rd ODI fifty before picking up pace towards the end.

Scorecard

India
Batsman how out runs balls 4s 6s
V Kohli   run out (Silva)   25   38   4   0
G Gambhir  lbw b Kulasekara  8  20  0  0
Yuvraj Singh  c Jayawardene b Kulasekara  12  17  0  1
S Raina  (run out) 53  80  4  1
S Badrinath  c Vaas b Mendis  6  19  0  0
MS Dhoni  c Jayawardene b Mendis  76  80  8  0
R Sharma  c Kapugedera b Thushara  32  32  3  0
Harbhajan Singh  c Sangakkara b Mendis  2  6  0  0
P Kumar  (not out)  2  3  0  0
Z Khan  c Muralitharan b Thushara  1  6  0  0
Extras (b 2, lb 6, w 11, nb 1)      20
Total (50 overs)      237/9

FoW: 1-39 (Kohli, 8.5 ov), 2-40 (Gambhir, 9.4 ov), 3-62 (Yuvraj Singh, 13.6 ov), 4-91 (Badrinath, 22.5 ov), 5-145 (Raina, 34.5 ov), 6-212 (Sharma, 45.5 ov), 7-229 (Harbhajan Singh, 48.2 ov), 8-229 (Dhoni, 48.3 ov), 9-237 (Khan, 49.6 ov).

Bowling O M R W (E)
C Vaas  10  2  33  0 (2w)
Kulasekara  7  1  32  2  (2w)
T Thushara  9  1  36  2  (5w)
A Mendis  10  0  56  3  (1nb, 1w)
M Muralitharan  9  0  48  0
S Jayasuriya  5  0  24  0

Sri Lanka
Batsman how out runs balls 4s 6s
S Jayasuriya  c Dhoni b Kumar  13  15 3  0
K Sangakkara  lbw b Khan  9  12 2  0
C Kapugedera  lbw b Kumar  12  17 1  1
D Jayawardene  c Kumar b Patel  94  111 6  1
C Silva  lbw b Khan  1  5 0  0
T Dilshan  c Dhoni b Patel  16  21  3  0
C Vaas  b Harbhajan Singh  0  4  0  0
N Kulasekara  lbw b Yuvraj Singh  11  30  0  0
T Thushara  b Khan  30  55  2  0
A Mendis  (not out)  6  10  0  0
M Muralitharan    b Patel   6   14   0   0  Extras (lb 2, w 4)      6
Total (49 overs)      204/10

FoW: 1-18 (Jayasuriya, 4.1 ov), 2-26 (Sangakkara, 5.2 ov), 3-37 (Kapugedera, 8.4 ov), 4-40 (Silva, 9.4 ov), 5-58 (Dilshan, 16.3 ov), 6-59 (Vaas, 17.2 ov), 7-94 (Kulasekara, 26.5 ov), 8-175 (Thushara, 43.5 ov), 9-192 (Jayawardene, 45.4 ov)

Bowling O M R W (E)
P Kumar  10  0  62  2  (2w)
Z Khan  10  3  23  3  (1w)
M Patel  10  1  42  3
Harbhajan Singh  10  0  29  1
Yuvraj Singh  8  0  37  1  (1w)
R Sharma  1  0  9  0
Result:  India won by 33 runs.