India in rousing 7 wicket victory

Chamara Silva hits maiden ODI century
 

Chris Dhambarage reporting from India

CRICKET: Chamara Silva's outstanding maiden one day international century was overshadowed by some brilliant batting from Yuvraj Singh and Sourav Ganguly as India pulled off a rousing seven wicket victory over Sri Lanka to clinch the Hero Honda Cup and the four match series 2-1 at the Indira Priyadarshani Stadium in Vishakapatnam here on Saturday.

Man of the match Chamara Silva playing in his fourteenth one day international grabbed the opportunity to hit an unbeaten 107 from the same number of deliveries with one six and a dozen of boundaries as Sri Lanka recovered from a middle order collapse to post a challenging 259 for 7 after been put into bat. However the Indians rallied around through three half centuries from Robin Uthappa, Sourav Ganguly and Yuvraj Singh and cruised to a convincing victory at the end with exactly six overs to spare.

The batting of Yuvraj Singh was the most significant as he tore the Sri Lankan attack with a dashing performance hoisting three sixes and eleven fours during his unbeaten knock of 95 which came from just 83 deliveries. He was never troubled by the Sri Lankan bowlers and collected his runs quite freely while stroking the ball to all parts of the ground.

Yuvraj after completing his half century from 59 balls was really eager to finish off the game in style as he plundered four fours and one six in the last over bowled by Farveez Maharoof.

Even then this was a well calculated assault from Yuvraj who received tremendous support from Sourav Ganguly who also completed a superb unbeaten half century from 74 ball with the help of three sixes and the same number of boundaries.

The elegant left-hander was prepared to play the waiting game after later accelerated the scoring rate once he had settled down.

Man of the series Ganguly of course had a terrible start to his innings and was forced to retire in the very first over.

But he came back after the second wicket and played his natural game and helped the Indians reach their target even more convincingly. Ganguly joined Yuvraj Singh and the pair steadied the innings beautifully while putting on fifty runs in 62 balls.

The Sri Lankans of course did have a chance of turning the game in their favour during this stage having capture three quick wickets for the addition of 26 runs and within the space of six over.

The Lankans were able to peg the free scoring Indians to a certain extent through some accurate bowling and excellent fielding. They got rid off the more aggressive Robin Uthappa at a vital stage when the batsman was simply running away with the game having hammered 52 from only 37 deliveries with one six and none boundaries.

In addition opener Virender Sehwag also departed for a sparkling 46 from 44 balls with seven fours and Dinesh Karthik was dismissed without troubling the scorers. But the combination of Sourav Ganguly and Yuvraj Singh simply turned things around in India's favour with a match winning partnership.

They picked up the singles and the two's initially and then later went for the big hits which saw the last five overs produce as many as fifty runs.

Earlier Sri Lanka got off to a flying start through their new opening combination of Sanath Jayasuriya and Marvan Atapattu. The veteran Jayasuriya played some superb shots at the beginning and was really threatening to build up a good partnership.

But the Indian seamers kept on attacking despite conceding some extra runs and they were eventually rewarded for their consistency, accuracy and perseverance.

They were able to reduce the Lankans to 56 for 4 even before the first fifteen overs before Chamara Silva came in and played a brilliant innings under tremendous pressure.

Chamara Silva first repaired the early damage with a fifth wicket stand of 68 runs with Tillekeratne Dilshan as the pair averted a total collapse after four top wickets had fallen for the addition of just 14 runs and within the space of four overs.

Silva produced a fine example of re building the innings with his own style of batting but did not hesitate to punish the lose deliveries as he took seventeen runs from Harbhajan's third over including one six and two fours.

He added a further 41 runs for the sixth wicket along with Russel Arnold before joining with all rounder Farveez Maharoof to put on a useful stand of 64 runs from eight overs.

The hard hitting Maharoof rose to the occasion with a run a ball 28 which was studded with one six and a couple of boundaries.

SRI LANKA

M.Atapattu b Sreesanth 19
S.Jayasuriya c Ganguly b Agarkar 22
M.Jayawardene c Uthappa b Agarkar 7
K.Sangakkara c Uthappa b Khan   1
C.Silva not out 107
T.Dilshan c Uthappa b Ganguly 28
R.Arnold c Sreesanth b Sehwag 22
F.Maharoof c Karthik b Khan   28
M.Bandara not out   5
Extras: (b-1 lb-2 nb-3 w-14)   20

TOTAL: (seven wickets, 47 overs) 259

DID NOT BAT: D.Fernando, L.Malinga
FALL OF WICKETS: 1-42, 2-50, 3-52, 4-56, 5-124, 6-165, 7-229.
BOWLING: Khan 10-2-54-2 (nb-1 w-1), Agarkar 10-1-52-2 (w-3), Sreesanth 8-1-46-1 (nb-2),
Harbhajan 9-0-48-0 (w-2), Ganguly 6-0-29-1 (w-1), Sehwag 4-0-27-1 (w-7).

INDIA

V.Sehwag run out   46
S.Ganguly not out   58
R.Uthappa c Jayasuriya b Maharoof 52
D.Karthik c and b Fernando   1
Y.Singh not out   95
Extras: (lb-2 nb-1 w-8)  11

TOTAL: (three wickets, 41 overs) 263

DID NOT BAT: R.Dravid, M.Dhoni, H.Singh, A.Agarkar, Z.Khan, S.Sreesanth.
BOWLING: Maharoof 6-0-60-1 (nb-1, w-5), Malinga 9-1-54-0 (w-2), Fernando 9-1-56-1, Bandara 4-0-37-0,
Dilshan 9-0-34-0 (w-1), Jayasuriya 2-0-10-0, Arnold 2-0-10-0.