India in 15 run win

by Ranjan ANANDAPPA

A firm and sensible innings by left-hander Thilina Kandamby (93 n.o.) was of no avail as India beat Sri Lanka by 15 runs in a tense filled contest to go two up in the five ODI series in a day\night match at the R. Premadasa Cricket Stadium last evening.

In pursuit of a victory target of 257 in 50 overs Sri Lanka were all out for 241 in 49.2 overs.

Dilshan who opened batting with Jayasuriya was out hooking in identical fashion for the third time in succession and Jayasuriya followed suit slashing at a ball outside his off stump. Zaheer Khan and Ishant Sharma had the wickets of the opening pair in successive overs and the advantage swung towards India. Zaheer, Sharma and Kumar kept the ball right up and forced the batsman to play forward, their length and direction was good and the Sri Lankan batsmen could not get them away easily.

The Lankans looked in a poor position at 36 for 3 in 7.3 overs, but skipper Jayawardena and left hander Thilina Kandamby restored some order to the innings with sensible batting. The fourth wicket pair added precisely 100 runs off 101 deliveries. Soon after the completion of Jayawardena’s 50 he was caught in the covers, but Kandamby stood firm while wickets tumbled around him.

Earlier Sri Lanka did well to restrict the strong Indian batting line up for 256 for 9 in their prescribed 50 overs.

India won the toss and decided to bat on a good wicket, Tendulkar and Sehwag gave sense to Dhoni’s decision till disaster struck to India when Tendulkar was adjudged lbw after scoring 6 runs. The lbw’s seemed to be haunting the Indian star Tendulkar and anybody who had seen the TV replays had to believe that the umpire may have been a little astray in his judgement. But that’s how the game goes on.

With the dismissal of Tendulkar followed by heavy scorer Gautham Gambhir who edged one to Sangakkara off Maharoof in his first over and Sehwag being run out off a smart bit of fielding by Muralitharan when he was threatening to cut loose, a collapse seemed to have begun, but with great patience Yuvraj Singh and Suresh Raina restored their side’s fortunes.

Yuvraj Singh and Raina added 85 runs for the fourth wicket off 113 balls and brought the score from 83 to 168 when Raina played an awkward looking shot off a Dilshan delivery which popped up for Kapugedera to take the catch and end their fruitful partnership. Skipper Dhoni who came at the fall of Raina’s wicket was unusually quiet. He scored 23 runs facing 35 deliveries surprisingly without a boundary but India still moved to a position of strength as their last five batsmen managed to add 46 runs in the last ten overs after being 210 for 5 in the 40th over thanks to Zaheer Khan’s 17 n.o. and Praveen Kumar’s 16 and a fighting 66 by Yuvraj Singh who had seven fours and a six in a 88 ball stay at the wicket prior to being ruled out lbw.

INDIA
V. Sehwag run out	 		 42
S. Tendulkar lbw b Kulasekara	  	  6
G. Gambhir c Sangakkara b Maharoof	 27
Y. Singh lbw b Kulasekara	 	 66
S. Raina c Kapugedera b Dilshan	 	 29
MS Dhoni c Sangakkara b Maharoof	 23
Y. Pathan run out	 		 21
Z. Khan c Dilshan b Mendis		 17
P. Kumar c Jayawardene b Mendis	 	 15
P. Ojha not out	  			  0
Extras (b1, nb1, w8)	 		 10
TOTAL (for nine wickets in 50 overs)	256

FALL OF WICKETS: 1-13 (Tendulkar), 2-62 (Gambhir), 3-83 (Sehwag), 
	 	 4-168 (Raina), 5-180 (Y. Singh), 6-219 (Pathan), 7-223 (Dhoni), 
		 8-256 (Kumar), 9-256 (Khan).

BOWLING: Kulasekara 9-0-61-2 (nb1, w2), 
	 Thushara 8-0-59-0 (w1), 
	 Maharoof 10-0-40-2 (w3), 
	 Mendis 10-0-44-2 (w2), 
	 Muralitharan 10-1-32-0, 
	 Dilshan 3-0-19-1.

SRI LANKA
T. Dilshan c Sharma b Zaheer	  	 8
S. Jayasuriya c Ojha b Sharma	 	17	
K. Sangakkara c Tendulkar b Kumar	 4
M. Jayawardene c Pathan b Ojha		52
T. Kandamby not out	 		93
C. Kapugedera c Dhoni b Sharma		31
F. Maharoof b Sharma	  		 7
T. Thushara c Pathan b Sharma	 	 7
M. Muralitharan run out	  		 3		
N. Kulasekara run out	 		 1
A. Mendis run out	 		 0
Extras (b4, lb4, w10)			 18
TOTAL (All Out in 49.2 overs)		241

FALL OF WICKETS: 1-15 (Dilshan), 2-33 (Jayasuriya), 3-36 (Sangakkara), 
		 4-136 (Jayawardene), 5-187 (Kapugedera), 6-206 (Maharoof), 7-228 (Thushara), 
		 8-236 (Muralitharan), 9-237 (Kulasekara), 10-241 (Mendis).

BOWLING: Zaheer 10-0-56-1 (w3), 
	 Kumar 8.2-1-22-1 (w3), 
	 Sharma 10-1-57-4 (w4), 
	 Ojha 7-0-39-1, 
	 Pathan 5-0-21-0, 
	 Sehwag 5-0-19-0, 
	 Raina 4-0-19-0.