Dilshan scores first ton on home soil:

Sri Lanka wins Micromax Trophy

Chris DAMBARAGE reporting from Dambulla

CRICKET: Dashing opener Tillekeratne Dilshan scored his maiden hundred on home soil as Sri Lanka brought an end to India’s dominance in Cup finals when they pulled off a smashing 74 run victory in the Micromax limited overs cricket tournament final played at the Rangiri Dambulla International Stadium under lights yesterday.

The Lankans hit up a match winning total of 299 for 8 from their 50 overs after they had won the toss and elected to bat first and then dismissed the Indians for 225 runs from 46.5 overs.

Sri Lanka batted, bowled and fielded brilliantly as they also avenged their Asia Cup defeat against the same opponents at this same ground last month. But this time they were completely a different outfit with skipper Kumar Sangakkara leading from the front.

Lasith Malinga celebrating his 27th birthday struck in his very first over and from there onwards Sri Lanka picked up wickets at regular intervals to remain on top of the game after they set India a challenging target of 300 runs.

Although skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni provided a late spark India were always behind the required run rate. The right-hander figured in a vain attempt as he hit a top score of 67 from one hundred balls and was last man out having hoisted one six and five boundaries.

The pace spin combination of Thisara Perera and Suraj Randiv did the damage while capturing three wickets each while Malinga snapped up two wickets from his nine overs.

Even then it was Tillekeratne Dilshan’s maiden century on home soil that certainly turned the game in their favour. The dashing right hander also brought an end to a series of low scores as he rose to the big occasion before reaching another milestone in his illustrious career.

Dilshan completed his eighth one day international hundred from 107 deliveries inclusive of one six and eleven boundaries. But this was quite a significant performance from Dilshan who had failed to reach the three figure mark in his previous few outings at home.

He had got out in the 30’s on a couple of occasions in this series and this time he grabbed the opportunity to make a big impact when his team really needed his services.

Dilshan made his intentions quite clear from the start and was prepared to play the sheet anchor role after having lost his opening partner Mahela Jayawardena and Upul Tharanga before the 25th over.

Even then Jayawardena performed his role quite successfully with an opening stand of 121 runs from 20 overs. The elegant right hander struck five boundaries from 67 deliveries but more importantly negotiated the Indian seam attack quite effectively and also went on to reach 9000 runs in one day internationals.

Upul Tharanga of course did not last long but skipper Kumar Sangakkara joined Dilshan and the pair consolidated the position with a third wicket partnership of 85 runs from 16.1 overs. The Sri Lankan captain went on to reach his half century from 51 balls with the aid of one six and four boundaries.

In fact Sangakkara took over the main role after the dismissal of Dilshan and hammered three successive boundaries off Ishant Sharma as Sri Lanka collected 49 runs from the batting power play overs.

However with the dismissal of skipper Sangakkara in the 45th over Sri Lanka somewhat lost their way before Chamara Silva added the finishing touches with an unbeaten 26 from 21 deliveries inclusive of two boundaries.

SRI LANKA

M. Jayawardene c Karthik b I. Sharma	 39
T. Dilshan c I. Sharma b Kumar		110
U. Tharanga c Dhoni b Yuvraj		  6
K. Sangakkara c R. Sharma b Patel	 71
C. Kapugedera c Karthik b Nehra		 12
A. Mathews c R. Sharma b I. Sharma	  1
C. Silva not out			 26
T. Perera c Dhoni b Patel		  6
S. Randiv run out			  4
N. Kulasekara not out			  0
Extras (lb12, w12)			 24
Total (for eight wkts; 50 overs)	299

Fall of wickets: 1-121 (Jayawardene), 2-132 (Tharanga), 3-217 (Dilshan), 
		 4-242 (Kapugedera), 5-258 (Mathews), 6-261 (Sangakkara), 
		 7-294 (Perera), 8-298 (Randiv).

Bowling: Kumar 10-0-72-1 (w5), 
	 Patel 9-1-43-2 (w1), 
	 Nehra 10-0-60-1 (w5), 
	 I. Sharma 8-0-54-2 (w1),
	 Yuvraj 8-0-37-1, 
	 Sehwag 5-0-21-0.

INDIA

V. SEHWAG run out (Kapugedera)		28
K. D. KARTHIK c Sangakkara b Malinga	 0
V. KOHLI c Mathews b Perera		37
YUVRAJ SINGH c Sangakkara b Perera	26
M. S. DHONI b Randiv		 	67
S. K. RAINA c Dilshan b Randiv		29
R. G. SHARMA st Sangakkara b Randiv	 5
P. KUMAR b Malinga			14
I. SHARMA b Perera			 0
A. NEHRA c Perera b Mathews		 2
M. M. PATEL not out 			 0
Extras (b 4, lb 1, w 8, nb 4) 		17
TOTAL (all out; 46.5 overs) 		225
 	
FALL OF WICKETS: 1-9, 2-38, 3-88, 4-109, 5-158, 6-177, 7-201, 
	 	 8-210, 9-224, 10-225.

BOWLING: Malinga 9-0-49-2 , 
	 Kulasekara, 9-0-47-0, 
	 Mathews 10-0-48-1,  
	 T.Perera, 9-2-36-3 
	 S Randiv 9.5-1-40-3