| Sri
Lanka v India, 3rd ODI, Colombo
August 24, 2008
India
237 (Dhoni 76*, Raina 53, Mendis 3-56) beat Sri Lanka 204
(Jayawardene 94, Zaheer 3-23, Munaf 3-42) by 33 runs
Scorecard
For the second game in succession, an inspired opening spell
by India's seam attack of Zaheer Khan and Praveen Kumar
brought a powerful batting line-up to its knees. A middle-of-the-road
target of 238 was always going to be competitive under lights
but a procession of wickets before the end of the first
Powerplay had already cast a spell of inevitability to the
result. Both captains were made to arrest top-order slides
with fighting half-centuries, but Mahendra Singh Dhoni's
effort had the higher acclaim in the end, setting up the
platform for India's win.
For
Sri Lanka, only Mahela Jayawardene displayed the technique
and temperament to craft a lengthy innings and though he
had Thilan Thushara for company to give his side a glimmer
of hope, their partnership came a little too late. Jayawardene
fell six short of a deserved century when a paddle scoop
ended his knock and with it, Sri Lanka's last chance of
snatching a miracle.
The
pre-match talk centered around the better batting conditions
at the Premadasa Stadium when compared to the two-paced
surface in Dambulla. Though the conditions were a shade
easier to bat on in the afternoon, it got considerably challenging
under lights as the seamers managed swing and nip off the
pitch while the spinners got turn and bounce.
While
the swing was hard enough for the batsmen to negotiate under
lights, the nagging stump-to-stump line was largely responsible
for the spurt of lbw decisions early on. Kumar Sangakkara,
Chamara Kapugedera and Chamara Silva were all trapped as
the trigger-happy umpires wasted no time in pondering over
the appeals.
Sanath
Jayasuriya whiplashed Praveen for boundaries over his favoured
off side region but perished after edging an away swinger
off the same bowler. Zaheer relied more on hitting the deck
hard and like in Dambulla, squared up Sangakkara with one
that nipped back in and struck him high on the pad.
Kapugedera
began confidently with a clipped six over square leg off
Praveen but paid the price for shuffling too far across
his stumps. Silva became the third lbw victim of the evening,
this time to Zaheer, trapped in front of middle stump to
one that straightened. Tillakaratne Dilshan, tied down by
the seamers' nagging accuracy, feathered an edge to Dhoni
off Munaf Patel.
All
the while, Jayawardene cut a lonely figure. The revival
began when Thushara joined him in the middle. Runs were
hard to come by initially but Jayawardene was probably mindful
of India's weak link - the fifth bowler. With the field
spread out and the ball getting softer, Jayawardene placed
faith in his partner by rotating the strike.
Yuvraj
and Rohit Sharma conceded 46 off nine combined overs as
Sri Lanka added 50 runs between overs 37 and 43. Thushara
regularly made room to loft the ball over vacant spaces
and the anxiety began to tell on the Indian fielders as
they dropped catches off Thushara and Jayawardene. Zaheer
returned to york Thushara to end the 81-run eighth-wicket
stand, and when Munaf sent back Jayawardene, the contest
was all but over.
Sri Lanka will no doubt look back at where they let the
initiative slip. After reducing India to 97 for 4 at the
halfway stage, two fifty partnerships - with Dhoni the central
figure in both - resurrected the innings after another jerky
start. The significant factor in India's recovery in the
middle overs was that the threat of Muttiah Muralitharan
and Ajantha Mendis was negated fairly comfortably. Though
Mendis ended with three wickets, two of those came at the
fag end of the innings. Murali, on the other hand, had a
forgettable wicketless outing.
Once
again, Dhoni walked in to bat with the Indian innings wobbling.
Often he has played a lone hand, but this time Suresh Raina
and Rohit Sharma offered excellent support. Raina needed
runs, and with his captain for company, accumulated steadily
with the spinners operating from both ends, and never at
any stage did the Indians get bogged down. Dhoni was comfortable
against Mendis, committing himself forward to smother the
spin of the full-length deliveries, but when the length
was short, he rocked back and cut and pulled for runs.
Raina,
too, was fleet-footed against the spinners, nudging, flicking
and driving Muralitharan for singles in his workmanlike
knock. Using his feet, he drove the same bowler to the extra-cover
boundary before edging towards his sixth ODI fifty, which
came off 75 balls. The running between wickets was excellent
throughout, but ironically, it was a run-out that ended
the 54-run partnership.
Dhoni
was fortunate to find an equally able partner in Rohit,
who calmly rotated the strike. Short of runs over the last
few innings, Rohit grafted initially before taking his chances
against the spinners. The partnership came at a quicker
rate than the Dhoni-Raina stand, with the pair bringing
up their fifty stand in 55 balls. Dhoni brought up his own
half-century off 64 balls and celebrated it with successive
boundaries off Murali, using his feet well on both occasions.
Just when a score in excess of 250 seemed likely, Sri Lanka
struck. Rohit fell while attempting a slog off Thushara,
after which the wickets continued to fall. Dhoni was dismissed
in the 49th over, scooping to cover for a 80-ball 76 and
in the end his efforts didn't got to waste.
Kanishkaa
Balachandran is a staff writer at Cricinfo
Courtesy - cricinfo
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