You are here: Home » Cricket India » Gauti, Mahi power India to 4-0

Gauti, Mahi power India to 4-0

Related Links : Sri Lanka Vs India, 4th ODI Scorecard | India in Sri Lanka 2008/09 Wealthsurance Cup

The Blue Brigade under MS Dhoni clinched a record ninth consecutive ODI win when it beat Sri Lanka by 67 runs in the 4th ODI at RPS, Colombo. Team India yet again batted their opponents out of the game by posting a smashing total of 300 plus. Stylish left handed opener Gautam Gambhir scored a career best of 150 while Skipper MS Dhoni made an attacking 94 coming in at no.3. The only consolation for the homeside was that of Muttiah Muralitharan breaking the world record to become the highest wicket taker in ODIs. India are now on target of inflicting a clean sweep in this 5-ODI Series.

Toss and Teams: Incredibly Dhoni won the toss for the fourth time in a row, this time he called ‘Heads’ instead of ‘Tails’ and still got it right! India rested Tendulkar and Zaheer for Rohit Sharma and Irfan Pathan while Sri Lanka got in Angelo Matthews for Ajantha Mendis.

Gauti, Mahi flay Sri Lankan bowling

Virender Sehwag played quite indifferently to throw his wicket away in the 3rd over. Surprisingly MS Dhoni walked in at no.3 and he meant business straightaway along with Gautam Gambhir. The Skipper was intent on playing the way he used to when he had first arrived on the international circuit. He looked in ominous touch as he stroked the ball with quick hands which almost set the panic amongst the Lankan fielding. Gambhir was busy as well and the Sri Lankan fielding from bad became worse with the fielders not able to stop the ball cleanly and also the back up to throws being very sloppy. The two batsmen put further pressure by getting the extra runs out of nowhere with their aggressive running. India got to its 100 in the 18th over and the two batsmen got past their fifties as well.

A solid platform was set by the two batsmen with India moving onto a score of 183 for 1 in 30 overs and still had a batting powerplay to take. Just around this period, SL could break this partnership with MS Dhoni getting too anxious to send everything out of the ground and ended up miscuing Jayasuriya to short thirdman to carelessly miss out on an ODI hundred! Dhoni had scored 94 from 96 balls with 4 fours and 2 sixes and had put on a match-winning stand of 188 with Gambhir in just over 30 overs. India took their batting powerplay in the 35th over just coinciding with the ball change. However, the batting powerplay turned out to be more of doom than boom to them. Inform Yuvraj Singh (5) got cleaned up by a spectacular inswinging yorker from Kulasekara which surprised the left hander who was gearing up to play a big shot with a high backlift. The very next ball, Kulasekara got Yusuf Pathan chopping onto his stumps to leave India at 207 for 4. The hat-trick was denied though by Suresh Raina.

Common sense prevailed in the minds of Gambhir and the new man Raina as the two didn’t over attack the powerplay and were keen to put up another partnership. Gambhir was simply superb as he had already got to his 6th hundred (the 3rd against SL) and was in no mood to throw his wicket away! He might have lost energy in his knock but still continued to put up his presence which helped his side to put up a large total. Gambhir went onto register the highest ever ODI score made in Sri Lanka beating Aravinda de Silva’s 149. The left hander only got out in the 48th over having made 150 from 147 balls 14 fours and a six, he saw that his team sailed comfortably past 300! Suresh Raina was unlucky to remain unbeaten on 49 (from 37 balls with 4 fours and a six) but saw that India got to 332 for 5 in the allotted overs.

Murali got his 503rd wicket when Gambhir had chased a wide off break in a cut shot which he nicked to the keeper. It wasn’t a good day with the ball otherwise for this spin king as he got clobbered for 66 in his 10. Kulasekara held his own well by capturing three key wickets.

Praveen, Pragyan put the brakes on Lanka

Sri Lanka got to a superb start from Sanath and Dilshan as the two new ball bowlers Praveen Kumar and Irfan Pathan provided them with a lot of juicy deliveries to hit. Praveen Kumar did comeback well but Irfan continued to bowl what the two batsmen wanted. Lady luck shined on the struggling bowler Irfan though when Sanath Jayasuriya had miscued a pull to short covers to walk back to the hut having made 25 from 16 balls with a couple of sixes. SL had got to 55 for 1 in 7.2 overs when Sanath got out. It was Dilshan who was making maximum damage with his breathtaking shots on the up but he played a rank bad pull shot to cause his own downfall. Praveen Kumar provided this important wicket in the 13th over with Dilshan ending up with just a score of 38 (from 45 balls with 6 fours).

Sri Lanka from 79 for 2 in the 13th over decided to bat cautiously through Sangakkara and Mahela. Once the spinners came on, scoring became further difficult with the ball turning straightaway to beat the bat. There was a hold up in play for 27 minutes when one of the spectators had hurled a stone onto an Indian outfielder which made the players walk off the park. When play resumed, SL had lost out whatever momentum they had got earlier. And left arm spinner Pragyan Ojha troubled the Lankan Skipper with his turn but it was Sehwag who was going to get the wicket of Jayawardene when the right hander’s late cut was taken in the second attempt by Dhoni. Mahela made a slow 28 in 40 balls while putting on 61 for the 3rd wicket with Sangakkara. With the asking rate sky rocketing, the remaining batsmen just surrendered meekly. It started with Kandamby getting completely foxed by a deadly arm ball from Yusuf Pathan in the 31st over and the last hope of SL – Kumar Sangakkara (56 from 74 balls with 4 fours) holing out to sweeper covers off Sehwag in the 34th over.

The Lankans were just able to reduce the margin of defeat thanks to a good last wicket stand of 45 which got them to 265 before getting all out in 48 overs. Kulasekara showed his all-round skills by coming up with an unbeaten knock of 39 from 22 balls with 4 fours and 2 sixes. Irfan Pathan had got two cheap wickets towards the end with Maharoof falling to a full toss and Murali driving a half volley uppishly. Irfan was on a hat-trick but was denied that and was further flayed around by Nuwan Kulasekara to have figures of 7-0-58-3. The best bowler on show was Pragyan Ojha, who dominated the batsmen with figures of 10-0-34-1 and Praveen did well with 2 for 38 in 9. Sehwag too had chipped in well for Dhoni taking 2 for 43 in 9. Gambhir took the Man of the Match for obvious reasons.