India hold onto a tight win in 2nd ODI

India won the second ODI at the R.Premadasa Stadium after a tight finish that saw Sri Lanka falling short of their target by 16 runs. The visitors had the match under control for most part of the second half but for the final few overs where the bowlers did make some mistakes. But Sri Lanka had left it too late in their run chase of 257 to come second in the contest. The visitors now have taken a lead of 2-0 leaving Sri Lanka in a must-win situation in the 3rd ODI to save the series! The Indian bowlers played a huge part in today’s victory by having their opponents under a check in crucial phases of the game.

Toss: It was MS Dhoni winning the toss yet again, he truly is street-smart! Virender Sehwag returned to the fold and making way for him was Rohit Sharma while the lazy Munaf Patel was out with a groin strain which gave way for swing bowler Praveen Kumar. Sri Lanka kept faith in the same line-up.

Maharoof’s brilliant bowling keeps India down to 256

Master batsman Sachin Tendulkar had to depart quickly for the second time in this series owing to a bad umpiring decision. He was adjudged lbw to a Kulasekara inswinger that did a lot. SL’s joy was short-lived though as the Delhi pair of Sehwag and Gambhir pounded them with their exciting batting. Luckily for the homeside, Maharoof came up with a lovely away going seamer that got a nick off Gambhir (27 from 28 balls) to reduce India to 62 for 2 in the 10th over. Three overs later, SL came back strongly in the game as Sehwag got himself run out trying to take an ambitious third run. It was a pity that Sehwag’s breezy innings lasted for just 26 balls in which he had scored 42 with 7 fours!

India were in a tight spot at 83 for 3 and needed a big partnership that would set up a platform for the slogs. The left handed pair of Yuvraj Singh and Suresh Raina did just that and at the same time were never under any pressure as the runs kept flowing freely. Yuvraj finally got the better of his nemesis Ajantha Mendis whom he had lofted elegantly over extra covers for a six! The two batsmen got their side to a safe position before part time offie Dilshan got one to hold onto the surface and force a mistake from Raina (29 from 43 balls with 1 six over mid wicket off Dilshan) who lobbed an easy catch to covers. Raina had put on an important 85-run stand with Yuvraj. Yet again India crashed down from a strong position and this time it was a horrible lbw decision from the local umpire Gamini Silva that provided the breakthrough for Lanka. Yuvraj Singh had got a big inside edge onto the pad off a Kulasekara inswinger which was enough to be ruled out lbw for the Umpire and the score slipped to a shaky 180 for 5. Yuvraj sizzled with 66 from 88 with 7 fours and a six.

The visitors recovered from that thanks to a good partnership between Skipper Dhoni and Yusuf Pathan which took the team close to 220. But Sri Lanka got both these batsmen out during the batting powerplay to entertain thoughts of bowling out India. First to go was Pathan (23 from 35 balls, run out after a misjudged call from his partner) and the bigger blow came when Dhoni (23 from 35) decided to sportingly walking off to the pavilion having got the tiniest of nicks down the legside. India were down at 223 for 7 at this stage and had to focus on batting all their remaining overs. A slow partnership of 33 runs from Zaheer (17) and Praveen Kumar (15) ensured that. Farveez Maharoof was the saviour for Sri Lanka as he came up with a mean spell of 10-0-40-2. Muttiah Muralitharan was kept waiting for his world record and although he was wicketless, just the 32 runs were given away by him. Ajantha Mendis had an indifferent start but was too good during the slog overs against the lesser ability batsmen. India had a disastrous batting powerplay which produced just the 14 runs!

SL’s old fashioned tactics helps India to win

The new ball was expected to cause a lot of trouble under the lights and it was the best chance for India to come back in the game after a disappointing batting show. The pace trio of Zaheer/Praveen/Ishant answered to the Captain’s call to take three key wickets in the first powerplay. Tillakaratne Dilshan’s counter attack backfired when he hooked Zaheer straight to fine leg in the 3rd over followed up by Jayasuriya’s miscued upper cut that sailed into thirdman off Ishant and the third wicket that of Sangakkara came through an expansive drive off Praveen Kumar that was taken smartly by Tendulkar at slip. The match was under India’s control after that and the Sri Lankans were only able to do the catching up job all the time. They didn’t have much batting ammunition as well and the pair of Jayawardene and Kandamby had to go in a shell.

MS Dhoni was under no sort of pressure and even his spinners including Raina, Sehwag went for just few pennies. Sri Lanka once again seemed to have lost it when Skipper Mahela Jayawardene got caught driving Pragyan Ojha to covers. The Lankan Skipper had made 52 from 75 balls with a four and a six and had put on 100 runs with Kandamby for the 4th wicket. SL at this stage were at 136 for 4 in the 36th over. Their hopes of winning the match was still good as Kandamby managed to pull off a 51-run stand with the big hitting Kapugedera (31 from 29) who got out nicking Ishant Sharma to the keeper at a crucial moment. It was during the batting powerplay that Kapugedera got out but his team still got plenty of runs because of some good strokeplay from the left handed Kandamby. The Indian bowlers dished out far too many full tosses and Sri Lanka blasted 48 runs in the powerplay! They did go onto lose the crucial wicket of Farveez Maharoof though who got cleaned up by an Ishant Sharma yorker. Funnily Maharoof was supposed to be out in over before to this, in the 44th when a Zaheer Khan yorker had hit the base of the stumps but the bails shockingly didn’t fall down and the result was 4 byes instead!

India breathed easy after the end of the powerplay and the equation was 32 to win from 24 balls. Ishant Sharma came to the rescue again by foxing the dangerous hitter Thushara with a slower one in the 47th over. In the next over the unorthodox Muralitharan got run out leaving Kandamby all alone to get the 21 to win from the last two overs. Kandamby now had just two partners left and he was left helpless at the non-striker’s end when no.10 Nuwan Kulasekara wasted 4 balls in the penultimate over from Ishant which went for just the one run! Praveen Kumar who had figures of 8-1-18-1 was entrusted to bowl the final over with 20 runs to defend. It was a cakewalk for Praveen Kumar as he got away with a wide, a full toss that was taken for a couple and another full toss that saw the run out of Mendis to put an end to the match. Thilina Kandamby did himself a favour by remaining unbeaten with a career best of 93 (from 129 balls with 9 fours) but his innings didn’t meet up to the challenge. The left hander was guilty of not keeping the momentum going in his partnership with Mahela which had kept on increasing the required run rate. The Man of the Match award went to Ishant Sharma who had finished with match winning figures of 10-1-57-4. Ishant had earlier got hit by a metallic nut thrown by one of the spectators which had halted the match for a while.