Sri Lanka tumble out of one-day finals
Ranjan Anandappa in Australia
Sachin Tendulkar and Gautham Gambhir denied Sri Lanka of entering the
final of the Commonwealth Bank series with a 102 run stand for the
second wicket, as India made short work of a hapless looking bowling
attack which had to defend a meagre 180, as India achieved the target
without expending much sweat.
India won by 7 wickets reaching the victory target 180 with 17.4
overs to spare. and will now meet Australia in a best of three final
beginning on Sunday in Sydney.
Sri Lanka will be meeting Australia in Melbourne on Friday in a game
of only an academic interest. It was a superlative team effort by India
as their pace bowlers set the platform with a sterling performance,
backed up by their batsmen batting in cool and calm fashion.
The Lankans left the Indians with a seemingly accessible target, and
the Lankan bowling resources were simply insufficient to curtail the
strong Indian batting.
Skipper Mahela Jayawardena's pre match prediction of a batting
revival just plunged into zero as their batsmen gave another sorry
display of batting in their quest of beating India and finding the path
to the final. If Sri Lanka needed to get into the final their batsmen
should have batted with more conviction and resolve. All that was needed
was a commonsense approach and a little above normal scoring rate. The
Sri Lanka also sadly lacks a competent opening combination.
The pitch looked hard and bouncy and the second wicket pair of
Jayasuriya and Sangakkara would have the pitch ideal for stroke play
when the pair added 57 runs and cruising well for a substantial total to
insert the pressure on the Indians.
But the Indian fast bowlers Inshant Sharma, Munaf Patel, Preveen
Kumar and Irfan Pathan erred the Lankan batsmen into errors with steady
spells of bowling.
After losing opener Dilruwan Perera for 8 in the fourth over,
Sangakkara and Jayasuriya gave glimpses of hope for the side. Jayasuriya
hit Inshant Sharma for a flat six over extra cover and Sangakkara was
batting crisply.
But medium pacer Praveen Kumar playing only in his third ODI and
second in the CB series ran through the hard crust of the batting when
he struck thrice in three overs to get rid of Sangakkara who was
brilliantly caught by Dhoni while going for an off side shot, and a firm
cut by Jayawardena who was also spectacularly snapped up Rohith Sharma
in the covers, and Chamara Silva caught by the Dhoni - Praveen Kumar
combination.
Sri Lanka was 4 for 81 in the 19th over, with Jayasuriya still at the
wicket, the sides batting fortunes squarely rested on his shoulders. But
with his personnel score at 34 he played an exceptionally loos shot off
Pathan's bowling and skied one towards square leg to give Dhoni who has
kept outstandingly well in the series his third catch.
SRI LANKA
D. Perera b I.Sharma 8
S. Jayasuriya c Dhoni b Pathan 34
K. Sangakkara c Dhoni b Kumar 33
M. Jayawardene c R.Sharma b Kumar 3
C. Silva c Dhoni b Kumar 0
T. Dilshan lbw b I.Sharma 8
C. Kapugedera c and b Harbhajan Singh 57
C. Vaas c Gambhir b I.Sharma 0
L. Malinga c Uthappa b I.Sharma 12
M. Muralitharan b Kumar 13
I. Amerasinghe not out 0
Extras (lb-5 w-6) 11
TOTAL (all out, 47.1 overs) 179
FALL OF WICKETS: 1-15, 2-72, 3-77, 4-81, 5-81, 6-93, 7-93, 8-139, 9-179, 10-179.
BOWLING: Patel 9-0-51-0 (w-1), I.Sharma 10-0-41-4 (w-2), Pathan 10-2-23-1,
Kumar 10-2-31-4 (w-2), Harbhajan Singh 4.1-0-17-1, Yuvraj Singh 4-0-11-0 (w-1).
INDIA INNINGS
R. Uthappa c Amerasinghe b Malinga 11
S. Tendulkar c Silva b Muralitharan 63
G. Gambhir not out 63
Y. Singh c Dilshan b Perera 36
R. Sharma not out 3
Extras (4w) 4
TOTAL (for three wickets) 180
FALL: 18 (Uthappa), 120 (Tendulkar), 171 (Y.Singh).
BOWLING: Vaas 6-0-29-0, Malinga 6-0-36-1 (3w), Amerasinghe 7-0-40-0,
Muralitharan 8.2-0-54-1 (1w) Jayasuriya 1-0-4-0, Perera 4-0-17-1. |
