Jayasuriya shines in rain hit one dayer

Chris Dhambarage reporting from India

CRICKET: Dashing opener Sanath Jayasuriya hit a sparkling unbeaten half century but Sri Lanka’s first day night one day international against India was washed out due to heavy rain at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata here on Thursday.

After been put into bat by the Indian captain Rahul Dravid, the Lankans were well placed at 102 for 3 before heavy rains forced the players off the field after 18.2 overs.

The rains did seize later but after a couple of inspections the umpires Simon Taufel and L. Sashtri after consulting the two captains decided to call off the game at around 8.30 p.m. The series has now been reduced to three games and the players will now head to Rajkot where the second one day international match will be played on Sunday at the Municipal grounds.

Earlier veteran left hander had raced to 63 from just 61 balls as he gave a fine exhibition of batting collecting thirteen boundaries during his stay at the crease. Jayasuriya did not have any early problems and was ruthless with anything short or too full, cutting and pulling with real authority as he went onto complete his 62nd one day international half century.

Despite losing his opening partner Upul Tharanga early in the innings, Jayasuriya kept up the momentum as he raced to his half century in just 48 deliveries flicking Zaheer Khan to the ropes. Tharanga had been kept quiet after his initial flourish and his miss judged attempt to pull a delivery far too close to the body only ricochetted on to the stumps.

Tharanga of course started off in style where he stroked two superb boundaries in one over bowled by Zaheer Khan who also sent down as many as five wides down the leg side in the same over. India’s decision to field first certainly back fired as they failed to exploit the early conditions of the wicket which was dry and flat very much in favour of the batsmen.

Even then India did bounce back later on as their bowlers took some time to get use to the conditions. Both opening bowlers Khan and Patel eventually settled on just short of a good length but Sanath Jayasuriya continued to punish the slightest transgression in either line or length.

Patel gave India another break through by dismissing the Sri Lankan captain Mahela Jayawardene in the eighth over of the innings after the right hander had miscued a shot to the mid on boundary. Sreesanth, was introduced into the attack in the 11th over and immediately suffered at the hands of the explosive Jayasuriya, who cut him for four and then nonchalantly thumped one over mid off.

Sangakkara also made his intentions quite clear from the start with a couple of beautiful cover drives off Sreesanth. However it was Jayasuriya who dominated a stand of 52 runs with Kumar Sangakkara before the latter edged Sreesanth behind in the 17th over.

The dismissal of Sangakkara reunited the old combination of Jayasuriya and Marvan Atapattu, but the torrential rain that came down soon after spoiled their chances of making a big impact at this famous old venue which was hosting a one day international after more than year.

SRI LANKA

U. Tharanga b Patel			14
S. Jayasuriya not out			63
M. Jayawardene c Dravid b Patel		 0
K. Sangakkara c Dhoni b Sreesanth	12
M. Atapattu not out			 5
Extras: (lb2, w6)			 8
TOTAL (for three wickets)		102
FALL OF WICKETS: 1-34 (Tharanga), 2-44 (Jayawardene), 
3-96 (Sangakkara).
BOWLING: Zaheer 5-0-32-0 (w1), Patel 7-1-25-2, 
Sreesanth 4.2-0-36-1 (w5), Harbhajan 2-0-7-0