Dilshan stars in Sri Lanka?s victory
Ranjan Anandappa in Australia
President congratulates
Lankan cricketers
President Mahinda Rajapaksa congratulated the Sri Lanka
cricket team on their convincing eight-wicket win over India in
the Tri-Series match in Australia yesterday. He has also
commended the man of the match Tillakaratne Dilshan for the
explosive innings that enabled Sri Lanka to reach the winning
target.
He has wished skipper Mahela Jayawardene all success in the
remaining matches and a place in the final. |
Tillekeratne Dilshan an unbeaten 63 runs kept Sri Lanka?s hopes
flickering in the running of the Commonwealth Bank limited overs series
helping Sri Lanka beat India by 8 wickets in a rain effected match at
the Menuka Oval here in Canberra yesterday.
Dilshan opened the batting for with Sanath Jayasuriya, with the
Lankans who were desperately looking to make an impact in the
competition after a no decision against India at Brisbane and a loss
against Australia provided the tonic for the team when the pair batted
with easy disdain and made the pace attack of S. Sreesanth and Ishant
Sharma who rattled the Aussies on Sunday look pretty ordinary.
The match was reduced to a 29 overs per side match due to the rain
and India scored 195 for 5 in their allotted 29 overs. With steady
drizzle during the lunch interval the victory target was revised to 154
in 21 overs.
The target looked a stiff one, but Jayasuriya and Dilshan batted with
assurance and gradually worked their way towards a Sri Lankan victory.
Sanath Jayasuriya gave a fairy tale start to the Lankans innings
hammering Sreesanth for 11 runs in the first over.
Dilshan diving successfully to stop a boundary. |
The aggressive Sanath despatched a Sreesanth for a 6 huge six over
mid wicket into the crowd and his 1.5 overs at this stage cost 31 runs.
The match resembled a Twenty/20 game. Jayasuriya utilised only 13
deliveries for his 27 which contained another six over cover point and
two fours.
It was Dilshan who really gave a twist to the innings. Opening the
innings is certainly not a strange one for Dilshan. He has opened the
batting in domestic tournaments and looks more suitable as an opener
with his attacking instinct.
After losing Jayasuriya and Sangakkara in succession with the total
at 69 in the, ninth over skipper Mahela joined by Dilshan and added 85
runs for the third wicket. Mahela?s contribution being an unbeaten 34.
Dilshan had faced 59 deliveries and had six fours and a six.
Earlier in the Indian innings Rohith Sharma continued his good work
with his bat to put India in front as India were sent into bat in a
match reduced by rain to 29 overs when he was engaged in two valuable
partnerships first with Gautham Gambhir adding 64 for the third wicket
and another 68 run stand for the fourth wicket between Sharma and Dhoni.
India got off to quite start. Tendulkar and Sehwag took 12 balls to
score a run. Normally attacking Sehwag was surprisingly quite as both
batsmen were beaten by Vass, and Malinga.
In the first five overs India managed only 21 runs. But Tendulkar and
Sehwag got their act together. Tendulkar in particular got into his
stride and played some brilliant leg side strokes. The openers put on 45
runs for the first wicket and Kulasekera replacing Malinga got the
wicket of Sehwag caught by Muralitharan at deep third man.
Tendulkar after making 32 off 30 deliveries was out in a similar
fashion caught by Kulasekera with a good running catch.
After the dismissal of Tendulkar the scoring rate for India dropped
back a bit. The Sri Lankan bowlers did a good job restrict high scoring
batsmen. Dhoni promoting himself in the batting order joined Rohith
Sharma and increased the tempo striking 31 off 26 deliveries with three
fours. Rohith Sharma?s unbeaten 70 contained six fours and a six off 64
deliveries.
Mahela Jayawardena at the press briefing after the match said if the
Lankans are to win they had to show character, and the team did so and
that was the key for the win.
The Team fought really well, and winning the toss was a bit of an
advantage on that wicket because earlier on the first few overs our
bowlers bowled well, and it was a really good one day track.
They batted really well and we managed to keep them to a decent
score, and the chase was brilliant and well calculated and credit should
go to the guys the way they handled themselves today? said the Lankan
captain.
Both Jayawardena and Dhoni the respective captains said that it was
great to play a limited over series in Australia.
They said that it is really amazing playing in front of a big crowd
and an open tournament. Even if you have few bad games you can always
come back and perform well.
Dhoni was full of praise of Dilshan?s and Sanath?s innings and said
that it resembled a Twenty/20 tournament with the field restrictions.
SCOREBOARD INDIA INNINGS
V. Sehwag c Muralitharan b Kulasekara 14
S. Tendulkar cKulasekara b Maharoof 32
G. Gambhir run out 35
R. Sharma not out 70
M.S. Dhoni run out 31
Y. Singh c Muralitharan b Malinga 6
R. Uthappa not out 0
Extras (1lb, 6w) 7
TOTAL (for five wickets) 195
FALL: 45 (Sehwag), 49 (Tendulkar), 113 (Gambhir),
181 (Dhoni), 192 (Y. Singh)
BOWLING: Vaas 6-1-39-0, Malinga 6-0-45-1, Maharoof 6-0-33-1,
Kulasekara 6-0-41-1, Muralitharan 5-0-36-0 (6w)
Overs: 29
SRI LANKA INNINGS
T. Dilshan not out 62
S. Jayasuriya c Dhoni b Sharma 27
K. Sangakkara c Sharma b Harbhajan 10
M. Jayawardene not out 36
Extras (6lb, 10w, 3nb) 19
TOTAL (for two wickets) 154
FALL: 45 (Jayasuriya), 69 (Sangakkara)
BOWLING: Sreesanth 3-0-48-0 (1nb, 2w), Sharma 4-0-26-1 (2nb),
Pathan 4-0-30-0 (1w), Harbhajan 4-0-15-1, Tendulkar 2-0-15-0 (3w),
Sehwag 2-0-14-0 Overs: 19
Sri Lanka set 154 from 21 overs to win under Duckworth-Lewis method
Sri Lanka win by eight wickets
Points: Sri Lanka 4, India 0
Man of match: T. Dilshan (SRI)
Toss: Sri Lanka
Umpires: Tony Hill (NZL), Bruce Oxenford (AUS)
TV umpire: Peter Parker (AUS)
Match referee: Jeff Crowe (NZL) |