Lankans down, but not out

Chris Dhambarage from pakistan

Defending champions Sri Lanka crashed to their first defeat of the Asia Cup while going down to India by six wickets in a Super Four match played under lights at the National Stadium in Karachi on Thursday.

India successfully chased Sri Lanka’s massive total of 308 for 8 and reached their target with three overs to spare. This means that the two teams will clash once again in the final scheduled for July 6 at the same venue.

Even then this was a huge psychological blow for the Lankans who went in for this centenary game with a great amount of confidence having won all their previous matches in the tournament. But their bowlers simply threw away a great chance after their batsmen had done all the hard work earlier.

The Indian top order fully exploited a somewhat depleted Sri Lankan bowling attack which was missing ace paceman Chaminda Vaas and the mystery spinner Ajantha Mendis who were rested for this encounter.

Sri Lanka of course still had a chance of making a match of it after they produced another solid batting performance. But the Indian openers Virender Sehwag and Gautham Gambhir took the game away from the Lankans with an explosive start of 92 runs from just 11.4 overs.

Dilhara Fernando was the main victim as he conceded 28 runs from his first three overs. Sehwag hammered 42 from 34 balls with one six and half a dozen of boundaries while Gambhir went on to hit a fighting half century from 61 deliveries with the help of eleven boundaries.

Skipper Mahendra Dhoni and Suresh Raina then consolidated their position with a third wicket stand of 99 runs from 92 balls. Dhoni hit a top score of 67 from 62 balls with one six and five boundaries while Raina struck 54 from 66 deliveries inclusive of three boundaries.

The Sri Lankan innings was built around through three half centuries from skipper Mahela Jayawardena, Chamara Kapugedera and Chamara Silva as they crossed the three hundred run mark for the fourth occasion in the competition.

Jayawardena laid the platform for another big score while completing his 46th one day international half century after opener Sanath Jayasuriya had departed early in the 12th over of the innings. Jayawardena justified his decision to bat first on a flat track by smashing a fluent fifty from 62 deliveries with the help of four boundaries.

This was after dashing opener Sanath Jayasuriya had plundered 43 runs from just 37 balls inclusive of three boundaries. Jayasuriya launched a severe attack on the Indian bowlers while stroking three successive boundaries from Irfan Pathan’s one over.

The best batting of course came when Chamara Kapugedera joined Jayawardena in a third wicket stand of 78 runs from 89 balls. Kapugedera in fact was well set to complete his maiden one hundred having batted quite confidently for his top score of 75 which included one six and seven boundaries.

Chamara Silva then provided the finishing touches with a run a ball half century having hoisted one six and struck two boundaries as Sri Lanka collected 74 runs from the last ten overs of the innings. Karachi, Thursday.

SRI LANKA:

S. Jayasuriya c Dhoni b Sharma		43
K. Sangakkara c Dhoni b Sharma	 	 7
M. Jayawardene c Gambhir b Ojha		50
C. Kapugedera lbw b Kumar		75
C. Silva run out			50
T. Dilshan c Singh b Pathan		15
K. Weeraratne c Gambhir b Singh		23
T. Thushara run out			23
N. Kulasekera not out			 6
M. Muralitharan not out			 1

Extras: (b1, lb11, w3)			15
TOTAL: (for eight wkts)			308

Did not bat: D. Fernando
Fall of wickets: 1-16 (Sangakkara), 2-71 (Jayasuriya), 3-149 (Jayawardene), 
		4-217 (Kapugedera), 5-245 (Dilshan), 6-263 (Silva), 7-287 (Weeraratne), 8-307 (Thushara).
Bowling: Singh 10-1-44-1, Sharma 10-0-55-2 (1w), Pathan 10-0-80-1, Kumar 6-0-36-1 (1w),
		 Ojha 10-0-55-1, Sehwag 3-0-22-0 (1w), Rohit 1-0-4-0
Overs: 50


India:

G. Gambhir lbw b Muralitharan		68
V. Sehwag c Fernando b Kulasekera	42
S. Raina run out			54
M. Dhoni b Muralitharan			67
Y. Singh not out			36
R. Sharma not out			22

Extras: (lb11, nb1, w9)			21
TOTAL: (for four wkts)			310

Did not bat: Irfan Pathan, P. Ojha, R. Singh, I. Sharma, P. Kumar
Fall of wickets: 1-92 (Sehwag), 2-135 (Gambhir), 3-234 (Raina), 4-253 (Dhoni)
Bowling: Fernando 9-0-52-0 (1nb, 1w), Kulasekera 9.5-0-71-1 (5w), Thushara 8-0-67-0 (2w),
	 Muralitharan 10-0-44-2, Weeraratne 5-0-36-0, Jayasuriya 3-0-19-0 (1w), Dilshan 2-0-10-0
Overs: 46.5