India clinch ODI series 3-1

Shirajiv SIRIMANE in India

Powered by two solid centuries from Virat Kohli (107) and Gautam Ghambhir (150 no), India cruised to a fine seven wicket victory to win the one day series 3-1 at the Eden Gardens here last night.

India chasing the formidable Lankan score, started confidently scoring 14 runs off the first over from Thisara Perera.

However in the second over Suranga Lakmal had the danger man Virendar Shewag caught by Thilakarathne Dilshan at backward point at 12. He plucked a double success in the next over when he had Sachin Tendulkar cutting and Suraj Randiv holding on to a good catch to see the back of experienced Tendulkar.

Kohli and Ghambhir then led a fight back and Kohli was very ruthless on Malinga slapping him for four successive boundaries in the ninth over as soon as the first bowling change was initiated.

The pair carried of effortlessly and reached their centuries in the 37th over.

Kohli was the first to exit after putting on a record third wicket partnership of 224, a record for between the was the two countries.

Dinesh Karthik who then joined Ghambhir made sure to bring home a highly praise worthy victory for India against all odds. Debutant Lakmal impressed with two wickets while other bowling was ordinary. 23 extras also made matters easy for India.

Earlier, Sri Lanka despite an early set back, fought back gallantly to put out a challenging 315 for 6.

The Sri Lanka innings was boosted by a fine 118 by opener Upul Tharanga who is in tremendous form in this tour.

Sri Lanka won the toss and elected to bat on a pitch expected to slow down proceedings towards the latter part of the match. Openers, Thilakarathne Dilshan and Tharanga unusually started calmly giving a maiden to Ashish Nehra in the second over. Dilshan could not carry on his usual aggression and was out early being caught at deep square leg by Nehra off Virat Kohli for 9.

Sanath Jayasuriya coming at one drop was also very cautious. After the 10th over Sri Lanka were 45.

Tharanga who was dropped early of a caught and bowl chance by Nehra then picked up the tempo hammering five fours in one over to Sharma and then reached his 14th one day 50, fourth against India and third in the series and played a sheet anchor role to rebuild the tourists’ innings.

Jayasuriya yet to make an impact with his bat during the tour, then fell to a slip catch to Tendulkar for 15.

Skipper Kumar Sangakkara and Tharanga then stopped what would have been yet another collapse and put on a face saving 126 runs for the third wicket paving the way for a 300 plus total.

The Skipper scored his 65 ball half century and then Tharanga being going through the motions of nervous nineties, finally brought up his 7th century in the 33rd over facing 102 balls.

His valuable innings included 14 fours and one six. The partnership was broken when Sangakkara was stumped for 60 off Harbhajan Singh and then Tharanga’s epic innings folded up for 118 when he was bowled by Khan attempting a big swing.

Mahela Jayawardane then with debutant Thissara Perera who was not afraid to punish the ball brought the score along to 274 when Nehra had Perera top edging to be caught by Jadeja.

He made a quick fire 31 in just 14 balls - and his innings included four boundaries and a six justifying his section.

Jayawardane then followed him unfortunately being run out for 33.

Samaraweera 13 and Kandamby 23 with four boundaries carried the Sri Lankan score to 315 for 6 to end their innings.

Sri Lanka made a series of changes bringing in Thissara Perera for injured Chanaka Welegedera (hurt during practice) and axed Kulasekara, Mendis, and Kapugedera to include, Jayasuriya, Lakmal and Samaraweera.

Khan and Nehra grabbed two wickets each while Sharma was expensive giving away 67 in 7 overs.

Since no tickets were sold for the game due to renovations for the World Cup, the atmosphere was somewhat subdued.Meanwhile Sri Lanka team management denied reports that some members of the team went out of the hotel late in the night and returned after 2 a.m. against the advice of the Police. ‘This is not true’, an official of the team, said.

SRI LANKA:

U. Tharanga b Zaheer 			118
T. Dilshan c Kohli b Nehra 		 9
S. Jayasuriya c Tendulkar b Zaheer 	15
K. Sangakkara st Karthik b Harbhajan 	60
M. Jayawardene run out 			33
T. Perera c Jadeja b Nehra 		31
T. Kandamby not out 			23
T. Samaraweera not out 			13
EXTRAS (LB-3, W-10) 			13
TOTAL (for six wickets; 50 overs)	315
FALL OF WICKETS: 1-31 (Dilshan), 2-72 (Jayasuriya), 3-198 (Sangakkara), 
4-234 (Tharanga), 5-271 (Perera), 6-287 (Jayawardene).
Bowling: Zaheer 10-0-49-2, Nehra 9-1-68-2 (w3), Sharma 7-0-67-0 (w1), Harbhajan 10-0-53-1 (w5), 
Jadeja 9-1-51-0, Sehwag 3-0-15-0, Raina 2-0-9-0 (w1).
India:
V. Sehwag c Dilshan b Lakmal		10
S. Tendulkar c Randiv b Lakmal		 8
G. Gambhir not out			150
V. Kohli c sub (Pushpakumara) b Randiv	107
D. Karthik not out			 19
Extras (lb5, nb2, w16)			 23
TOTAL (for three wickets; 48.1 overs)	317
FALL OF WICKETS: 1-13 (Sehwag), 2-23 (Tendulkar), 3-247 (Kohli).
BOWLING: Perera 9-0-66-0 (w3), Lakmal 10-0-55-2 (nb1, w7), Malinga 9.1-0-75-0 (nb1, w4), 
Randiv 10-0-57-1 (w2), Jayasuriya 7-0-42-0, Dilshan 3-0-17-0.