Sharma steers India to victory
A chilly day in Africa but not for Indian cricketers as batsman Rohit
Sharma hit his second century in successive matches to secure a
seven-wicket win over Sri Lanka in a tri-nation series. Sharma’s first
century was against Zimbabwe on Friday in a match which the home side
won by six wickets. But his winning “double” hundred here Sunday ensured
victory against old foes Sri Lanka.
Sent in to bat by India captain Suresh Raina, Sri Lanka struggled
against the inexperienced Indians to reach 242 all out in 49.5 overs.
This target was all too easy for India and they passed it with 39 balls
to spare.
“This was one of the best innings of my career because it is never
easy to chase in one-day matches,” said Sharma.
“We knew we had to bounce straight back after the Zimbabwe match.”
Sri Lanka captain Tillekeratne Dilshan added: “The two early run-outs
cost us a lot because we felt we needed a score of at least 280 runs.
“The runs we did get were not enough for a good defence.”
Now the rejuvenated Indians are back on track in the series and
instead of being under pressure to survive they have the look of victors
about them. Man-of-the-match Sharma’s 100 came up in exactly 100 balls.
It was a race both against the light, which was generally indifferent,
and also against the disappearing number of runs required for the win.
When his century was secured, India needed only a handful of runs to
cross the line and his captain Raina held back for him.
Sharma hit six fours and two sixes in a faultless innings, which was
not especially spectatular but of total command.
He didn’t take all the limelight though. Virat Kohli weighed in with
82 before being caught on the boundary and they put on 154 for the third
wicket.
Kohli needed 92 balls as he hit four fours in his seventh half
century.
From a team standpoint India recovered well from their shock beating
by Zimbabwe and are now back on track for a possible series winning
effort.
The pressure now reverts to Sri Lanka who must beat Zimbabwe on
Tuesday to put all three on level terms at the half-way stage.
Before a crowd of only about 30 at the start of play, which followed
a pre-dawn thunderstorm, perhaps 800 paying spectators braved the cold
wind as Sri Lanka were put into bat.
India were forced to start without Vinay Kumar who sprained an ankle
playing soccer. He was replaced by Pragyan Ojha.
The Sri Lankans, who had an air of failure about them from the early
overs, mostly made heavy weather of the entire innings overs, scoring at
fewer than three an over after losing Upul Tharanga with only eight runs
on the board.
They also suffered two runouts with the losses of Dilshan himself and
Upul Tharanga.
Sri Lanka did manage to get the rate up to four by the 38th over and
almost to five near the end in a bid for boundaries, but they lost all
their wickets in the attempt to go further.
Dilshan forced his way to 61 off 84 balls to record his 17th
half-century in 175 matches played. And Angelo Mathews weighed in with
75 in 95 balls for his fourth 50 in ODIs.
But in between there were slow scoring periods. Between the 11th and
16th overs inclusive, for instance, only 12 runs were scored.
India, on the other hand, showed no signs of the nerves they might
have displayed after a first match defeat to the home side and went
positively after the Sri Lanka total from the start.
Dinesh Karthik and Murali Vijay with 18 and 14 respectively showed
the way with a modest but sufficient foundation and from that point on
it was the Sharma-Mathews show.
AFP |