Asia Cup 2010 update; India vs Sri Lanka, first innings report
Ferveez Maharoof was the star for Sri Lanka in the first innings, with 5 wickets for just 42 runs; a fabulous Hat Trick destroyed the Indian batting line up, in the final group game of Asia cup.
The match is effectively a dead rubber; As Sri Lanka and India have already qualified for the final of the tournament.
Indian batting looked out of sorts on a day where number of times they did try to claw their way back and rebuild the innings, only to be pulled back time and again by the Lankan attack.
Two big positives for Sri Lanka were the performance of 2 players, Rangana Herath who took 2 wickets, and Maharoof who took a five-wicket haul. These 2 players may have not been on the pre-match playing 11 for the final, but now the selectors will be bamboozled on who to pick.
There were two brief stints for the Indians in the whole innings, 40 runs from Dinesh Karthik, and a 50 from their most talented batsman Rohit Sharma. The lower order though fell like a pack of cards.
After being sent in to bat first, Gambhir and Karthik began well for India, putting on 58 for the first wicket in 12 overs. Gambhir was the first one go after scoring 23 runs from 31 balls with 3 boundaries. He was caught by Randiv off the bowling of Matthews.
The former under-19 captain, Virat Kohli, did not last long, and was caught behind for just 10 runs on the bowling of Maharoof. Soon after, Karthik was also sent back for 40 runs. He was the 2nd victim for Sangakara on the bowling of left arm spinner Herath. Karthik scored 6 boundaries.
The wickets kept tumbling at regular intervals. Raina was next to go for 18, trapped lbw by Herath for his 2nd wicket. Captain Dhoni and Rohit Sharma then tried to rebuild the innings, with a 79 run stand for the 4th wicket. Dhoni was run out for 41 from 53 balls after hitting 6 boundaries. But it was all downhill from then on for India.
It was the Maharoof show, as he took, Jadeja and Zaheer Khan’s wickets in his hat trick to break India’s back.
The whole team soon folded for only 209 runs inside 43 overs. Now Sri Lanka should not have too many problems overhauling the Indian score, and take the momentum to the final.
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