Cricket: Asia Cup final India struggle to set Sri Lanka a target of 265
India began the final of the Asia cup knowing they have not won a major multi-nation tournament for a while. After their recent poor performances first in the T-20 World Cup and later in Zimbabwe this was their chance to vindicate themselves in front of millions of fans back home and the uncompromising Indian Media. A win against Pakistan in the group matches went a long way towards winning back the home fans but another dismal performance against Sri Lanka in the final group game set them back once again.
But Indian captain Dhoni had promised that the final will be a whole different story. It began well for India, after winning the toss Dhoni elected to bat first at Dambulla where the pitch did not look to have too many demons in it.
With their most prolific opening batsmen Sehwag once again out with an injury Dinesh Karthik opened the batting alongside Gautham Gambhir, the start was reasonably good with the openers getting the score to 38 in the first 6 overs which is more then run a ball. Then came a moment of insanity Gambhir went for a run which clearly was not on and was found well short. Gambhir scored 15 runs from 16 balls with 2 boundaries.
Next in was Virat Kohli, the man who made his name after leading the under-19 team to world cup glory but after some good performances he had found it hard to cement a place in the team. Kohli scored 28 from 34 balls with 4 boundaries, before he was caught behind on the bowling of Malinga.
Kohli put together 62 runs alongside Karthik for the 2nd wicket, MS Dhoni walked in next to build the innings and nudged around for a while with Karthik as both were looking to play risk free cricket. Karthik and Dhoni were together for 46 runs, when Karthik was caught by Jayawerdene on the bowling of Kandamby after scoring a solid 66 runs, he struck 9 boundaries in his innings.
A lot then depended on Captain Dhoni but he just could not get out of his defensive shell and was caught in the covers by Kulasekara as he dived forward to take a low catch, Dhoni scored 38 from 50 balls with just 2 boundaries and one big six.
India was in a spot of bother with the score at 167 for 4 in 33rd over. Rohit Sharma and Raina were at the crease, 2 of the most promising Indian batsmen started to rebuild the innings mixing caution with aggression, they knew there was not much to follow once they left. Both put on 50 runs in 8 overs to give some stability to the score and made sure they had wickets in hand in the final overs to go for broke. The partnership was broken when Raina was caught plum in front of the wicket by Malinga for his 2nd wicket of the match; Raina scored 29 runs from 31 balls with 3 boundaries.
With 9 overs to go Ravindra Jadeja joined Rohit Sharma at the crease, but the 2 did not find it easy to score freely in the final overs, boundaries were hard to come by. Sharma and Jadeja were together for 7 overs by could only muster 32 runs, and that too from the 42nd to the 48th over. Credit goes to controlled bowling from Sri Lanka.
Rohit Sharma was dismissed for 41 runs from 52 balls with only 3 boundaries; he was caught by Maharoof off the blowing of Kulasekara.
India’s hero against Pakistan Harbhajan Singh came to the middle to hit some big blows, but he even he found it hard to use the long handle, Harbhajan remained unbeaten at 7 from 7 balls, while Jadeja was not out at 21 from 25 balls, scoring just a single boundary. India finished their quota of 50 overs at 264 for the loss of 6 wickets. Malinga and Kandamby claimed 2 wickets for Sri Lanka.
The target can be termed as respectable at best, looking at the formidable batting line up of Sri Lanka it should not be that much of a task for them, but the pitch has been on the slow side so spinners will be the key for India in the 2nd half of the match.
Tags: