Sri Lanka Triangular Series: India Beat Sri Lanka by 6 wickets; seal bonus point
Indian beat http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Sri-Lanka-c758 convincingly in the 3rd match of the tri-nation tournament in Dambulla. It was the bowling attack of India that gave them the advantage in the first half of the match, and later it was Virender Sehwag with the bat who made sure that India won with a bonus point. The win by India means that all three teams have a win each after completion of the first round of matches in the tournament.
The Indian captain was once again not able to win the toss, but given the result of the match, he will not be regretting it too much. It was the Sri Lankan captain Kumara Sangakkara that made the wrong call of putting his side to bat first in the bowler-friendly conditions.
The manner in which http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Virat-Kohli-c95424 and Rohit Sharma also did not find it easy to get going and were sent back in the next two overs without even opening their account. It was clear that a low scoring cliff-hanger was in store.
The constant fall of wickets at the other end meant that Sehwag was forced into holding back his big flashy drives and taking a more cautious approach. The right-hander chose his shots carefully and only went hard at the ones outside the off-stump. It took him 6 overs to get his first boundary, which is a rarity considering his aggressive streak. He mostly relied on timing the ball rather than butchering it and it was a delight to see him getting his boundaries with calculated pushes down the ground. As the shine of the ball began to wear off, he started playing his typical upper cuts and whips off his hips.
Sehwag got support in shape of Suresh Raina; the duo added 50 runs together. The left-hander took on more of a supporting role and handed the strike more to Sehwag. Raina played his first shot in anger and pulled one to the square leg and was caught in the 22nd over (he posted 21 runs off 35 balls) with the score at 91.
Sehwag was in his element by then, and he continued to punish any loose delivery that came his way. Sri Lankan off-spinner Suraj Randiv lost his length and was taken to task by Sehwag for successive boundaries. Angelo Mathews was also not spared by the right-hander, as the balance continued to shift towards the Indians. It looked as if India would get to the win easily with a bonus point. Sehwag looked set for a well deserved century and was unbeaten on 99 and India needed just one more to win. That is when Randiv overstepped and handed India the win while Sehwag was left stranded on 99.
It was a well deserved win for India, and once again, the contribution of the bowlers cannot be ignored. http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Ravindra-c84236 Jadeja also got 5 wickets between them.
India won the match with 15.3 overs to spare, and got the much needed bonus point. http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Virender-Sehwag-c95429 was named man of the match.
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