Hitting Muralidharan out of the attack is the key to win the one day series.
After being thrashed by India in Test Series Sri Lanka look forward to avoiding further humiliation in the one day series. There is nothing much to separate between the two teams but Indians are on a high after winning the Test Series. Eventhough the Twenty 20 Series was tied, Indians have a mental head start because this Indian team is capable of chasing any target as was the case in the second match of the T20 series when India successfully chased the highest ever target in T20 history thanks to Yuvraj Singhs blistering assault on hapless bowlers. What would have shocked Sri Lankans even more was the fact that India were never in trouble at any point during the chase and chased it down comfortably. If the initial thrust was provided by Sehwag, then the consolidation came in the form of Dhoni, and Yuvraj's innings apart from decimating the Sri Lankan shattered their confidence as well.
What Yuvrajs assault on Sri Lankan bowlers has done is that Sri Lankan skipper Kumar Sangakarra and team management would not be sure as to what would be a safe target if they opt to bat first or if put in by India. Sri Lankans in trying to push harder for a bigger total in fear of India's batting strength may take few more risks than they normally would have taken and in the process may lose wickets which again would be to India's advantage as they can check the run flow and keep down Sri Lanka to a reasonable total. On the contrary if Sri Lanka play a safe game and target a reasonable score within the usual winning range, then their bowlers are under pressure because they would start think is their score good enough to test the strong Indian batting line up. They would be confused as to whether they should try to defend or should they go for the kill.
As far as India are concerned they are in a advantageous position. They have a batting line up which starts with Sachin Tendulkar and ends with Mahendra Singh Dhoni. This batsman are known for setting imposing targets and chase down huge targets in the region of 350 plus. Sri Lankans too have a great batting line up but not as imposing as the Indians who probably have the best line up in the world. On the bowling front Indians have a average bowling up while Sri Lanka have a legend in Muralidhran but their support bowlers are even worse than the Indians. The key factor could be India's part time bowlers as they have quite a lot of them in Sachin, Yuvraj and Sehwag. Indian part time bowlers are accustomed to playing the dual roles of containing runs and picking up wickets to perfection. All our partimers Sachin, Yuvraj and Sehwag are known for being partnership breakers and that is an additional advantage India have.
Indians should adopt the same strategy they employed in Test Series to win the 5 match one day series Indian batsman should play Muralidhran like any other bowler and hit him out of the attack. Muralidhran has a reputation of wilting under pressure if attacked by batsmen and that is precisely the reasons for his failure in India and Australia as he was regularly attacked by Adam Gilchrist and Sehwag in their respective countries. Indians should easily win the one day series even if their batsmen play upto 50% of their potential.
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