INDIA VS SRI LANKA 3RD, CUTTACK
The 3rd match of The Karbonn mobile INDIA VS SRI LANKA ODI series was held in Cuttack, Orissa. It was an important match for both the teams as they wanted to win this match and take a lead in the series. Sri Lankan captain Kumara Sangakarra won the toss and elected to bat first. There were two changes in the side. Injured Matthews made way for Nuwan Kulasekra and Malinga replaced Lakmal. As for as Indian team was concerned, there were three changes in the side. In the absence of CAPTAIN COOL MS DHONI , Sehwag lead the Indian team and Dinesh Karthik replaced him as wicket keeper. Yuvraj singh made a comeback in the side after missing the first two matches of the series. His inclusion in the side forced Virat Kohli to be left out from the playing 11 inspite of his brilliant half century in the previous match. Ishant Sharma replaced Praveen Kumar.
The dangerous Dilshan and Upul Tharanga were off to a flier and the Indian bowlers were absolutely clueless. The first fifty runs were scored in less than 4 overs. Dilshan was dealing in boundaries and his knock of 36 at the end of 4 overs consisted of 9 fours. Dilshan was lucky to escape from an easy run out chance. Dinesh Karthik was the culprit. But Dilshan didn’t damage the scorecard much, as he fell to Ashish Nehra after adding 5 more runs. He was caught behind by Karthik and his knock of 41 came in just 18 balls. The Lankan skipper joined Tharanga in the middle. Sri Lanka was 90 for the loss of 1 wicket at the end of 10 overs. Ishant Sharma proved to be very costly in his first and second spells as he gave away 43 runs in just 3 overs.
At the end of bowling power play Sri Lanka was 122 for the loss of 1 wicket. Meanwhile Tharanga reached his 13 th ODI fifty in just 51 balls. It was a triple blow for the Lankans as Sangakarra, Tharanga and Jayawardene were dismissed in the 23 rd, 25 th and 28 th over respectively. Sangakarra fell for 46 to Sehwag. He was stumped in the 2 nd attempt by Karthik. Jadeja struck in his very first over when he bowled Tharanga for 71. Jayawardene fell cheaply for 2. He was caught by Suresh Raina of Harbhajan. Thilan Kandami and Chamara Kapugedra came to the rescue and it was the last recognized pair left for the Lankans.
Kapugedra was bowled by Jadeja in the 35 th over after scoring 15. In the 36 th over Ishant Sharma came back strongly and picked up two wickets in two balls. Kandambi and Randhiv were the victims. Jadeja struck twice in the 39 th and 43 rd over to dismiss Kulasekra and Mendis . Nehra dismissed Malinga for 12 in 45 th over to wrap up the Lankan innings. Sri Lanka was bowled out for 239 in 44.2 overs. Ravidra Jadeja was the pick of the bowlers as he ended with his best bowling figures of 4/32. Nehra and Sharma picked couple of wickets each where as Sehwag and Harbhajan picked a wicket each.
In reply, India started off brilliantly with Sehwag and Sachin dealing in boundaries. The bowlers had no clue especially when bowling to Sehwag as he was smashing most of the balls to the fence. Malinga conceded 19 runs in his first over. In the 7 th over Sehwag hit Welegadra for 3 fours and fell to him in the last ball of the same over. He was caught by Dilshan in the backward point. His brilliant knock of 44 came in just 28 balls. At the end of power play 1, India was 66 for the loss of 1 wicket. India reached hundred in the 15 th over. In the 23 rd over Gautam Gambhir was caught and bowled by Randhiv after scoring 32. Gambhir was unlucky as Randhiv grounded the ball.
The comeback man Yuvraj joined Sachin in the middle. Sachin reached his 93 rd ODI fifty in just 57 balls. It was his 17 th against Sri Lanka. Yuvraj added 23 to the scorecard before getting dismissed by Welegadra. Dinesh Karthik came at no.5 and started playing his natural game. On the other end Sachin was timing the ball beautifully. This pair scored runs quickly. In the end, India won the game comfortably by 7 wickets with 44 balls to spare. Karthik scored a quick 32 ball 36 where as Sachin was unbeaten on 96, was short by 4 runs for a well deserved century. India took the series lead of 2-1 with two more games to go and Ravindra Jadeja was adjudged Man Of The Match for his career best bowling figures of 4/32.
Like it on Facebook, Tweet it or share this article on other bookmarking websites.