India Vs. Sri Lanka (Adelaide Oval dated 19-2-08)
Commonwealth Bank Series Game 8
We have still not seen India winning comfortably in the series. After another excellent bowling performance to restrict Sri Lanka to a score of 238, India managed to reach the target only in the last over of the match and 8 wickets down.
Indian fans had more than the victory to cheer for in this match. With Yuvraj back in form with a less than run a ball score of 77, it was a scintillating batting display filled with fours and a six. All Indians would have enjoyed his innings even if they were not able to make it in the end.
Indians once again opened with Gambhir and Tendulkar. Tendulkar was bowled for a duck by an inswinging Malinga delivery. Tendulkar is yet to score a half century in this series and knowing the high standards he sets for himself we can expect a big innings from him in the next 2 matches.
Again the Indians changed the batting order with Utthapa coming one down. After getting run out for 10 trying to go for a single which was never there and Gambhir falling for 15 India looked in trouble. That’s where Yuvraj came and within no time he was scoring freely. A couple of good partnerships with Rohit Sharma (24) and Dhoni (50 not out) meant that India had a chance of winning.
Pathan played a good knock of 31 and had a good partnership going with Dhoni, however threw his wicket when India needed it the most. This put pressure back on to the Indians. Praveen Kumar (6) and Harbajan Singh (3) did not last for long.
Malinga’s bowled the 49th over which could have been a turning point of the match. After conceding a boundary by way of leg byes due to his inswinging yorker going down the leg side, he managed to bowl another one superbly to dismiss Harbajan in the 4th ball of the over. With 2 balls and 2 wickets anything could have happened. However Ishant Sharma managed to bring his bat in front to defend the next 2 yorkers. This gave Dhoni the strike in the beginning of the last over and he managed to score the winning runs after the first ball was adjudged a wide.
In the end it was Dhoni who steered India to win. His labourious fifty which included no boundaries and sixes speaks about the maturity which he has and the desire in him to see India win. Dhoni has played a superb role in this entire series and has been very consistent. He is leading from the front and coming down the batting order gives a lot of stability to the batting line up.
Earlier in the day India bowled well with the first ten overs giving only 18 runs and getting 2 wickets. Munaf got the first wicket in the first over and Jaysuriya was unlukily run out in the 3rd over. Sanagakkara (128) and Jaywardene (71) fought back brilliantly to take Sri Lanka to a respectable score of 239. Sangakkara was adjudged the man of the match for his brilliant effort of 128.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment