India edge out Sri Lanka
India made hard work of it but eventually ran out winners against Sri Lanka by two wickets. The victory puts India in the pole position to appear in the Commonwealth Bank Tri-Nations Series final showdown against hosts Australia.
In the first innings Kumar Sangakkara's knock of 128 - his first ODI century in a year - propelled Sri Lanka to a 239 in their allotted 50 overs at the sweltering Adelaide Oval.
However, an innings of 76 by Yurjav Singh and a 50 by MS Dhoni helped India over come a stubborn Sri Lankan attack.
With Sri Lanka struggling on six for two, in just the third over, Sangakkara slowly constructed his innings, in which he went 21 overs without finding the boundary.
With only three batsmen reaching double figures, Sangakkara was ably assisted by Mahela Jayawardene, who put on 71 before he was run out, as they accumulated a partnership worth 153 runs.
Chamara Silva pitched with a late 21 to leave Sri Lanka on 238 for six.
When Sachin Tendulkar was dismissed for a duck by Lasith Malinga's first ball, a ferocious out-swinger that rattled the top of off-stump, India, who failed to chase down 204 against Australia on the same pitch just two days ago, looked set to slump to their third defeat of the Commonwealth Bank Series.
Robin Uthappa was soon run-out following superb fielding by Sanath Jayasuriya that resulted in a direct-hit and Gautum Gambhir made just 15 as India stumbled to 35 for three.
However, Yurjav Singh gave India hope of resurrecting their innings with a fluent 76 that included a huge six over mid-wicket as they began to maker significant inroads into the Sri Lankan total.
His dismissal, which came off the bowling of Chaminda Vaas, paved the way for batsman-wicketkeeper MS Dhoni to step-up the run chase and he sealed victory with five balls to spare.



Comments
Add a comment
Be the first to comment on this
If you are a Gambling.com member, please login at the top left of this page.
If you are not a Gambling.com member, please complete our sign up form—membership is free and it takes just a minute or two to sign up.