 India take unassailable series lead against Sri Lanka
27th Aug 2008 23:03 IST
Agencies
India registered their first bilateral ODI series victory in Sri Lanka by winning the fourth match of the series by 46 runs at the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo tonight.
After putting a competitive target of 259 before the Lankans, Indian bowlers skittled out the hosts for 212 in 46.3 overs.
With this win India pocketed the five-match series with one match to spare, which is scheduled for Friday and avenged their Test series drubbing.
The Indian bowlers had their task cut out right from the word go as Munaf Patel (2/48) once again impressed with the new ball, scalping the first two wickets. Malinda Warnapura (0) was the first man to go without scoring after he was caught in front of the wicket by Munaf. However, replays showed the ball might have gone over the stumps.
Out-of-form Kumar Sangakkara (6), dropped to first down following his woeful run in the tournament, failed once again as he played on a Munaf delivery.
However, veteran Sanath Jayasuriya (60 of 52 balls) was at his explosive best and with skipper Mahela Jayawardene (16) he put up a crucial 74-run stand for the fourth wicket to steady the Lankan innings.
Jayasuriya's dominance can be gauged from the fact that in the 74-run partnership, Jayawardene contributed only six runs.
However, an important bowling change by Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni in the 17th over, bringing in Harbhajan Singh (3/40) in place of Praveen Kumar, saw Jayasuriya's downfall.
In the third ball of his first over, Harbhajan picked up the crucial wicket of Jayasuriya after the Lankan edged a turner and Suresh Raina made no mistake in the first slip and reacted sharply to pounce on the opportunity.
The Lankans received yet another blow when in-form Jayawardene was caught short off the crease by Virat Kohli following a terrible mix up with Chamara Kapugedera (30) to reel the hosts at 106/4 in 24.3 overs.
Most of the Lankan middle-order batsmen got a start but failed to capitalise on that and kept losing wickets at regular intervals.
Next to go was Tillakaratne Dilshan (12), who was wrapped on the pads by Harbhajan in his seventh over which brought an end to his 25-run stand with Kapugedera, thereby exposing the Lankan tail.
Four overs later, Kapugedera followed suit after he was caught in front of the wicket by Yuvraj Singh (2/53).
The Indian vice-captain made up for his batting failure with the ball as Chaminda Vaas became his second lbw victim.
Dhoni's bowling changes seemed to work wonders for the visitors, as after being brought back into the attack, Harbhajan lured Nuwan Kulasekara with a doosra, only to see the Indian skipper completing an easy stumping.
Thilan Thushara, soon after his arrival, tried to turn the fortunes for the Lankans with his big hitting. He clubbed Yuvraj for two consecutive sixes in the 38th over and made a quickfire 40 off 29 balls and was the last man to depart, caught by Raina off Zaheer Khan (1/27) to end the match in favour of India.
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