India and Sri Lanka have faced each other more than any other country in last 5 years. It looks like as if they play each every other day. Both teams participated in the Celkon Trination Series along with the host West Indies and also made their way into the finals. This match was special for Sri Lankan batsman Mahela Jayawardene as he was playing in his 400th ODI. He is third player in international cricket history to achieve this after Sachin Tendulkar and Sanath Jayasuriya.
 |
| Team India with Celkon Trination Series Trophy |
TOSS
Indian skipper MS Dhoni returned to Indian team after recovering from the injury and M Vijay had to make way for him. In Sri Lankan squad S Lakmal got into the team in place of the D Lokuhettige while India picked up Vinay Kumar in place of the Umesh Yadav. India won the toss and asked Sri Lanka to bat first.
SRI LANKA BATTING
Jayawardene and Tharanga opened the inning for the SriLanka. The opening couldn’t last longer and B Kumar departed the Tharanga at the team score of 27 in 7th over. K Sangakkara made his way into the ground to accompany Jayawardene but B Kumar departed the Jayawardene too in 14th over. Sri Lankan team reached to the score of 50 runs in 16th over with Sangakkara and Thirimane on the pitch. They carried the inning with some glorious shots and good strike rotation. Sri Lankan team completed their 100 runs in 28th over. Sooner K Sangakkara also completed his 50 in 85 balls.
 |
| K Sangakkara during his knock of 71 in Celkon Series final |
At drinks, Sri Lanka were 141/2 in 35th over. Skipper Dhoni handed the ball to I Sharma in the batting powerplay. Thirimane struck two consecutive fours to I Sharma and Sri Lanka reached to the score of 150 in 36th over and a score of 250+ was easily on the cards for Sri Lanka. It looked as if they have decided to go after Ishant as in his next over too, Sangakkara struck him for two fours and a six on consecutive deliveries but in the same over Ishant got Thirimane out contributing useful 46 runs to the team. Wicket of Thirimane opened up the flood gate and quickly Ashwin picked up dangerous looking Sangakkara at the score of 71 and K Parera in the very next over.
 |
| Jadeja Celebrating a Sri Lankan Wicket |
Sri Lankan score changed quickly from 171/2 to 177/5 in no time. They lost 3 crucial wickets in batting powerplay and managed to score 36 runs. Jadeja and Sharma quickly wrapped up the lower batting order of Sri Lanka for the team score of 201. Jadeja picked up 4 wickets for 23 runs while Ishant, B Kumar and Ashwin got 2 wickets each.
INDIA BATTING
Team India needed 202 runs to win 2nd title within 20 days after winning the Champions Trophy. Team India got identical start as the Lankans and lost inform opener S Dhawan in 9th over at the team score of 23. Came at the 3rd batting position V Kohli couldn’t last long and departed at the score 27 runs in 11th over. He contributed only 2 runs for the team. D Karthick came to provide company to Rohit Sharma who was playing with cool and calm. India reached to its 50 runs in 18th over. At the team score of 77 runs, Herath departed good looking Karthick.
Suresh Raina came at No. 5 to carry on Indian inning with the Rohit Sharma who was looking solid and set. India crossed the mark of 100 runs in 26th over and they required another 102 runs to win the match having 7 wickets in hand. Rohit Sharma got to 50 from 80 balls hitting 4 fours and one six. This was his 4th inning of 40+ runs in the series. Raina and Sharma completed their 50 runs partnership in just 42 balls, Raina being the aggressive between the two.
 |
| Rohit Sharma during his match winning innings of 58 in Final |
When it looked Rohit is set to finish the match he got out at the individual score of 58 in the 32nd over. It has been a problem with Sharma as he has failed to capitalize of the starts he got. Captain Dhoni came to pitch after the departure of Rohit. Sooner Raina too got out scoring 34 runs in the 35th over of the S Lakmal. In 38th over Herath picked up the wickets of Jadeja and Ashwin of consecutive deliveries and got Lanka back into the match. B Kumar faced the Hat trick ball and negotiated it very well.
In no time the score of India transformed dramatically from 139/3 to 152/7 in the 38th over. Batting powerplay again played the role of spoilsport as India lost 2 wickets and scored only 19 runs. At the score of 167, Malinga got the wicket of B Kumar. Dhoni and V Kumar carried the innings further before V Kumar got out in 47th over by Skipper Mathews. Needed another 20 runs from last 20 balls to win, I Sharma joined the skipper Dhoni. Match came to last over and India needed 15 runs from it and the scoring responsibility was on skipper Dhoni.
 |
| Dhoni after hitting the winning runs |
Last over of the match, Dhoni missed first ball completely from Eranga, but hit the next deliveries for 6, 4 and 6. India chased the target successfully and won the match as well as the Trination series by 1 wicket. The final couldn’t have been much better and Dhoni showed why he is so crucial in this Indian batting line up. Dhoni remained unbeaten on 45 runs along with Ishant on 2 runs. For Sri Lanka Herath bowled brilliantly and picked up 4wickets for just 20 runs while Eranga picked up 2 wickets.
As, I predicted India will win this series in my earlier article, India won this close encounter with 1 wicket. Team India has won the prestigious Champions Trophy and celkon trination series within the rang of 20 days. With this series win India has maintained its top position in the ICC list in the ODI format of cricket.
It was final match of the cricket series, so number of awards were distributed. All the awards are given below with the name of the Award and their respective winners :
It was final match of the cricket series, so number of awards were distributed. All the awards are given below with the name of the Award and their respective winners :
- Man of the Match : - M.S. Dhoni
- Perfect Partnership of Series- :- M Jayawardene & U Tharanga
- Most Flexible player of Series- :- A Mathews
- Safe Hands of Series :- Darren Bravo
- Trusted player of Series :- Rohit Sharma
- Hausla Buland Player of Series :- R Herath
- Man of the Series :- B Kumar
No comments:
Post a Comment