Sri Lanka marched on to second spot in the CB series

Sri Lanka had won the 8th match in the CBS series at Brisbane by 51 runs against India, earning themselves a total of 11 runs and gaining the second spot with 11 points.

Virender Sehwag led the Indian team as M S Dhoni had to sit the game out due to a suspension from his match against Australia on Sunday because of a ‘slow over-rate’.

India had apparently dropped their rotation scheme and brought in all three senior players - Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar and Gautam Gambhir to their side regardless of their worries about their fitness and athletic skills on the field, but what Gambhir may have lacked in on with his fielding he definitely compensated with his bat as he is one of the batsmen in form on the Indian side.

Sri Lanka having won the toss had elected to bat and Mahela Jayawardene had an unchanged victorious side as of the one that played against Australia on 17th February in Sydney.

Both Jayawardene and Tillakaratne Dilshan put up an incredible opening partnership by scoring 95 runs on the board. Indian were quick to bag two more wickets both off Dilshan and Kumar Sangakkara who has yet to find form with his bat in the CB series.

Lahiru Thirimanne was the highest scorer on the Sri Lankan side having scored 62 runs off 62 balls. Although Thirimanne batted well, he was spotted to have been couple of feet outside of the crease at the non-strikers end. Ravichandran Ashwin on an effort to prevent unfair advantage taken by the non-striker knocked off the bails at the non-strikers end and ran-out Thirimanne. When appealed, umpire Paul Reiffel did not rule Thirimanne as ‘run out’ but had a discussion with leg umpire and Sehwag, the Indians then withdrew their appeal and allowed Thirimanne to bat all in the ‘spirit of the game’.

Despite the countless warnings given to Thirimanne he continued to stand couple of feet out of the crease as the before the bowler even got a chance to release the ball off his hand. As of October 2011, the law change indicates that the “bowler is permitted, before releasing the ball and provided he has not completed his usual delivery swing, to attempt to run out the non-striker.”

Chasing 290 with a shaky batting line-up, India openers Sehwag and Tendulkar, as they moved the in form batsmen Gambhir down the batting order. A déjà vu` moment with the fall of Sehwag’s wicket as he was caught by Nuwan Kulasekara to the ball of Lasith Malinga as he did in Perth.

Suresh Raina and Virat Kohli’s partnership brought about some hope for the Indians as both put on a strong and steady 92 run partnership scoring 32 and 66 respectively. While Raina and Kohli were still on the pitch, the scaled were slightly tipped towards the Indian and Sri Lanka was looking to be in trouble. Some bowler changes claimed both Raina and Kohli, their departure left the Indian side in trouble but Irfan Pathan helped to restore Indian scoreboard making 47 runs off just 54 balls. Pathan’s innings made it impossible for Sri Lanka to win with a bonus point.

Even though winning the match today with a convincing 51 runs, there were a lot of sloppy fielding from the Sri Lankan sides with couple of dropped catches, missed run out opportunities and the bowlers were quite expensive in their spells as runs rolled down to the boundaries because of some bad fielding. This is something Jayewardene and his team has to improve on especially with the 10th match against Australia on 24 February.

Sri Lankans have found the golden formula, it’s just a matter of utilizing the players to the maximum to bag a win on Friday to ensure a spot in the final. There were some hiccups on the field with the fielders but Sri Lanka did everything right by scoring 289 runs and then getting wickets at regular intervals to bag 4 points giving them a second spot on the table.

Kulasekara was named ‘man of the match’ for his outstanding balling spell (3-40) taking the vital wickets of Tendulkar, Gambhir and Ravindra Jadeja.

- Asian Tribune –

Tweet