Tendulkar, Jadeja give India 2-1 lead
Wednesday, 23 December 2009
After Virender Sehwag had bludgeoned 44 from just 28 balls, an unhurried and unbeaten 96 from Sachin Tendulkar took India to a facile victory that gave them a 2-1 lead in this five-match series, according to website cricinfo.
Sri Lanka had dominated the early stages of the match, galloping to 165 for 1 from 22.2 overs but they then subsided in bizarre fashion, undone by a combination of Ravindra Jadeja's spin, poor shot selection and two wickets in two balls from Ishant Sharma, who had gone for 46 in his first three overs. They lost the remaining nine wickets for 74 runs and slumped to 239 all out, which India eased past with 44 balls to spare.
The game changed once Sehwag, captaining in placed of the banned MS Dhoni, brought the slow bowlers on, and it was he himself who dealt the vital blow, having Kumar Sangakkara stumped for 46 despite Dinesh Karthik initially fumbling the take.
Mahela Jayawardene's poor series continued when he slugged a long hop from Harbhajan Singh to short midwicket, where Suresh Raina timed his leap perfectly to take the catch. Thilina Kandamby and Chamara Kapugedera stopped the rot for a few overs, but then Jadeja and Ishant combined to end all hopes of a large total.
Tendulkar carried on in unhurried fashion, with deft dabs and clips off the pads, and glances so fine they just evaded the keeper. But with Karthik clouting Randiv over long-on for a six, the century that the crowd was looking for never arrived. Not that it mattered.
With Sri Lanka succumbing to the Christmas spirit of giving, what might have been a challenging chase for India became instead as pleasant as a moment under the mistletoe.
India 243 for 3 (Tendulkar 96*) beat Sri Lanka 239 (Tharanga 73, Jadeja 4-32) by seven wickets.
Sri Lanka had dominated the early stages of the match, galloping to 165 for 1 from 22.2 overs but they then subsided in bizarre fashion, undone by a combination of Ravindra Jadeja's spin, poor shot selection and two wickets in two balls from Ishant Sharma, who had gone for 46 in his first three overs. They lost the remaining nine wickets for 74 runs and slumped to 239 all out, which India eased past with 44 balls to spare.
The game changed once Sehwag, captaining in placed of the banned MS Dhoni, brought the slow bowlers on, and it was he himself who dealt the vital blow, having Kumar Sangakkara stumped for 46 despite Dinesh Karthik initially fumbling the take.
Mahela Jayawardene's poor series continued when he slugged a long hop from Harbhajan Singh to short midwicket, where Suresh Raina timed his leap perfectly to take the catch. Thilina Kandamby and Chamara Kapugedera stopped the rot for a few overs, but then Jadeja and Ishant combined to end all hopes of a large total.
Tendulkar carried on in unhurried fashion, with deft dabs and clips off the pads, and glances so fine they just evaded the keeper. But with Karthik clouting Randiv over long-on for a six, the century that the crowd was looking for never arrived. Not that it mattered.
With Sri Lanka succumbing to the Christmas spirit of giving, what might have been a challenging chase for India became instead as pleasant as a moment under the mistletoe.
India 243 for 3 (Tendulkar 96*) beat Sri Lanka 239 (Tharanga 73, Jadeja 4-32) by seven wickets.