Upul Tharanga ton carries Lanka to imposing 315
Friday, 25 December 2009
In one swift act of acceleration, and solid consolidation thereafter, Upul Tharanga almost single-handedly undid India's much-improved new-ball bowling and ground fielding, according to website cricinfo.
Tharanga's seventh century, his first in 53 innings and more than three years, made sure Sri Lanka recovered from the slowest start of the series, as well as the early dismissals of Tillakaratne Dilshan and Sanath Jayasuriya. India's fielding was a huge improvement over their earlier efforts, but they still dropped Tharanga and Kumar Sangakkara.
That cost them 171 runs, and left them chasing 300-plus - a total that did scant justice to the efforts of Zaheer Khan and Ashish Nehra who took 4 for 117 between them.
Before Tharanga opened up, though, some of the best opening bowling of the series was on display, making his effort all the more significant. Both Zaheer and Nehra came out with an effective plan for the Sri Lanka openers, and implemented it to near perfection. They kept two men on the leg-side boundary for Dilshan, the third man was left vacant, but no room was given and neither was he offered anything to drive.
As a result, India managed their first maiden of the series - bowled by Nehra - and not one boundary was conceded in the first five overs. In the first three matches, Sri Lanka reached their 50 in 3.4 overs, 6.3 overs, and 7.2 overs. At those various stages, Sri Lanka had scored 6 for 0, 23 for 0 and 24 for 0 today. It could have been worse for them had Nehra held on to a tough return catch from Tharanga, who was 7 then. The spell of containment proved too much for Dilshan, who finally pulled Nehra to fine leg, where Kohli took a smart low catch.
Sri Lanka innings:
WU Tharanga b Khan 118
TM Dilshan c Kohli b Nehra 9
ST Jayasuriya c
Tendulkar b Khan 15
KC Sangakkara st Karthik
b Harbhajan Singh 60
DPMD Jayawardene
run out (Nehra) 33
NLTC Perera c Jadeja b Nehra 31
SHT Kandamby not out 22
TT Samaraweera not out 6
Extras: (lb 3, w 10) 13
Total: (6 wickets; 49.2 overs) 307
India last square: 147/2 overs 22, BST 10:00.s.
Tharanga's seventh century, his first in 53 innings and more than three years, made sure Sri Lanka recovered from the slowest start of the series, as well as the early dismissals of Tillakaratne Dilshan and Sanath Jayasuriya. India's fielding was a huge improvement over their earlier efforts, but they still dropped Tharanga and Kumar Sangakkara.
That cost them 171 runs, and left them chasing 300-plus - a total that did scant justice to the efforts of Zaheer Khan and Ashish Nehra who took 4 for 117 between them.
Before Tharanga opened up, though, some of the best opening bowling of the series was on display, making his effort all the more significant. Both Zaheer and Nehra came out with an effective plan for the Sri Lanka openers, and implemented it to near perfection. They kept two men on the leg-side boundary for Dilshan, the third man was left vacant, but no room was given and neither was he offered anything to drive.
As a result, India managed their first maiden of the series - bowled by Nehra - and not one boundary was conceded in the first five overs. In the first three matches, Sri Lanka reached their 50 in 3.4 overs, 6.3 overs, and 7.2 overs. At those various stages, Sri Lanka had scored 6 for 0, 23 for 0 and 24 for 0 today. It could have been worse for them had Nehra held on to a tough return catch from Tharanga, who was 7 then. The spell of containment proved too much for Dilshan, who finally pulled Nehra to fine leg, where Kohli took a smart low catch.
Sri Lanka innings:
WU Tharanga b Khan 118
TM Dilshan c Kohli b Nehra 9
ST Jayasuriya c
Tendulkar b Khan 15
KC Sangakkara st Karthik
b Harbhajan Singh 60
DPMD Jayawardene
run out (Nehra) 33
NLTC Perera c Jadeja b Nehra 31
SHT Kandamby not out 22
TT Samaraweera not out 6
Extras: (lb 3, w 10) 13
Total: (6 wickets; 49.2 overs) 307
India last square: 147/2 overs 22, BST 10:00.s.