The Hindu : Sport : The Indians choke at the `death' to lose by five runs

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The Indians choke at the `death' to lose by five runs

Vijay Parthasarathy

STERLING KNOCK: Kumar Sangakkara, who brought up his century with a swept six off Kumble, inspired a Sri Lankan resurgence with a well-paced innings. — PHOTO: AP

Rajkot: India choked, having neglected to ease the collar occasionally, in the second one dayer against Sri Lanka in Rajkot on Sunday. The home side contrived to lose the match by five runs despite needing to chase down only 258 on a hard batting wicket that was expected to produce scores well in excess of 300.

No batsman could string the narrative together for India. Although Dhoni and Karthik batted sensibly towards the end, crucially, they could score only a boundary each in the last ten overs.

A counter-attacking 100-run partnership between the old firm of Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly had calmed nerves after India lost two early wickets. Tendulkar was particularly severe on Lasith Malinga, harnessing his pace and forcing several boundaries square of the wicket; twice he cuffed him for consecutive fours.

The run-rate was pegged back after the Lankans opted to stagger the application of the final Power Play.

Good captaincy

The out of form Jayawardene captained well, and timed his bowling changes perfectly. A relatively quiet period ensued; Tendulkar wouldn't score another boundary. He was dismissed immediately after Ganguly reached his fifty, drawn into no man's land and stumped.

Soon afterward, in the second over of his third spell, Malinga finally struck with reverse swing, suckering Ganguly into an inquisitive prod outside off-stump.

Malinga's awkward slingshot action might have been harder to deal with in the morning when there was some bounce to be extracted even from good length.

Karthik joined Dhoni with a little less than a hundred to get. To begin with, they were content to scurry through for quick singles and spade out yorkers. Dhoni, in fact, had his stumps broken first ball, but Malinga was called for overstepping.

Earlier, Kumar Sangakkara crafted a nicely paced 110 — his sixth limited overs hundred — and inspired a Sri Lankan resurgence after the visitor had lost its top order for 58. Munaf Patel bowled the nagging line that had brought him success in the abandoned match in Kolkata, and split the first four wickets with a much-improved Sreesanth.

Jayasuriya square-cut Patel for a six but the bowler, unfazed, adjusted his line and had the left-handed opener caught behind. Sreesanth was loose to start with but, unlike in some of his earlier matches, settled into a rhythm.

Upul Tharanga and Jayawardene went to similar deliveries that were fuller in length. Jayawardene's edge rebounded off Ganguly's shoulder but was pouched by the alert Dhoni.

Sangakkara came in at 31 for two and set about rebuilding the Lankan innings in the company of Tillekeratne Dilshan.

The wicketkeeper-batsman played some spectacular strokes on the up early on; he finished with four sixes, three of which were swatted over the midwicket fence. He reached his century with a swept six off Kumble.

SCOREBOARD

Sri Lanka: U. Tharanga c Tendulkar b Sreesanth 11, S. Jayasuriya c Dhoni b Patel 9, M. Atapattu lbw b Patel 15, K. Sangakkara c Sehwag b Patel 110, M. Jayawardene c Dhoni b Sreesanth 4, T. Dilshan b Singh 56, R. Arnold lbw Tendulkar 7, F. Maharoof c Karthik b Patel 17, M. Bandara (not out) 3, N. Kulasekara (not out) 4, Extras (lb-14, w-4, nb-3): 21. Total for eight wkts. in 50 overs): 257.

PP 1 (1-10): 49/2; PP 2 (11-15): 64-4; PP 3 (16-20): 94/4.

Fall of wickets: 1-16, 2-31, 3-53, 4-58, 5-166, 6-188, 7-249,8-249.

India bowling: Patel 9-0-49-4; Sreesanth 10-1-39-2; Ganguly 2-0-14-0; Harbhajan 10-0-41-1; Kumble 10-1-59-0; Tendulkar 9-0-41-1.

India: R. Uthappa c Jayawardene b Mahroof 7, S. Ganguly c Sangakkara b Malinga 62, R. Dravid b Mahroof 5, S. Tendulkar st. Sangakkara b Bandara 54, V. Sehwag c Sangakkara b Bandara 19, M.S. Dhoni c Maharoof b Jayasuriya 48, D. Karthik lbw b Malinga 31, H. Singh c Jayawardene b Maharoof 2, A. Kumble (run out) 2, S. Sreesanth (not out) 0, Munaf Patel (not out) 0, Extras: (b-1, 1b-5, w-9, nb-7) 22. Total (for nine wkts. in 50 overs): 252.

PP 1 (1-10): 73/2; PP 2 (11-15): 101/ 2; PP3 (21-25): 134/3.

Fall of wickets: 1-14, 2-29, 3-129, 4-154, 5-169, 6-235, 7-241,8-248, 9-252.

Sri Lanka bowling: Malinga 10-0-75-2; Maharoof 10-0-42-3; Kulasekara 10-0-48-0; Bandara 10-0-36-2; Jayasuriya 9-0-38-1; Dilshan 1-0-7-0.

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