Colombo, Jan 31: India held their nerve in a nail biting finish to beat Sri Lanka by 15 runs in the second ODI played at the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo on Saturday and go 2-0 up in the five match series. Left handed batsman Thilina Kandamby played a magnificent knock of 92 not out to bring Sri Lanka within sniffing distance of a victory but failed to get enough support towards the end as the home team needed 21 runs to win off the last two overs.
Lanky pacer Ishant Sharma came up with yet another brilliant performance, finishing with figures of 4 for 56 off nine overs. Zaheer Khan, Pragyan Ojha and Praveen Kumar took a wicket each.
This is India’s seventh consecutive ODI victory.
Chasing India’s total of 256, Sri Lanka looked down and out at one stage after being reduced to 36-3 until Kandamby and Jayawardene came together to put up a century partnership. Jayawardene’s wicket, however, opened the door for India even as the young southpaw waged a lone battle at the other end.
The required rate for the Lankans climbed steeply and crossed the seven run mark in the 30th over as Kandamby and Jayawardene tried to rebuild the innings after the early blows. Jaywardene was out for 52 while trying to hit Ojha and holed out to Yusuf Pathan.
It looked like a cakewalk for the Indians as the required rate touched the nine run mark in the last 10 overs with just 4 wickets in hand but some great hitting by Kndamby ensured that the Lankans were always in the hunt.
The dreaded run out then came to haunt the home team as three batsmen went back in just 16 balls.
During India’s innings, Yuvraj Singh came up with a brilliant 66 run knock after Virender Sehwag had smashed 42 upfront to help the Indians put up a competitive total of 256/9 on the board.
The Indian innings did not start ideally either as they lost 3 wickets within the first 13 overs with just 83 runs on the board. Sehwag started in customary fashion but Sachin Tendulkar who came out to open the innings was out to a bad umpiring decision after scoring just 6.
After Sachin’s dismissal, Sehwag and Gambhir played aggressively but could not last long. Gambhir was out caught by wicketkeeper Kumar Sangakkara off Farveez Maharoof while Sehwag followed him shortly as he was run out while trying to steal a third run. Gambhir made 27 runs off 31 balls.
Yuvraj who came in at the fall of Gambhir’s wicket played with ease before he was out LBW to another dubious umpiring decision even as replays showed a big inside edge.
Skipper Dhoni played sensibly, scoring just 23 in his 15 overs long stay at the wicket but he was out caught behind the wickets off Maharoof.
Mendis too captured the wickets of Zaheer Khan for 17 and Praveen Kumar for 15 towards the end but Muralitharan who needs just two wickets to become the highest ODI wicket taker could not do any damage.
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