Tuesday, December 15, 2009

INDIA WON THE THRILLING FIRST ODI BY 3 RUNS



 
Today a total of 825 runs were scored in 100 overs bowled as the first ODI of the series came down to a pure bat vs bat contest, rather than a bat vs ball one.
It provided for great entertainment and with India winning the match by a mere 3 runs after scoring over 400, it gave the spectators their money's worth.
At the start of the match Sangakkara won the toss and asked the Indians to bat first. After judging the pace and bounce of the wicket for the first few overs, Virender Sehwag cut loose and Sachin Tendulkar also followed.Sehwag was the main aggressor, and he brought up his fifty off just 34 balls. After that, Tendulkar also started to open up and soon he too reached his half-century.Tendulkar reached his half-century off 48 balls, and continued to score at better than a run-a-ball.The openers raised 100 inside the first 15 overs, and 150 in 19 overs. They looked set to score a lot more runs, but Tendulkar was bowled through the gate by a good ball from Dilhara Fernando as the first wicket fell for India with the score at 153 in 19.3 overs.
MS Dhoni then promoted himself to number 3 instead of Gautam Gambhir. Dhoni started matching Sehwag shot for shot and both batsmen seemed to have a contest on in who could belt the cover off the ball first.Sehwag reached his century off just 66 balls as he kept India's run-rate to around 8 runs an over. After scoring just 9 runs off the first 15 balls, Sehwag had scored 92 off the next 51, scoring at more than 10 runs an over. At the other end, Dhoni was progressing nicely too and he reached his half-century in 34 balls with a clean straight strike for six.The Dhoni-Sehwag association realised 156 runs in just 16 overs and while they were going strong, India looked set to break a few records in their innings with the highest total in ODIs being a real possibility. As it was, India raised 300 in just 34.1 overs, but with a real possibility of Sehwag becoming the first individual double-centurion in ODIs, he fell against the run of play to Welegedera. He had made 146 off 102 balls, but looked good for a lot more. His dismissal came during the batting power-play and sparked a revival from the Sri Lankans as India lost Dhoni and then Gambhir in quick succession. Harbhajan Singh was sent in ahead of Kohli and Jadeja, but the experiment backfired, and finally it was Kohli and Jadeja who took India beyond the 400-mark with useful cameos. India ended up with their highest ODI score of 414/7, beating the 413 they had scored against Bermuda. The score was set up with the two 150+ partnerships at the top of the order, in both of which Sehwag played a major role.With this innings, Sehwag had done what people had expected him to for a long time, when his relative lack of success in the ODIs as compared to Test matches had mystified fans and experts alike.
However, Sehwag's exploits were quickly forgotten once Sri Lanka came out to bat. The familiar pairing of Jayasuriya and Dilshan was done away with, as it was Upul Tharanga who joined Dilshan at the top of the order. Facing a mammoth target and with nothing to lose, the batsmen took the best course available to them and played with freedom, smashing the ball when they could (and they could do it often), and not caring too much about run-rates.The Indians might have been subconsciously relaxed with the large total they had gathered, and Dilshan in particular made them pay. The opening partnership moved seamlessly from over to over, and continued gathering runs at great pace, until the first lines of worry started appearing on Dhoni's face. The hundred of the innings was brought up in 12 overs, and Dilshan reached his fifty off 38 balls. As the openers continued to maintain a rate that was above the required one, Dhoni turned to his part-timers, and it was Raina who gave India the first break-through getting Tharanga stumped for a well-made 67 off 60 balls. The openers had put on 188 runs in 24 overs, but if India thought that was the end of their troubles, they were in for a rude shock with Sangakkara's arrival at the crease.Carrying on from his splendid Twenty20 form, Sangakkara smashed everything in site from the first ball, bringing up his fifty off 24 balls - the second fastest by a Sri Lankan - and carrying on plundering runs. Dilshan was relegated to a supporting role, but he held his end up well, reaching his century off 73 balls during the partnership.The Sri Lankans were helped by the butter-fingered fielding of the Indians, but by now they would probably look at it as unfair if the Indians held on to all their catches, since they've been dropping them with clockwork regularity recently. Sangakkara was in a mood to cash in on every opportunity he got, and he had raced to 90 off 42 balls, when he fell to Praveen Kumar when the Indians at last held on to a catch. His partnership with Dilshan had realised 128 runs in 12.3 overs, of which Dilshan had contributed just 35. Just as in India's innings there were no significant partnerships after the first two, the Sri Lankans too started to lose wickets at regular intervals after Sangakkara fell. The Jayasuriya-in-the-middle-order experiment was not successful, as the veteran Sri Lankan didn't cross single digits. Sri Lanka were then dealt a real blow when Dilshan had his stumps re-arranged by Harbhajan Singh. Dilshan had made 160 off 124 balls, and it was his wicket that let the Indians back into the match. It was Harbhajan Singh who accounted for both Dilshan and Jayasuriya, and in a match that saw every bowler concede runs at more than 6 an over, Harbhajan returned with an analysis of 10-58-2. Before Dilshan's wicket,Sri Lanka were 339/3 in 39 overs, but with a manageable 76 runs required in the final 11 overs, their chase unravelled.Sri Lanka kept losing wickets at regular intervals, as India clawed their way back into a match that they thought they had sewn up at the half-way stage. As Sri Lanka's chase reached its climax, there were 15 runs required from the final two overs for a famous victory. Sri Lanka had 5 wickets in hand at that stage, but the occasion suddenly seemed to get to them, and suicidal running and nerves saw them score just 11 runs and lose 3 wickets in the final two overs, to end at 411/8. They had come heart-breakingly close to pulling off a stunning victory,but Zaheer Khan and Ashish Nehra had bowled outstandingly in the final five overs to concede just 28 runs and choke of the Sri Lankan chase.
With so many performers having their time in the sun, it was Virender Sehwag who was awarded the man-of-the-match.