INDIA Vs SRILANKA FOURTH ODI:

The fourth ODI of KARBON cup was played between India and Srilanka at Eden Garden(Calcutta) on Thursday (24^th dec). The crowd there in the ground and the spectators in television would have enjoyed the run feast. Over 600 runs were scored in the day. The Srilankan skipper Kumar Sangakkara won the toss and elected to bat first.

Srilankan Team:

U Tharanga

T Dilshan

K Sangakkara (WK)

M Jayawardene

T Kandamby

T.Samaraweera(Instead  of Kapugedera)

S.Jayasuriya    (Instead  of Mendis)

R.Perera          (Instead  of Kulasekara)

S Randiv

L Malinga

Lakmal

Indian Team:

V Sehwag

S Tendulkar

G Gambhir

V.Kohli             (Instead  of Y.Singh)

D Karthik (wk)

S.Raina

R.Jadeja

H.Singh

Z.Khan

A.Nehra

I.Sharma

Srilankan batting:

As expected the specialist openers Dilshan and Tharanga opened the Srilankan batting. Dilshan gave a steady but a slow start while Tharanga found those gaps and hit boundaries. Dilshan lost his wicket in the ninth over trying to clear the boundary of a short pitch ball from Nehra. Thanks to Kohli for taking a splendid catch in the deep. Then the all rounder Jayasuriya came to the centre and accelerated the scoring. Just when he looked dangerous, he fell to a out swinger from Zaheer khan. A good, sharp catch was taken by Sachin. Then the Srilankan skipper came to the crease and carried his form by scoring runs quickly. Tharanga and Sangakkara built a solid partnership. Tharanga reached his seventh ODI century and Sangakkara reached his half century and increased the run rate and thereby the Srilankan team gained momentum. Then the skipper unnecessarily came down the track and was stumped by Karthick . Then the former skipper JAyawardena joined the party. They started to score runs quickly ant then the opener Tharanga was bowled by Zaheer.Then the debutant all rounder Perera was sent up the order. He hit almost all the deliveries whereas Jayawardena rotated the strike. They increased the run rate and started gaining momentum. Then the debutant fell to a delivery from Nehra. Then Kandamby came to the centre and started scoring quickly. Jayawardena was run out. Kandamby and Samaraweera batted sensibly till the end and posted a huge score of 316.

Indian Bowling:

The Indian Seamers were right in the target from the first delivery of the innings and the visitors struggled this attack. Nehra and Zaheer bowled quite brilliantly and maintained pressure on the Srilankan batsmen. And hence Dilshan fell quickly. Ishanth Sharma’s poor form with the ball continued. He went for runs from the first over he bowled. Harbhajan was impressive though he conceded some runs. The slow bowlers Raina, Sehwag and Jadeja bowled well but couldn’t get any wicket. But they bowled with a good intent. Zaheer was the pick of the bowlers on that day. Fielding was ok with some beautiful stops and catches and some sloppy work.

Indian Batting:

As the Men in blue had to chase such a huge target, they were aggressive from the first ball.  The experienced opening pair Sehwag and Sachin opened the Indian innings. First runs of the Indian innings came from the bat of Virender Sehwag in the first ball of the first over. He provided the kind of start that was expected from him. Then he was caught at point in the second over of the innings.. Then Gambhir came to the crease. Tendulkar was fluent in his strokes but fell soon. Virat Kohli came in at number four and joined Gambhir and displayed a wonderful batting performance. He scored a lot of fours in the powerplays. Then started getting run a ball. The partnership lasted really long and they have scored 224 runs. Both the batsmen reached their centuries in consecutive deliveries(Kohli's maiden century and Gambhir's seventh ODI century). Then Kohli was caught at the deep when he was trying to hit a six. The Wicket keeper batsmen Dinesh karthick came to bat. He was just pushing the ball to a single and thereby rotated the strike. But Gambhir was unstoppable. He displayed a splendid performance with the bat.. He was not out till the end with a score of 150 runs in 137 balls and scored the winning runs.

Srilankan Bowling:

Perera started the proceedings for Srilanka. Perera and Malinga went for runs. Lakmal was economical and he picked up two important wickets of  Sehwag and Sachin. After the fall of these two wickets Kohli and Gambhir dominated the game. The bowlers were not able to maintain the pressure. The Indian batsmen eased off their pressure by scoring a four in each of the powerplay overs. The fielders were not up to the mark.The spinner Ramdiv was impressive. But Lakmal was pick of their bowlers.

The first 10 overs of Srilankan batting was dominated by the Indians and the rest of the innings was dominated by Srilanka . The first 5 overs of Indian batting was dominated by the Srilanka and the rest of the innings was dominated by Indians Thus with their excellent batting performance India chased 316 just loosing three wickets and won the game and the series.

History Rewritten:

*) This was India’s fifth highest successful run chase.

*) The third wicket partnership of 224 between Kohli and Gambhir was the highest partnership in Eden Gardens (Previous best was 163).

*) The third wicket partnership of 224 between Kohli and Gambhir was the highest partnership for India against Srilanka