Tag Ind-SL-2010

Winning tournaments hasn't been India's forte over the years (58 finals of 3 or more team tournaments and only 22 trophies won) but situation had improved in recent times. In fact, MS Dhoni had not lost a one day series in Sri Lanka as captain untill this Micromax cup tri series in which his team managed to showcase chalk and cheese performances, exceptional one day and utterly poor the other..

In this final, men in blue brought their C grade game and Sri Lankans dominated right from the beginging, winning the toss and posting the highest total of the tournament which helped them buy all 10 Indian wickets with 74 runs remaining in hand.

Tillakaratne Dilshan was the architect of Lankan win, scoring his 8th one day century which, surprisingly, was his first at a home venue (3rd this year, 7th as opener, 3rd against India). With Mahela Jayawardene, who was promoted up the order to negotiate new ball that had done most of the damange in league games for all teams, Dilshan raised the first half century opening partnership of the tournament and then stretched it past hundred run mark, setting the platform for Lankan middle order. A fresh pitch was used for his final which was lot drier and ball didn't do too awkwardly off the seam today like it had in earlier games. Dilshan had had a quite tri series but he looked determined all the way to make a mark and celebrated his century animatedly.

Jayawardene was out after getting set and even the other opener, Upul Tharanga coming in at number 3, was out quickly but captain Kumar Sangakkara's busy batting style kept up the momentum during middle overs when Dilshan was struggling with exhaution and couldn't scorer or run freely between the wickets. Tillakaratne was out in the 40th over when Sangakkara took over, called for batting powerplay and snatched some quick runs for his team. Indian seamers bowled well at the death but couldn't stop home team from setting them a stiff target of exactly 300.

Chasing run a ball, comedy of umpiring errors started Indian innings as Dinesh Karthik was given caught behind by umpire Pakistani Asad Rauf when ball had clearly snicked his thighpad not the bat. Virendra Sehwag was trapped plumb leg before wicket but local umpire Asoka de Silva remained unmoved, although Delhi batsman threw away his wicket through runout like he never wanted to stay at the crease in first place.

Strugging southpaw Yuvraj Singh edged first delivery he faced but was given not out. Singh made a confused 26 from 31 balls before Sri Lanka's India specialist cricketer = Thissera Perera came on to bowl and removed him as well as young Virat Kohli who played some good cover drives untill he tried to pull out of frustration to be caught at third man.

Indian captain MS Dhoni continued to fight the battle he already had lost till the end and was last man out with individual score of 67 from 100 balls.

The scores

Sri Lanka 299 for 8 wickets in 50 overs
Dilshan 110, Sangakkara 71, Jayawardene 39
India 225 allout in 46.5 overs (74 run short)
MS Dhoni 67, Kohli 37, Perera 3/36, S Randiv 3/40
Full scorecard : Ind v SL, Tri series final, 28 Aug 2010.

Virat Kohli

Is now the fastest Indian to score 1000 runs in one day career. In his 24th ODI innings, Kohli achieved the feat, breaking Navjot Singh Sidhu's record who reached his 1000 runs after 25 innings. Current captain MS Dhoni raised his 1000 runs in his 29th innings followed by Sanjay Manjrekar who touched 1k mark in his 30th game.