Its Only Cricket

Sangakkara's built, Yuvraj's climb, Dhoni's finish : Match 8

Filed under CB Tri-series 2008

Dhoni-Adelaide-190208.jpg It was an unusual win toss, bat first innings : Jayasuriya (at non-striking end) got run out off a stright drive from Kumar Sangakkara which bowler Munaf Patel had just touched & stumps were borken. At 38th over mark, this unusual dismissal reoccurred. Praveen Kumar - the bowler, Mahela Jayawardene - the non-striker and batsman? Sangakkara again!

Srilanka were 8 for 2 in 3 overs. their innings needed rebuilding, so who better than captain & vice-captain you'll get. Jayawardene-Sangakkara Partnership first negotiated good bowling from Indian pacers than took quick 1s & 2s. odd risky shots but while this left-right batting combination were together - Srilankan total looked like blowing past 250 and more..

Jayawardene, as I just explained - got run out for backing up too far as non-striker.

Sangakkara, in the kind of form he is, wanted to get aggressive, but Indian bowling remained accurate. Power-hitter Chamara Kapugerada became 3rd batsman to get run out and even free-scoring Chamara Silva couldn't find gaps. Indian fielding was tight & well set. Sangakkara hardly raised his bat upon completing century, cause he knew their total of 238 wasn't enough.

Dhoni-Adelaide-190208.jpg Indian chase suffered back to back 3 blows - Sachin Tendulkar, Robin Uthappa & Gautam Gambhir couldn't lay the platform top order batsmen are always asked for. From 3 wickets for 35 - pressure was on Yuvraj Singh (in his 200th match) to guide young Rohit Sharma. Yuvraj had 39 runs off 10 innings so far on this Australian tour - but boy - did he show the glimpse of batsmanship of a completely different league..

Yuvraj's 76 came off only 70 balls, which never allowed required run-rate to go over run per ball & allowed Irfan Pathan some time to get settled with Captain Dhoni who was struggling with cramps but determined as always. Dhoni's 50 not out contained no boundaries (only 28th such occasion in history of ODI cricket by all batsman). Few panicky moments towards the fag end - presence of a batsman (Dhoni, tha captain himself) made sure India get past Srilankan total to win the match!

Mini Scorecard : (see full scorecard)
Srilanka 238/6 in 50 overs.
Sangakkara 128, Jayawardene 71, Silva 21.
India 239/8 in 49.2 overs.
Rohit 24, Yuvraj 76, Pathan 31, Dhoni 50*.

Some interesting notes
**Kumar Sangakkara's 128 in this match is now new highest score by any srilankan batsmen in Australia in one day internationals. Previous best : Sanath Jayasuriya's 118 at Sydney in 2003. Moreover, Sangakkara's century is only the second time an overseas wicket-keeper has scored a century in Australia.. Kamran Akmal is the other keeper.
**4 batsman were run out, which is no where near the record. most batsman run out (8) in a match & 5 in a single innings.
**After 8 matches in this Commonwealth bank triseries 2008, India became the first team to win a match by chasing a total.




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