Sri Lanka and India met each other in a do or die match for
Lankans, who lost their first match to South Africa. A loss to Sri Lanka would
have meant their exit from the tournament.
Angelo Mathews returned to lead the side, as Tharanga and Kapugedera
were ruled out of the game. India went in unchanged. Mathews won the toss and
chose to bowl first. Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma decided to make SL pay for
their decision with a brilliant 138 run stand in 25 overs.
Sharma fell for 78, but Shikhar Dhawan went on to make a
brilliant 125 off 128 balls with 15 fours and 1 six. SL fought back into the
match by removing Virat Kohli for a duck, Yuvraj Singh for 7. However, the
entry of MS Dhoni changed everything.
He and Dhawan added 82 runs in 10 overs to give India the
ending they required. Dhoni scored 63 in 52 balls and Kedar Jadhav smacked 14
runs in the last over to take India to 321/6 in 50 overs.
The top three Sri Lankan pacers all went for 70 or more and
Malinga took 2 wickets out of them.
SL needed 322 to win and Bhuvneshwar Kumar removed Dickwella
for7 runs. But then Kusal Mendis (89) and Gunathilaka (76) added 159 runs for
the first wicket. But two runouts got rid of both set batsmen. But Kusal Perera
and Angelo Mathews kept Sri Lanka in the hunt during the last 15 overs or so. Both
of them added quick fifty runs together and looked good as SL needed 76 runs in
the last 10 overs.
Kusal Perera made a brilliant 47 (44) before retiring hurt
due to a injured hamstring, but Angelo Mathews carried on brilliantly. He took Sri
Lanka to their joint highest ODI run chase in its history.
India bowlers couldn't pick any wickets on a wicket that had
nothing in it, no swing, no bounce or seam movement. This match was as much lost
by India as won by Sri Lanka.
Now Group B will have two virtual quarter finals when India play
South Africa and Sri Lanka meet Pakistan.
Brief Scores:
INDIA 321 (S Dhawan 125; L Malinga 2/70) lost to SRI LANKA 322/3 (K
Mendis 89; B Kumar 1/54) by 7 wickets
