India
have won the five-match one day international cricket series defeating Sri Lanka
by 6 wickets in the fourth match played in Colombo
today. Taking an unassailable lead of 3-1 India
is thus set to take home the Micromax Cup in Sri Lanka.
The last match to be played in Pallekele
on August 4, 2012 is reduced to a formality, but, of course, both teams would
like to exit the series positively with a win.
For the second time in Colombo Sri
Lanka won the toss and elected to bat first. They made a solid start with openers
Dilshan (42) and Tharanga (51) putting up 91 runs for the first wicket. The Indian
pacers were not effective and went wicketless. Thiramanne chipped in well today
made 47 runs with able support from Chandimal. Sri Lanka were poised for a huge
total crossing 150 in the 31st over with the loss of only two
wickets. But the slide happened just then.
Though Indian skipper Dhoni’s blue
eyed boy Rohit Sharma was not dropped after two consecutive ducks Manoj Tiwary
was brought in. Rahul Sharma who was found guilty in a Mumbai rev party case recently and
whose selection in the second match was itself in question was dropped to make way for
Tiwary. Basically an attacking batsman, Tiwary is also known for his useful leg
break bowling. He was introduced in that crucial moment. He captured the wicket
of Chandimal immediately and went on to capture 4 wickets engineering a Sri
Lankan collapse. But for some rearguard action by Herath and Malinga Sri Lanka
would not have reached a respectable score. The final score of 251/8 was
competitive in Lankan home conditions. Ashwin supported Tiwary well with 2
wickets.
Set 252 for a series win India started
badly losing Gambhir in the first over. But Sehwag and Kohli took command of
the innings and took the score past 50 in the 10th over when Sehwag
fell to a brilliant catch by substitute Senanayake for 34 runs. Rohit Sharma
came in and failed again playing 14 balls doggedly for just 4 runs. Tiwary could
not make a significant contribution with the bat and fell to Mendis for 21
runs. There was some amount of concern with India at 109/4 in the 24th
over, but Kohli stood there like a wall and Suresh Raina was in his flourishing
form. Kohli went on to score his 14th century (128 not out) and with
Raina (58 not out) he made sure India
win by 6 wickets with 46 ball remaining at the final score of 255/4.This was Virat Kohli's fifth century in last eight innings and now after Yuvraj Singh, he has got the tag--if Virat scores a century India win!
Virat Kohli was rightfully adjudged the man of the match.
