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| Pathan Gets Mahela! |
Irfan Pathan who came back strongly in the Micromax Cup cricket one-day
series captured the first three Sri Lankan wickets as India won the one-off T20
encounter against Sri Lanka today at Pallekele by 39 runs.
Sri Lanka won the toss
and put India
in. RMS Eranga who made his T20 debut today got the wicket of Gautam Gambhir in
his first over and the second of the innings, and he had a terrific achievement
of getting a first-over wicket in all his debuts in Tests, ODIs and T20. Then it
was the Micromax Cup Man of the Series, Virat Kohli again who took absolute control
of the innings first with Ajinkya Rahane and then with Suresh Raina. But India was not
allowed to run away to a huge score by some consistent Sri Lankan bowling and
fielding. Virat was the third down for an individual 68 in the 17th over
with the team score reading 129/3. Skipper Dhoni joined Suresh Raina and the
duo took the score to 155 through some hard work. RMS Eranga finished with two Indian
wickets for Sri Lanka.
Indian lost only three wickets, but that advantage did not reflect in the
total. A target of 156 off 20 overs looked immensely gettable for Sri Lanka at
home.
But Irfan Pathan reversed that emphatically. With effective swing he clean
bowled Dilshan in the very first over; got Thanranga caught by Raina in the
third over and then captured a settled Mahela Jaywardene leg before wicket in
the fifth over. He reduced Sri
Lanka to 35/3 and the team never recovered
from that. Ashwin bowled Thirimanne in the 10th over. Mathews and
Mendis tried to offer some resistance for the fifth wicket, but when Ashok
Dinda removed Mathews at the team’s score of 96 in the 13th over it
was all over. The remaining wickets fell in a heap with Dinda coming up with 4 scalps,
Ashwin, and Umesh Yadav who also made his T20 debut today got one each. Virat Kohli contributed
too by bowling three tight overs for only 13 runs in an important juncture. The
highest score of the Sri Lankan innings was just 31 made by Mathews and the
last three wickets fell at the final score of 116. A thrilling match finally
ended in rout as India
won by a huge 39 runs. The Scorecard:
Irfan Pathan was adjudged the man of the match and his comeback is a good
positive of this Sri Lanka
tour. India
dominated the proceeding right through by winning the one-day series 4-1 and the
one off T20 match convincingly. They come back to Sri Lanka again to play in the T20
World Cup starting on September 18, 2012. Before that India play New Zealand at home for a brief
series to two tests and two one dayers.
