India team manage to register another comprehensive win against Sri Lanka at R.Premdasa Stadium, Colombo to take 4-0 lead on five match ODI series. By beating Sri Lanka they surpass the previous record of eight straight win on trot by any Indian team. Dhoni and his men register their ninth straight win in one day international and they are eying for series whitewash.
Prior to this record India manage to win eight on trot on three occasions. First under the captaincy of Sunil Gavaskar/Kapil Dev, second in the captaincy of S.Ganguly during 2003 world cup and last being under Rahul Dravid captaincy in 2006.
If India manage to beat Sri Lanka in the last one day international also then this is Sri Lanka first 5-0 ODI whitewash loss. India started their winning streak against England last year and till now they are unbeaten. At presently Australia holds the record of winning 21 matches in a row.
The Indian victory also spoiled Muttiah Muralitharan's party as the Sri Lankan spin wizard today became the highest wicket-taker in one-day cricket. He went on to surpass legend Wasim Akram records of 502 wickets when he picked Gautam Gambhir in the 48th over of Indian innings.
India went onto this match with resting Sachin Tendulkar and Zaheer Khan and brining Irfan Pathan and Rohit Sharma into the playing XI. Dhoni once again for the fourth successive time won the toss and elected to bat first. Once again India loss their wickets very early in the inning and that too of last match centurion V.Sehwag with just 14 runs on the board in the 3rd over.
Captain M.S.Dhoni promoted himself at number three after the fall of Sehwag and did exceptionally well with Gautam Gambhir. Both went on to put record 188 runs for the second wicket. However M.S.Dhoni missed his century by 6 runs and finally out on 94 runs which includes four 4’s and two huge sixes.
Dhoni dismissal did brought smile on the faces of Sri Lankans as they manage to pick another two wickets in the span of seven balls. Indian score suddenly slump from 202/1 to 207/4. However Gautam Gambhir didn’t panic and went onto score his sixth ODI century. Suresh Raina (49* runs) and Gambhir (150 runs) stabilised the innings after slump and went on to put 103 runs for the fifth wicket to help India to compile a score in excess of 300 run mark.
Finally G.Gambhir got out after scoring a record 150 runs against the Sri Lanka.
Chasing a huge target of 333 runs for victory, Sri Lankan opener Sanath Jayasuriya (27 runs of 16 balls) and Tilakratne Dilshan (38 runs of 45 balls) had provided the hosts a fiery start as they race away to 50 in the seventh over. However dismissal of both the batsman in quick succession didn’t help the Sri Lanka course.
Now it was left to M.Jayawardne and K.Sangakara to guide the Sri Lankan ship to home but it was tough task for both of them as Indian spinner started to bowl in the right area and they are getting good support from the pitch. In the end it was only Sagakara who manage to score fifty but that too was very slow according to situation.
The Sri Lankans batsmen though failed to up a good partnership and lost wickets at regular intervals which only helped the Indian cause. Thanks to some lusty blows in the end from the bat of N.Kulasekara (39* runs of 22 balls) that helped Sri Lanka to get pass 250 run mark.
From Indai Irfan Pathan picked up three wickets, Virendra Sehwag and Praveen Kumar manage to pick two wickets each while P.Ojha, Yuvraj Singh and Y.Pathan bagged one wicket each.
The last and final ODI of series will be played at S.S.C Cricket Ground on 8th of February Sunday which will be day match the brief tour will come to an end on February 10 with a Twenty20 match.
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Gautam Gambhir is declared Man of the Match for his swashbuckling centuries of 150 runs of 147 balls.
