What a shame on Indian cricket Board and DDCA, the final ODI between India and Sri Lanka is called off after 23.3 overs of play. The pitch behaved very differently right from the start. There are only two occasions where Sri Lankan batsmen were hit on their body parts. On a Kotla pitch where the bounce varied from shin to shoulder in as short a spell as three deliveries.
In the 24th over, suddenly one ball of debutant Sudeep Tyagi took off and almost got passed over M.S.Dhoni head. And at that stage Sri Lankan players decided that enough is enough and they don’t want to take any risk with some important series coming up.
The pitch at Kotla was also criticized in Champions League 2020 where even scoring 120 runs in 20 overs looks impossible on this wicket, however curator has prepared a fresh pitch for the ODI but it behaved more differently than early stripes.
Full of action, the 23.3 overs featured a wicket first ball; a dropped catch first ball of the second over; blows on the elbow, shoulder, fingers; frenzied running; thick edges flying past third man; and wickets for Zaheer Khan, Tyagi and Harbhajan Singh. Dhoni, coming back from a two-match ban, was stupendous behind the stumps, getting his legs together for the shooters and reacting well to the lifters. Not one bye was conceded.
After winning the toss M.S.Dhoni put Sri Lanka into bat, Zaheer Khan give India a perfect start removing last match centurion Upal Tharanga for first ball duck. Then after few overs he removed dangerous Dilshan.
Match was looking well in the bag for the Indians with visitors on 83/5 in the 24th over but with so much uneven bounce on the wickets, both team captains decided it is dangerous to take any chance on playing the game on such unfit pitch. But despite of such dangerous pitch all the wickets fell during Sri Lankan innings was of a very good ball or with the help of some superb fielding from Suresh Raina.
All the players went off the field around 11:40 AM, but it took 1 hour 10 of debate before they officially abandoned the game.
So a very sad end to such wonderful ODI series between India and Sri Lanka. Let’s hope that BCCI and DDCA will learn from this and will take some hard decision in improving the pitch as well as cricket facility around the India.
Match Summary (Match Abandoned)
Sri Lanka– 83/5 in 23.3 Overs
S.Jayasurya- 31T.Dilshan– 20
Z.Khan – 8-1-31-2S.Tyagi- 6.3-1-15-1
India wins the series by 3-1 and now they will travel to Bangladesh for a triangular series between Sri Lanka & Bangladesh. Also they will play two test matches against Bangladesh.
With series already in the bag, Indian team would love to win the final ODI against Sri Lanka to break dead-rubber jinx. M.S.Dhoni who missed the last two ODI’s after getting banned from the match referee is back into the team, which will boost whole team energy.
Sri Lanka on the other hand will be playing for much more. They arrived in India with much expectation from their fans and with one of the strongest Sri Lankan side but the results is totally different from their expectation. They have lost test series by 2-0, tied the twnty20 series by 1-1 and not sitting on the fence with series already lost 3-1 with one more match to go.
They were also hit by injuries to some of their key players like Muttiah Muralitharan, Angelo Mathews, Thilan Thushara, Dilhara Fernando and Chanaka Welegedara. But somehow they have manage to compete in each and every game and that will give them hope of winning the last one day international at Feroz Shah Kotla, New Delhi.
India will be more confident after chasing down 316 runs target with ease and that too without Yuvraj Singh & M.S.Dhoni. After reduced to 23/2 (with Sachin and Sehwag back in the pavilion), it was left to young Virat Kohli and Gautam Gambhir and they both did it with perfection. It was such a clinical chase that would lead India into believing that they can now win from any position.
Sunday's match offers an opportunity for Sehwag to sizzle in his home ground and the swashbuckling right-hander would be keen to pout behind the disappointment of EdenGardens, where he perished in the second over.
Both teams batting are terrific in the series but the two concerned area for them is their bowling and fielding department. Both teams looks out of shot when it comes to fielding and bowling. Whichever team improve these two areas at Feroz Shah Kotla will be the winner of fifth and final ODI before moving for another series in Bangladesh starting January 4th 2010.
Watch out for
Virendra Sehwag & Sachin Tendulkar: Both players missed the scoring opportunity in the last games and this allowed youngster like virat kohli to show his immense talent. However both will be tempting to play a match winning knock at Ferozshah Kotla to give their team another win in the series to make the series victory score line looks like one sided.
Kumar Sangakara: He is in good form right from the third and final test against India. However he needs to score big hundreds if he would like to win the final match of already lost series. With players like Dilshan, Tharnga, Jayasurya and Jayawardne around him, he needs to bat till the end to put good score on the board or chase down the target.
Pitch & Condition
The pitch at Feroz Shah Kotla ground, New Delhi will be not like the one used in the series so far. As we have seen in the IPL games as well as in the ODI played here between India and Australia. It’s not suited totally for batting and as the game progresses it will provide more help for the spinners. By considering the 9’o clock start there will be some swing for the fast bowlers. So team winning the toss would love to have a bowl and restrict the opposition team below 250 to give them chance of chasing the target.
Teams
Indian middle order will be strengthen with the return of M.S.Dhoni, which means Dinesh karthik will miss out. With series already in the bag, Indian team might be tempted to give a chance to players like Sudeep Tyagi, S.Sreesanth and Pragyan Ojha.
Sri Lanka on the other hand will play with their full strength and they will try to end their unsuccessful tour on a high note. Lasith Malinga who didn’t look impressive might get replaced by mysterious spinner Ajantha Mendis.
Likely Playing XI for both Teams (Match is Schedule to begin at 09:00 AM India Time)
India have played two ODI’s at Kotla and on both occasions Sri Lanka came out as winner. The second of those matches, during the 1996 World Cup, featured a vicious assault from Jayasuriya which signalled the end of Manoj Prabhakar's career.
In the total runs scored in the series, Virendra Sehwag and T.Dilshan have scored 537 runs so far, off 418 deliveries.
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Virat Kohli maiden ODI century (107 runs of 114 balls) and Gautam Gambhir seventh ODI century (150* runs of 137 balls) helped India to comprehensively chase down 316 runs with ease and seal the series here at EdenGarden. Indiawere reduced to 23/2 in chase of 316 runs in the fourth over but youngster Virat Kohli grabbed the opportunity with both hands along with Gautam Gambhir and scripted a historic win by 7 wickets.
It was one of the most comprehensive successful run chase by the Indians in their ODI history with such an ease. The duo put on record 224 runs of just 214 balls for the third wicket to inject a fresh life into the chase after reduced to 23/2. In the end India reach the target with 11 balls to spare. With this win now India will go into Delhi with Karbon Mobile Cup already in their bag.
Mind you India chased down this mammoth total without two of their star players (M.S.Dhoni and Yuvraj Singh). When both Gambhir and Kohli joined together India was in deep trouble with two of their most experienced players already back in the pavilion and two already not in the team.
Right from the start Kohli was looking for boundaries and that helped Gambhir at other end to calm down. Both batsmen played cleverly and whenever they got the lose ball they have converted it into boundary ball and on good deliveries they have kept rotating the strikes which kept required run rate in check.
Both batsmen reached their centuries in consecutive deliveries. However in trying to finish of the game Virat Kohli holed out to long-on, but Gambhir made sure there were no further mishaps, scoring 47 off the 70 remaining runs. Dinesh Karthik played his part with unbeaten 19 runs of 22 balls.
Earlier Sri Lankan captain won the toss and elected to bat first. Riding on the well made century from the opener Upul Tharanga (118 runs of 128 balls) Sri Lanka posted a mammoth total of 315/6 on the board. Kumar Sangakara (60 runs of 72 balls) was another player who have done bulk of the scoring for his team. Other players also chipped in with cameos that helped Sri LankaEdenGarden, Kolkata. in the end to post a highest total at
Gautam Gambhir was declared Player of the Match for his superb unbeaten 150 runs of just 137 balls however he showed an excellent gesture by handing over his Man of the Match award to Virat Kohli for his maiden ton.
This is for the first time since 2004 India will play without both of their two key players Yuvraj Singh and M.S.Dhoni. It will give an opportunity to test youngsters ahead of the 2010 World Cup as stated by the captain Virendra Sehwag. But Virendra Sehwag would love to take the unassailable 3-1 lead at EdenGarden, Kolkata.
Indian team were already missing M.S.Dhoni due to ban imposed on him for two one day internationals and were dealt a blow when the dangerous Yuvraj Singh was ruled out of the rest of the series against Sri Lanka.
In the absence of Yuvraj and Dhoni, the batting will heavily rely on Sachin Tendulkar and Virendra Sehwag and any one of them needs to bat out the inning if India would like to win the series here at EdenGarden, Kolkata.
Both teams will once again heavily rely on their opening pair to give a perfect launching pad for the batsman to follow. Indians have plenty of thinking to do specially in the bowling department. Their pace bowlers given away too many runs at start in the last three one day internationals but the good thing is their spinners Ravinder Jadeja and Harbhajan Singh looks good at Cuttack.
India main threat would be Sri Lankan make shift opener T.Dilshan and skipper Kumar Sangakara, India will have to dismiss both early to stay in the match.
Sri Lanka on the other hand love to level the series here and will travel to New Delhi for the final clash but this to happen they need to improve in certain areas like battingin middle overs of the inning. At Cuttack, Sri Lanka were well placed at 165/1 in 22 overs but at the end whole team was bundled out for 239 in the 44th over. This is the area where they need to tighten the grip.
Watch out for
Virendra Sehwag: A man who is capable of turning the game with the bat in no time will be watched by millions in hope that he will play an inning like Rajkot to help India to wrap up the five match series at historic EdenGarden, Kolkata.
T.Dilshan & Kumar Sangakara: Both batsman’s are in superb form and Sri Lankan batting so far in the series relied on these two. Sri Lankan success or failure in the fourth ODI will depend on how these two players play in the fourth ODI at Kolkata.
Pitch & Condition
The pitch at EdenGarden, Kolkata will be not like the one which we have seen in the last three one day matches however scores in excess of 250 is expected at this pitch. With day/night games, dew factor is expected to play a large role. Team winning the toss will prefer to have a bowl in the dryer condition in the afternoon.
Teams
India may have lost their batting power house Yuvraj Singh and M.S.Dhoni but they have the bench strength with the players like Dinesh Karthik and Virat Kohli to step in place of these two.
Sri Lanka on the other hand will think twice before leaving Sanath Jayasurya out of the XI since the performance of C.Kapugedara is not much impressive. This is the only changes which is likely to take place in the final Sri Lankan’s XI.
Likely Playing XI for both Teams (Match is Schedule to begin at 14:30 PM India Time)
Indian selector announced the 15 member India Squad for the test series to be played against Sri Lanka on Indian soil. Temperamental fast bowler S.Sreesanth is also given chance by the selector in the fast bowling crisis in team India. Zaheer Khan as expected is included in the team after missing out several important series due to shoulder injury.
The team will be lead by M.S.Dhoni. Opener M.Vijay and middle order batsman S.Badrinath also included in the squad. Munaf Patel and S.Tyagi was ignored by the selectors of the Sri Lankan test match series, while Ashish Nehra has given the rest.
The selection of S.Sreesanth raised eyebrows of few experts as he didn’t made any impact recently with the bowl. However he has done well for team India in the past and selectors knows if he can control his temperament then he can be one of the superb fast bowler for India.
Sreesanth will make comeback to the team after almost 1 and half year. He last played a test match for India against South Africa in April 2008.
As expected the two stylish Indian players Rahu Dravid and V.V.S. Laxman also included in the squad. Rest of the batting lineup is same as expected.
Spin responsibility will be carried by Amit Mishra and Harbhajan Singh.
India Squad for 3rd and 4th ODIs: Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag (Captain), Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja, Dinesh Karthik (WK), Hrbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Praveen Kumar, Ashish Nehra, Ishant Sharma, Pragyan Ojha, Sudeep Tyagi, Virat Kohli.
Here is the complete fixture of India v Sri Lanka Series:
November 16-20: India v Sri Lanka 1st Test Match, Ahmedabad November 24-28: India v Sri Lanka 2nd Test Match, Kanpur December 2-6: India v Sri Lanka 3rd Test Match, Mumbai December 9: India v Sri Lanka 1st T20, Nagpur (D/N) December 12: India v Sri Lanka 2nd T20, Mohali (D/N) December 15: India v Sri Lanka 1st ODI, Rajkot December 18: India v Sri Lanka 2nd ODI, Nagpur (D/N) December 21: India v Sri Lanka 3rd ODI, Cuttack (D/N) December 24: India v Sri Lanka 4th ODI, Kolkata (D/N) December 27: India v Sri Lanka 5th ODI, Delhi
Sri Lankan cricket team will arrive in India for their long 51-day tour on 8th of November. They start with the only three-day tour game against Board President XI. Their main campaign will begin with first of the three match test series against India from 16th November to 20th of November at Ahmedabad.
Their next game will be from 24th to 28th of November in Kanpur and final test match of the series will be played from December 2nd to 6th in Mumbai.
After test series they will play two twenty20 Internationals in Nagpur and Mohali on 9th and 12th of December.The ODI series begin on December 15 at Rajkot before the action shifts to Vizag (Dec 18), Cuttack (Dec 21), Kolkata (Dec 24) and Delhi (Dec 27).
India v Sri Lanka 2009 Fixtures (All timings are mentioned in GMT+05:30)
With the help of superb unbeaten half-century from Sachin Tendulkar (96* of 104 balls) and career best bowling performance by Ravindra Jadeja of 4/32 India beat Sri Lanka comfortably by seven wickets to take 2-1 lead in ongoing Karbon Mobile Cup in the five match ODI series.
Chasing a modest target of 340 runs for victory, the captain Virendra Sehwag hit a blistering 44 runs of just 22 balls to gave his team a perfect start however his dismissal didn’t bother India too much as they got a solid partnership after that and only because of the substantial partnership in the end India able to reach the target with more than seven overs remaining.
Tendulkar took the Indian chase forward playing sensibly as he added 72 runs with Gambhir before the left-hander became the victim of rookie off-spinner Suraj Randiv who took a low catch off his own bowling. For the third wicket also Sachin and Yuvraj added 52 runs before Yuvraj getting out of Welegedara caught by skipper Kumar Sagakara.
But at that time it was too late for the Lankans as Dinesh Karthik (36* runs of 32 balls) and Sachin Tendulkar finished the game quite easily.
Earlier after winning the toss decided to bat first on a beautiful afternoon. The inform T.Dilshan looks in astounding form as he scored his 41 runs with 10 crispy fours. However introduction of Nehra get rid off dangerous looking Dilshan to give some relief to the Indian captain Virednra Sehwag.
At 166/2 in 22.2 overs Sri Lanka looks in strong position to get pass 350 run mark but India came back strongly in the second half of Sri Lankan innings to bundle them out for 239 in 44.2 overs.
Ravindra Jadeja triggered the Lankan batting collapse by removing opener Upul Tharanga who top-scored with 73. The visitors, in fact, lost their last eight wickets for the addition of just 70 runs.
With India now leading the series by 2-1 it will be interesting to see how Sri Lanka bounce back at EdenGarden, Kolkata in the fourth ODI to be played on 24th of December 2009.
R.Jadeja was declared Player of the Match for his duper bowling spell of 4/32 in his 10 overs.
With M.S.Dhoni is already out of two ODI’s, Indian team not only have batting worries now but also they have to improve in all department of the game if they would like to take the lead in the on going ODI Series against Sri Lanka. Virendra Sehwag the new leader knows he has plenty of work in his hand in the absence of M.S.Dhoni when his team will meet Sri Lanka at Barabati Stadium, Cuttack.
On the other hand Sri Lanka is suffering from major set back with now Angelo Mathews ruling out for the rest of the series, with Thissara Perera flying in to take his place, and it's still uncertain whether Lasith Malinga will be risked after missing the first two games.
Yuvraj Singh who missed the first two ODI’s is most likely to fit and will most probably play in the crucial encounter against Sri Lanka in 3rd ODI. The return of Yuvraj Singh not only strengthens their batting but also provide more option for the captain Virendra Sehwag.
However the main concern for India is their fielding and because of this they have lost Nagpur T20I as well as one day internationals. The number of catches dropped has gone into double-figures, and the ground-fielding was equally dismal in the last game.
With the series leveled at 1-1, both teams will be keen to take the lead in the series to get their hand closer to the Karbon Mobile Cup. Indian team in the last game didn’t got flying start and that’s why they were short by 20-30 runs in the end at Nagpur. Sehwag and Tendulkar are in good form will be much expected from both to deliver for the team in critical situations like this.
Watch out for
Yuvraj Singh: After winning the game for India in T20I at Mohali, he is out of action from last two ODI’s. However with Dhoni out of action he will be the key man in the middle order of the Indian batting lineup.
T.Dilshan: Back to back century in two matches is enough to give headaches for the newly appointed Captain Virendra Sehwag. He is in prime form and if he continues to play like what he did in Rajkot and Nagpur, Sri Lanka will sure to take the lead by 2-1.
Pitch & Condition
The pitch at Barabati Stadium, Cuttack is expected to be another high scoring game. The curator of Pitch already indicated that the wicket will be more or less similar to the one used for the first ODI’s at Rajkot. In such scenario team winning the toss is likely to bat first and put scores on the board to put enough pressure on the chasing team.
Teams
M.S.Dhoni who will be serving two match banned will be replaced by Dinesh Karthik and Virat Kohli is likely to make a way for stylish left-hander Yuvraj Singh. Ishant Sharma is also likely to get a game in place of Praveen Kumar who hasn’t done well on a wicket which provides less movement and support for his bowling style.
Sri Lanka on the other hand has hit by injuries to some of their key players and that will be worrying sign for the Sri Lankan’s. However L.Malinga who missed the first two one day internationals is likely to get a game with Nuwan Kulasekara.
Likely Playing XI for both Teams (Match is Schedule to begin at 14:30 PM India Time)
