India down Lanka to stay in triseries

India went into the first of two must-win games -- and won, for the second straight time, against Sri Lanka. And this one was against the odds in more ways than one, with the Lankans getting the ideal bowling conditions in the morning, followed by perfect batting conditions in the second half as the sun dried out the moisture in the deck.

If you could prescribe the conditions you as captain wanted for an ODI, you'd say something like this: Some grass on the pitch, please, bit of moisture below the deck would help, heavy overcast to help the good work along.

They got it. And Sri Lanka got the bonus when Sourav Ganguly called wrong. Sanath Jayasuriya, quite correctly, opted to insert.

The early story is easily told: 1-0 off the first ball, 2-7 in the 5th over, 3-31 in the 10th, 4-38 in the 14th.

The culprits, in order, were Virendra Sehwag, who got an opening delivery from Chaminda Vaas that slanted in on off, straightened onto middle and caught the batsman on the pad plumb in line.

Vaas got his second off a rank bad ball, when Ganguly stepped back to a short delivery outside line of off and cracked it straight to Sangakarra at point. 7/2 at that stage, and India hadn't scored a single run off the bat. Ganguly, who hung around for 16 deliveries, never looked even remotely at ease against the seam and swing of Vaas and the pace of Dilhara Fernando, who you'd judge is going at around 140k at this point.

Fernando, in the 10th over, disguised a slower ball well and Laxman (10 off 29), lunging into the drive on the rise just outside his off stump, spotted the stepdown in pace late, checked his shot, and put it up for Jayasuriya at mid off.

Hemang Badani, whose expression as he walked to the crease would have been more appropriate on the face of a condemned prisoner heading for the gallows, slashed at an angling delivery outside his off to put Jayawardene in business at first slip.

Rahul Dravid, who started with a fluency that suggested he was playing on a different pitch, promptly checked himself. Coincidentally, Yuvraj Singh -- the incandescent talent unearthed in Kenya and then allowed to wither, party through attitudinal problems, partly through selectorial mind games -- decided to ride his eye and shed his largely self-imposed shackles.

What was interesting about both batsmen was the way they settled to playing with bat very close to the body -- an optimum in conditions affording lots of lateral movement against two seam bowlers (Vaas 2-16, Fernando 2-25) exploiting familiar home conditions beautifully.

A mild rain interruption around the 18th over mark apart, the partnership progressed on a predetermined course (54/4 in 15, 71/4 in 20, 86/4 in 25). The focus was on tapping the spinners around for singles and twos, running hard, and keeping the board ticking over.

The 50 of the partnership, off 72 balls, came up in the 26th over and gradually, the shambolic Yuvraj of recent outings was transforming into the assured teen star of Kenya. The backlift and batspeed into the shot was positive, the ball was rolling nicely off the bat, and increasingly, the youngster was pushing harder into his shots.

At 113/4 in 30, the recovery was really on. While Yuvraj took on the onus of brisk scoring, Dravid at the other end settled into flicks and checked drives, rapidly rotating strike and pushing his younger partner into haring between wickets -- as evidenced by the 20 singles (four fours) that comprised Yuvraj's first 50 (67 balls) since his debut outing in Kenya.

The 100 of the partnership took 128 deliveries to register, and India at the 35 over mark had eased itself to 140/4.

A ball later, Dravid (47 off 88 balls) was walking back. Jayasuriya floated one up higher than normal, Dravid came dancing down to try and flick on the on side, was beaten for flight in the air and turn away off the deck, and Kalu completed a smart stumping to end a sound, technically compact innings that helped haul India back to safety.

Sodhi is a brisk, busy youngster at the crease, and displayed those traits from the first ball he faced. Yuvraj, however, seemed to lose a bit of steam following Dravid's exit -- the first 18 balls he faced after that dismissal got him just 3 runs, and India's momentum checked slightly heading into the straight.

From 157/5 in 40, the Indians shifted gears again, thanks largely to Sodhi's barnstorming tactics while Yuvraj remained content to let his junior partner hog the strike. 36 runs came off the next five overs to take India to a very strong 193/5 after 45 overs -- and the standout shot of this phase came off the last ball of the 45th over, when Vaas bowled one at fullish length and Yuvraj, easing himself onto the front foot, whipped the ball flat and hard off his legs, the ball flying at head height and immense speed over the long on boundary.

Sodhi's brisk innings of 30 (37 balls) ended in a bit of deja vu. As he has done earlier in this series, the Indian all-rounder attempted to move to leg and chop Muralitharan down to third man -- a risky shot against someone who turns the ball as much as the Lankan offie does. The ball curled back in and as in a previous instance, took the thick edge onto middle stump to end a partnership of 57/62 balls that increased the tempo of the Indian innings.

Samir Dighe needed to give Yuvraj Singh support, but fell early when Dilhara Fernando, in his comeback over (the 47th) bowled one at close to his quickest, seaming away late to tempt the batsman into fishing outside his off. Kalu dived well to hold the edge, and India was 200/7.

From then on, it was all Yuyvraj. A cracking back foot cover drive off Fernando in the 47th brought him on par with his previous highest in ODIs, the 84 he scored on debut against Australia in Kenya. Murali took out Harbhajan Singh -- heaving across the line of a standard offspinner to be bowled middle and leg -- in the 48th over, Vaas chipped in with a superbly controlled 49th over that yielded just two runs and with Yuvraj crumpling to the ground with cramp and/or hamstring pull at the start of the 50th over, India didn't really get to maximise the last five overs.

Yuvraj Singh ended up unbeaten on 98 -- a controlled, superbly paced knock marked with 40 singles, 14 very briskly run twos, six fours and a six. Dravid and Sodhi played key supporting roles, and Sri Lanka's bowlers, who used the early overcast brilliantly, were however guilty of giving away 30 extras, including an unpardonable 15 wides and six no balls.

Sri Lanka needed to get off to a speedy start, given that forcing the pace against the Indian support bowlers hasn't been easy in the last few games. With this intent, Kaluwitharana came out along with skipper Jayasuriya. Zaheer Khan started with an aggressive bouncer, second ball of the innings, that exploded off the pitch on length and crashed into Jayasuriya's shoulder.

In the next over, Kaluwitharana lost his wicket. The keeper-batsman clipped one from Nehra out on the leg and took off. Jayasuriya initially responded but on spotting Harbhajan at backward square racing in, sent his partner back. Harbhajan threw down the stumps and caught the batsman a good two feet outside his ground, to have Lanka on 6/1.

In the next over, Zaheer Khan -- who bowled a dream opening spell, characterised by aggressive pace and lots of lateral movement -- took out Atapattu with an angling delivery that hit a good length just around off, drawing Atapattu into the defensive push and seaming away late. Atapattu's bat came into contact with pad, and the sound foxed the umpire into upholding the caught behind appeal (7/2).

Zaheer's overt aggression was nicely counter-pointed by Nehra's more controlled display at the other end. An immaculate line had kept Sanath Jayasuriya from breaking free and, in the 8th over, Nehra sealed it when he first beat the Lankan skipper with a superb away-seamer, then made the next ball bend back in off the seam at full length. Jayasuriya (10 off 19) played a sort of jab at the ball, which flew away on the on side for Dravid at a shortish midwicket to dive headlong and grab a blinder. The ball initially popped out of the hand of the diving fielder, but Dravid did very well to keep his eye on it and even before hitting the deck, to quickly get both hands under the ball again to complete the catch. (24/3 Lanka.)

Lanka almost plunged into further trouble in the 9th over. Mahela Jayawardene, who had played a blistering knock the other day against the Kiwis, found himself completely clueless against both Zaheer and Ashish. In the ninth over, the latter made one kick off a length, seamed it away and Jayawardene (8 off 25 at that point, Lanka 33/3) got the thick edge only for Laxman, at slip, to put down a dolly. The fielder had his index finger heavily bandaged, and seemed to be protecting it when he went for the catch.

Lanka's progression -- 14/2 in 5 overs, 33/3 in 10 overs, 47/3 in 15, 65/3 in 20 -- was almost a mirror image of India in the first innings. In fact, it would have been a perfect reflection had Laxman held that catch. Arnold and Jayawardene settled down to take singles as best they could against tight bowling and an aggressive field setting. The ask rate, meanwhile, had been pushed above the 5 an over mark, exerting that bit of extra pressure. On the other hand, India missed Yuvraj in the field, and with the ball.

Ganguly gave himself a long spell to make up for Yuvraj, and in the 22nd over, got the wicket India needed at that point when he hustled one through quicker, straightening it around off to beat Arnold's (21 off 45) attempted push on the on and take the pad bang in front of off and middle. Lanka 67/4 in 21.2, ending a fourth wicket partnership of 43 off 84.

At the halfway mark, Lanka was struggling at 74/4 (86/4 India), thanks to controlled spells by Ganguly (6-1-15-1) and Harbhajan (6-1-15-0) in the middle overs, backed by some high class ground fielding.

With runs drying up (the ask rate at this point had just edged over 6), Jayawardene decided he needed to take charge. A clean hit over mid on off Ganguly fetched four. It also stoked ambition, tempting the batsman into an encore off the next ball. Ganguly pitched that one a shade shorter, giving the ball space to do more off the seam and beat Jayawardene's (34 off 78) attempted on the up drive to take out leg stump (Lanka 93/5 in 27.3).

At the 30 over mark, Lanka was on 99/5 in 30 against India's 113/4. The man singularly responsible for India's position of strength at that point was Ganguly, who in the 32nd over completed a sustained, controlled spell that fetched him 10-1-31-2.

Ashish Nehra was brought back in the 33rd over, and struck immediately when he produced a delivery just back of good length, cutting in off the seam to go through Sangakarra's Z(18 off 30) defensive push and take out off stump. Lanka 109/6, asking rate 6.82 rpo.

An opportunity to hammer one more into the coffin went down when, in the 38th over, Suresh Perera pulled hard at Sodhi without quite controlling the hit. Amay Khurasiya, one of many substitutes seen in the innings as various players went down with cramp and other ailments, got both hands to it and let it go through.

In terms of runs scored, though, the squeeze remained on. India focussed on denying boundaries. Lanka at the 35 over mark managed 123/6 (140/4 India) and at the 40 over mark, going into the slog, were on 149/6 (157/5 India).

Harbhajan, who had been bowling superbly all innings, got the big one in the 41st when he tossed one up at Perera, inviting the naturally aggressive batsman to have a go. Perera (30 off 46) did, launching into a lofted off drive, the turn on the ball finding the toe of the bat rather than the middle for Zaheer to hold the skier at deep long off (151/7 Lanka). The offie, meanwhile, completed another controlled outing with the ball, to return 10-0-31-1.

Zaheer Khan came back in the 43rd over. Dharmasena (22 off 27) drove to cover, and took off for the run without reference to his stationary batting partner. Dravid merely needed to collect clean and relay to the keeper to have Lanka 157/8.

Vaas in the 44th, off Sodhi, turned it on with some long handle stuff, including a six -- a kind of forehand swat, really -- over midwicket. Without, however, making much of a dent in an asking rate that at the end of the over stood at 9 rpo.

The 45th over saw Muralitharan playing one of his swishes at a short one from Zaheer, the ball flying high for Agarkar, substituting at midwicket, to run in and hold on the dive. And in the 46th, Nehra sealed the win by getting Vaas to miscue an attempt to loft over long off, the ball going off the toe of the bat to Harbhajan in the deep to have Lanka 181 all out and give India a 46 run win. The frontline bowlers all struck for India, with the two seamers taking out 5 between them on a dry pitch that favoured the batsman in the second session. And Ganguly and Harbhajan between them ensured that the fifth bowler never came under any kind of pressure.

The frontline bowlers all struck for India, Ganguly filled the hole left by Yuvraj to perfection That's two good wins against Sri Lanka for the Indians, following a close defeat in the first encounter -- which makes it interesting if the two teams meet in the final. But to get there, India has to win tomorrow -- against New Zealand, which has beaten them twice in two tries.

Interesting.

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