IndiaPost.com - Sri Lanka prevail over India to throw the tri-series open

CANBERRA: The cricket tri-series was thrown wide open as a spirited Sri Lanka recorded their first win in the tournament with an eight-wicket victory over India in a rain-truncated match here. Put into bat, India rattled up 195 for five in the allotted 29 overs after play began late due to rain but the islanders overhauled a revised target of 154 in 21 overs with 12 balls to spare at the Manuka Oval.

The Sri Lankans took full advantage of batting second as they chased the revised target without much fuss to keep themselves afloat in the series, riding on contributions from Tillakaratne Dilshan (62 not out) and Sanath Jayasuriya (27 off 13 balls).

Young Rohit Sharma gave ample display of his class with an unbeaten 70 while Gautam Gambhir (35) Sachin Tendulkar (32) and Captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni (31) came up with useful contributions but all their efforts went in vain as another rain interruption immediately after the Indian innings made the equation under the Duckworth-Lewis method easier for the Lankans.

With this win via Duckworth-Lewis method, Sri Lanka managed to keep themselves in the reckoning by taking their points tally to six from three matches. India continued to maintain their position at the top of the table with eight points from four matches while Australia had seven points from three matches.

The action will now shift to Perth where Sri Lanka will take on Australia in a day-night encounter. Jayasuriya provided a flying start to the Lankan chase as he blasted 27 off 13 balls with two fours and two sixes. The left-hander looked in devastating form and scored 23 in one over from Sreesanth before being dismissed by Ishant Sharma.

Harbhajan then took Sangakkara’s wicket (10) but that hardly affected the Lankan run-rate. Rain came down hard on India as first it intervened to have the game reduced to 29 overs-a-side which further tilted in Lanka’s favor when the target, due to another spell of rain, was readjusted to 154 from 21 overs. Earlier, Indians did enough to post a healthy 195 from their 29 overs with young Rohit Sharma providing the maximum thrust. Sharma, who took 20 balls for his first 10 runs, struck some lusty blows to finish with 75 off 64 balls and shared an exhilarating 68-run fourth wicket stand with skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni (30).

The Indians made very slow start in the morning and scored their first run only off the last ball of the second over before Sachin Tendulkar (32) settled into the groove to coax 45 for the first wicket with Virender Sehwag (14). Tendulkar started by hitting Chaminda Vaas over extra-cover region and went on to play some fine strokes, including a swept four off Vaas from outside the off-stump. Sehwag, meanwhile, departed while slashing at a delivery from medium-packer Nuwan Kulasekara only to be caught at the third man. Tendulkar himself departed four runs later in a similar manner when he made room to thrash Maharoof over extra cover but sliced his drive to third man. The little master made 32 from 30 balls and hit four fours.