The Rajkot one-dayer went down to the wire as Sri Lanka defeated India by 5 runs. The Sunday encounter promised to be a thriller and a thriller it was. It was a roller coaster ride for both the teams but it was the Lankans who kept their cool and got the better of the men in blue.

Dravid won the crucial toss and opted to bat as he thought that the ball would do something due to the dew factor to cease the initiative. The Indian skipper did prove right by taking four crucial wickets including the danger man Jayasuriya. It was upto Dilshan and Sangakkara who steadied the lankan innings putting on an 108 run partnership.

Sangakkara produced a superb exhibition of high quality batting under pressure. He alone looked totally comfortable against pace and spin alike, and ensured that the board kept ticking over with quality shots off either front or back foot, against pace and spin alike. Sangakkara’s courageous 110 came to an end when he held out to Sehwag at long –off. The lankan tail came good by helping their team post a decent 257-8.

Fortunately, Sreesanth went back to basics, figured that the way out of his recent problems was to go back to his peak pace and attack, without worrying too much about the occasional four taken off him.

Indians felt good by keeping the lankans under 300 and fancied their chances of going one up in the four match series.

Chasing 258 for victory, the home side looked on course at 235-5, but lost the plot completely, their last five wickets falling for just 17 runs off 27 balls.

India was well on course till Sachin and Saurav were at the crease. Sachin was in his usual mood before he danced down the wicket to play Bandara but missed the line of the delivery and was stumped. Saurav Ganguly hit a patient 62 and added a 100-run third-wicket partnership with Sachin (54).

Dhoni was unlike the Dhoni we knew as he was picking singles and two’s by giving Sehwag support. Sehwag looked uncomfortable playing in the middle order as I still think he should play as an opener. Once Sehwag went Karthick came in but was unable to hit boundaries which built the pressure on the Indians. With Dhoni at the crease there was still hope, but with 11 runs needed from Jayasuriya’s last over the advantage slipped drastically. Dhoni’s skier was taken brilliantly by Maharoof off the penultimate ball and last man Sreesanth was left with the uphill task of hitting a six off the last ball to secure an improbable victory. He failed to make contact much to the delight of the Sri Lankans.

It looked as if the Indians thought the target would be a cake walk but it wasn’t as each match has got to be taken seriously. India needs to think and think hard as the task of winning both the remaining matches wouldn’t be easy to clinch the series.

Brief Scores

Sri Lanka- 257 for 8 in 50 overs beat India- 252 for 9 in 50 overs