Bowlers give Sri Lanka 9wkt win over India in 2nd ODI

By Fathima Zanaida

HAMBANTOTA (TheSportsNext) July 24, 2012: Sri Lankan seam bowlers provided the goods for Sri Lanka which outplayed strong Indian side by nine wickets in the second One Day International at Hambantota on Tuesday.

The victory was contributed to a disciplined bowling performance by the Sri Lankan medium pacers who extracted enough purchase out of the seamers-friendly conditions and rattled a rock-solid Indian batting line-up ferociously.

Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni won the toss and decided to bat first, a decision which he must have ruined later in the day.

Indian menacing opening pair of Gautam Gambhir (65 from 96 – 4 fours) and Virender Sehwag (15 from 15 – 2 fours) started the innings in a confident manner and took the total to 31 runs in the fourth over before Thisara Perera got rid of dangerous looking Viru on final delivery of the fourth over.

Man of the Match in the first One Day International, Virat Kohli (1 from 5) failed to match his heroics while Rohit Sharma (Duck), Suresh Raina (1 from 5), skipper MS Dhoni (11 from 16 – 2 fours), and Irfan Pathan (6 from 19) all failed to stand disciplined bowling by Thisara Perera, Angelo Mathews, and Lasith Malinga.

In the end, India were bowled out for a paltry 138 runs from 33.3 overs with Gautam Gambhir emerging as the lone fighter as carried the bat for the tourists before falling last.

This was only the 18^th time that the Indian cricket team got out before 35 overs in One Day International cricket.

Thisara Perera grabbed three wickets for 19 runs from eight overs, Angelo Mathews took three wickets for 14 runs from seven overs, while Lasith Malinga captured two wickets for 36 runs from 7.3 overs. Rangana Herath also claimed a wicket for 21 runs from his five overs.

The 139-run target never looked like a daunting task for the home side as Sri Lankan openers scored 119 runs for the opening wicket from just 100 deliveries and came close to record first-ever 10-wicket victory against the Indians.

However, it wasn’t to be as Ravichandran Ashwin got rid of Tillakaratne Dilshan (50 from 72 – 5 fours) but Upal Tharanga (59 from 60 – 8 fours) and Dinesh Chandimal (6 from 10 – 2 fours) made sure that Sri Lankans cross the line with no further losses.

Sri Lanka completed the target from just 19.5 overs as Thisara Perera was declared Man of the Match for his brilliant show with the ball.

With this victory, Sri Lanka leveled the five-match series by 1-1 and the both sides will lock horns in the third ODI in Colombo on Saturday.