India and Sri Lanka battled it out at Adelaide till the 100th over of the day was bowled, which finally resulted in a tie. Gautam Gambhir was the top scorer with 91 runs and MS Dhoni scored 58 runs to walk away with the man of the match title.
HEARTS WERE beating faster; gods were invoked, some began to sweat, while some closed their eyes as they could not take the tension with
India needing 4 runs from the last ball of the match against Sri Lanka in the ongoing ODI tri series at Adelaide.
MS Dhoni was at the striking end with Lasith Malinga at the bowling end. He bowled a wide delivery and Dhoni reached out to hit the ball over extra cover. The Sri Lankan fielder made a diving save to to prevent the ball from hitting boundary line. The Indians scampered for a third run, thus resulting in a tie. All fans, team players, officials heaved a sigh of relief after a dramatic end.
The Indians were for the first time looking comfortable in Australia, after they had come from a back to back victory in their previous matches. They had a string in their stride, when they took to the field after losing the toss. The Indians struck very early, as Sri Lanka lost their opener in the first over of the match. It was same story for the Sri Lankans this time around too with their batsmen getting starts but not converting them into good scores. It was only their impressive youngster Chandimal, who put up a good batting display with 81 runs to his name. They put up 236 runs on the board for the loss of 9 wickets, reports espnstar.com, at the completion of their innings.
Though, the score was not huge, but the Indians had to bat well on the pitch, which was low and slow, very rare in Australia. Apart from Gambhir, there were no top order batsmen, who could stick to the wicket and score runs. He top scored with 91 runs, which gave a perfect platform for MS Dhoni to carry the Indian team to victory and how well did Dhoni respond to it. The script could not have been well written. Dhoni scored 58 runs to win the match for India to walk away with the man of the match title too.
The Indians, with this victory are lying on the top of the table. Hence, if they play the rest of the tournament with the same vigour and confidence, their road to the finals does not look distant. Still, there are some grey areas, which need to be corrected like their top order failures, building upon good partnerships and preserving their wicket. If they get their act together, it could be a good series for the ODI World Champions, by winning the tri series.
