Ravneet Ricky and Manish Sharma got off to an aggressive start against
Sri Lanka in what was their first difficult match of the
tournament. Both teams were keen to score a win in the match as this
would make their future path in the tournament easier. In the end,
India were keener than Sri Lanka and ended up being deserved winners -
their third successive victory in the Super League.
India began positively with Ricky (32) rattling up the bowlers with
some aggressive batting. After Ricky departed, the captain Mohammad
Kaif played some good strokes before he was dismissed by spinner
Dhammika for 12. Yuvraj Singh, the pick of the Indian batsmen in the
tournament so far played in characteristic fashion as he made 36
before he was run out. From this point on, the vice captain Reetinder
Singh Sodhi, who has had a low key tournament thus far made a timely
74 and helped India along to a challenging total. Some sensible
batting towards the end by Niraj Patel, who made 43 without scoring a
single boundary and YV Rao (15) saw India to 242 off 50 overs.
The Sri Lankan openers began positively, hitting the ball hard and
finding the boundary with regularity. The Indian bowlers did not lose
their composure and were well backed up by some very tight
fielding. The Lankans lost wickets at regular intervals and the fact
that the highest partnership of the innings was 57 for the seventh
wicket tells its own tale. Only stumper RT Peiris (66) showed the
temperament required to play at the highest level. Unfortunately for
him, his gutsy innings was in vain as the hosts slumped to 201 all
out.