India failed to hold their nerves in a cliffhanger against Sri Lanka to concede a six-run defeat in their second one-day match of the tri-series in Colombo on Sunday night. Set to score 222 off 50 overs after Sri Lanka won the toss and elected to bat, India caved in to pressure as they battled regular fall of wickets and dwindling number of overs despite a 69-run knock by skipper Saurav Ganguly and a gritty 49 runs by Rahul Dravid to finish on 215 for 7 off 50 overs.
Fortunes tilted to either sides throughout the edge-of-the-seat thriller but Sri Lankan bowlers struck the right blows to throttle the Indian challenge. India were off to a bad start as they lost three quick wickets and were in dire straits at 71 for 4 before an 80-run partnership between Ganguly and Dravid steadied the innings.
Paceman Suresh Perera did the early damage, scalping both the openers Yuvraj Singh (12) whose attempted flick landed in the hands of Muttiah Muralitharan at square leg and Amay Khurasia (12) who was plumb leg before. At this stage Ganguly and Dravid (49 not out) came together and turned the match around with some well-struck boundaries and quick singles to keep India in with a chance before Russel Arnold got rid of the Indian skipper who top-edged to Jayasuriya at forward short leg.
Muralitharan struck crucial blows later in the innings to dispose of Reetinder Singh Sodhi who looked to be shaping well at 19 and Virendera Sehwag at 12. Earlier, India did well to check the Sri Lankan batsmen from piling a huge score with Harbhajan Singh returning a fine spell of 3 for 29 off his 10 overs.
Bureau Report