[1]India were shut out of the Wednesday’s tri-series final here on Saturday when Dinesh Chandimal led Sri Lanka to victory with just 10 balls to spare. India needed a win to stay in the tournament, which would have given them a slender chance to play in the final on Wednesday.
That would have depended on Zimbabwe then beating Sri Lanka in the last round robin match on Monday. This game will now have no significance for the tournament, but will be a guide to form.
India’s score of 268/9 was not quite enough. Sri Lanka notched up 270 with 10 balls to spare and six wickets in hand.
India now have six days to wait to play two T20 matches against Zimbabwe next weekend, which have been added on to the tri-series. With this defeat they have dropped to third place behind Australia and South Africa in the ICC ODI rankings.
Chandimal, named man of the match, punished the Indian bowlers with 111 in 118 balls. It was his maiden century in ODIs and he said afterwards: “I just played my normal game, which is an aggressive one.”
He was partnered for the third wicket stand of 114 by Chamara Kapugedera in a supporting but important role, scoring 42.
India skipper Suresh Raina thought losing the toss was important to the result. “The wicket just got better and better for batting during the day,” he said.
“We now have a week off and we’ll use that to improve all aspects of our game. There is much work to do.”
Earlier, it fell to Virat Kohli (68) and Yusuf Pathan (44) in an 84-run partnership for the third wicket to set up India for a potentially good score. It was Kohli’s eighth half century and it got him to 1,000 runs in ODI cricket, the fastest by an Indian batsmen. One very unusual incident was a no-ball bowled Thilana Thushara, which resulted in a run-out of Ravindra Jadeja. — AFP
Scores: India 268/9 in 50 overs (Kohli 68, Yusuf Pathan 44; Thushara 3/57, Randiv 2/38) lost to Sri Lanka 270/4 in 48.2 overs (Chandimal 111, Kapugedera 42; Ashwin 2/50)
Links:
[1] http://archive.asianage.com/sp0606jpg-542