India scores first bilateral ODI series win in Lanka

A spirited Indian team on Wednesday (August 27) clinched its first-ever bilateral cricket series win against Sri Lanka on her soil as the Mahendra Singh Dhoni led young brigade won the fourth One-day international by 46 runs. In the whole match the Lankan were completely outplayed at their home turf at the Premadasa stadium in Colombo. India indexed an unbeatable 3-1 lead in the five-match series.

Team India after winning the toss opted to bat first and managed to post a target of 259 to win for the Sri Lankans. Opener Virat Kohli scored his first half-century in ODIs and knocked 54 (66 balls) with the help of seven boundaries before falling to Thushara, the man who later recorded a five-wicket haul.

Though Gautam Gambhir and Yuvraj Singh yet again failed to make feel their stand, it was the much-needed partnership between skipper MS Dhoni (71) and Suresh Raina (76) who took the score board from 81/3 to cross the 200 mark. But as it was trying to put the impression that India might have set a score of over 280, the lower order debacle only restricted it to 258.

Then it was up to the bowlers to give some early jerk to the strong Lankan batting line up. Munaf Patel once again impressed with the new ball and scrapped the first two wickets: Brendon Warnapura (0) and Kumar Sangakkara (6). On the other hand, Sanath Jaisuriya was on his destructive mood hitting all the bowlers all over the ground including two massive sixes to Munaf.

The introduction of Harbhajan Singh in the middle certainly drilled the innings for India as he soon took away the wickets of Sanath (62 off 52 balls) and made run-out the Lankan skipper Mahela Jayawardene. He contributed only six runs.

Yuvraj Singh who struggled with bat contributed a spell of 53/2 (10 overs). Though T Thushara showed some resistance to Indian bowling attack but wickets continued to tumble around him and the entire Sri Lankan team bundled out for 212 in 46.3 overs.

Indian innings: Total 258 (all out in 49.4 overs)
Batting: Virat Kohli (54), Suresh Raina (76) and MS Dhoni (71) Fall of wickets: 1-44 (Gambhir), 2-51 (Yuvraj Singh), 3-81 (Kohli), 4-224 (Raina), 5-232 (Dhoni), 6-243 (Badrinath), 7-253 (Harbhajan Singh), 8-256 (Sharma), 9-257 (Kumar), 10-258 (Khan)

Sri Lanka innings: Total 212 (all out in 46.3 overs) Batting: Sanath Jaisuriya (60), Kapugedera (30) and T Thushara (40) Fall of wickets: 1-28 (Warnapura), 2-38 (Sangakkara), 3-74 (Jayasuriya), 4-106 (Jayawardene), 5-131 (Dilshan), 6-140 (Kapugedera), 7-157 (Vaas), 8-190 (Kulasekara), 9-206 (Mendis), 10-212 (Thushara)