India defeat defending champions sri lanka by 81 runs to clinch Asia Cup
India defeat defending champions sri lanka by 81 runs to clinch Asia Cup
India defeated defending champions Sri Lanka by 81 runs in the Asia Cup one-day final yesterday. On Tuesday night, it was carnival time. They were singing and dancing in the Rangiri Stadium isles.
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| India pacer Ashish Nehra (left) and Suresh Raina celebrate the dismissal of Sri Lanka captain Kumar Sangakkara during the final of the Asia Cup at Dambulla yesterday.u00a0 PIC/AFP |
On Asia Cup final night, however, chasing down a target of 269 to retain the trophy proved to be a lot more difficult for Sri Lanka's batsmen. The top-order was swept away by the end of the first 16 overs with some explosive and clever bowling as India stared down their island rivals.
It was a lot tougher too with a green tinged pitch, some life for the bowlers and Ashish Nehra, labouring this tournament with form and confidence, suddenly becoming the magician pulling a series of thrilling tricks from his fast-medium seam repertoire and gave India a chance to hope.
Hope that is India were able to think in terms of ending a 15-year long drought with a victory looming in the 2010 Asia Cup final. As Sri Lanka Cricket officials, miffed over charges that the lighting at the stadium in heart of the cultural centre of the island were not up to international standard, Nehra laid waste to the top and middle order in a five over spell as first change, he grabbed the wickets of Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardene and Angelo Mathews to have the hosts struggling.
The loss of five top-order wickets, with Tillakaratne Dilshan falling for a duck second ball of the innings when a pull-shot went seriously wrong and he top-edged a catch. It silenced the crowd expecting an explosive start. Disaster for Sri Lanka but an impressive start for India.
Yet there was doubt whether India's innings of 268 for six would be enough after Sri Lanka's practice run on Tuesday night.
Dinesh Karthik could almost take a bow. His innings of 66 saw stylish strokes mixed with cagey defence. After the early departure of Gautam Gambhir and Virat Kohli, who perished fishing outside off, had India in early strife, it needed some sensible, intelligent batting to build the semblance of a match-winning total.
At least Karthik, with the skipper MS Dhoni guiding the innings from the middle, was attempting to rotate the strike at a time the momentum was in India's favour. The Dhoni decision to bat at four, as he did against Pakistan, was invaluable as it went someway to replaying the innings total platform after Karthik's untimely departure.
Karthik, having made 66, took on the part-time leg-spinner Thilan Kandamby, the result was an attempted slog-sweep that ended up with the batsman failing to judge the distance.
If Karthik's departure with the total at 146 for three left India looking vulnerable what happened after that was a story of solid scores.
