It was a dream start for Sreesanth as he delivered his first
ball and saw the wickets spatter all over the ground. Attapatu was taken off-guard
as he tried to defend but unfortunately got an inside edge. He lost his off-stump
and the Sri Lankans were left stranded with their top 4 batsmen back in the
pavilion.
The Indians seamers were on a roll with Sangakkara and Jayawardene
holding out to Uthappa in consecutive overs. Zaheer claimed his first wicket
of the match after the Sri Lankan wicket-keeper made his way back after scoring
1 off 2 deliveries.
The fielding looks sharp and the Indians appear buoyant after claiming 3 important
wickets.
Shortly after Jayasuriyas dismissal, it was the turn
of Sri Lankan captain Mahela Jayawardene to make his was back to the
dressing room. He was nicely caught by Uthappa at short mid-wicket who gobbled
up a skier. The bowler to benefit was Agarkar who enticed the batsman into getting
a leading edge.
Sanath Jayasuriya was the first batsman in the Sri Lankan
side to head back to the pavilion. He was caught at mid-wicket by Ganguly of
the bowling of Ajit Agarkar. The openers put in a solid partnership of 42 runs
before Jayasuriya had a rush of blood and gave his wicket away.
The Indian captain called the right side of the coin
and decided to put the Sri Lankans in to bat in the series decider at Vizag.
This decision was taken considering the moisture on the wicket which would help
the seamers early on.
There was a delay in the start of play as the early morning dew rendered the
outfield wet. The dew delayed the proceeding by 30 minutes. As a result the
match was reduced to 47 overs.
Munaf Patel was replaced by Sreesanth who pulled out
after experiencing a stiff back.
The Indians, playing without Sachin Tendulkar, Anil
Kumble and Irfan Pathan will try to clinch the four-match ODI series
against Sri Lanka in their last game ahead of the World Cup.
The series is level at 1-1 after the opening game had to be abandoned due to
rain.
Teams:
India: Virender Sehwag, Robin Uthappa, Saurav Ganguly, Yuvraj
Singh, Rahul Dravid (c), Dinesh Karthik, Mahendra Singh Dhoni (w), Zaheer Khan,
Ajit Agarkar, Harbhajan Singh, S Sreesanth.
Sri Lanka: LPC Silva, ST Jayasuriya, DPMD Jayawardene, KC Sangakkara,
MS Atapattu, TM Dilshan, RP Arnold, MF Maharoof, SL Malinga, CM Bandara,
CRD Fernando.
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