India win a Rajkot Cricket ODI Thriller against Sri Lanka by just 3 runs in a batting feast
825 runs were scored today in Rajkot with 24 6s,evenly between India and Sri Lanka and 80 4s,with 43 by India and 37 by Sri Lanka…thus 464 runs or 56% of the runs scored came through 6s and 4s
Swashbuckling Sehwag cracked a fantastic 146 runs of 102 balls to provide the platform for India to record their highest ODI score of 414-7 after being put into bat by Sri Lankan Captain Sangakkara…at one stage it looked like India would post 450 as they were going at nearly 9 an over…their previous highest was 413 against Bermuda !
All thought the match was over in this first Innings itself….but then came Dilshan…he knocked 160 of 124 balls before our best bowler on display today,Harbhajan, bowled him….Bhajji got the dangerous Jayasuriya too,luring him out and Dhoni effecting an easy stumping….Sangakkara powered 90 of just 43 balls…..After 35 overs it looked like Sri Lanka would comfortably reach the Victory target of 415,aided also by sloppy fielding and dropped catches by India…but key wickets fell at crucial times……allowed India to get back into the match…Lankan Batsmen pressed the panic button…two runouts….. needing 11 of the last over with Nehra bowling it,Sri Lanka lost hard hitting Mathews and they managed just 7 runs giving India victory by just 3 runs…last ball they needed a 4 to tie and a 6 to win…they got just a single
Inexplicably, Sri Lanka who were scoring at over 8 runs an over throughout,managed just 28 runs,losing 3 wickets, at just 5.6 runs average in the last Five Overs….This sudden drop in the scoring rate at the end cost them the match
Both Man of the Match Sehwag and Dilshan missed a glorious chance to be the first in the History of ODIs to score a double century….Zaheer Khan will like to forget this match…he takes over from Srinath for having the worst bowling analysis in ODIs….Srinath was smashed for 87 in his Ten overs in a World Cup Match….Zaheer was smashed today for 88 runs in his 10 closely followed by Nehra whose 10 overs cost 81 runs…but Nehra became a hero,bowling a successful last over
The Five Match series is set up well with this thrilling first ODI with India taking a 1-0 lead
Rajkot is going to celebrate tonight..The famous Patel Ice-cream Parlour is going to run out of Stock in all flavours of their signature hand churned ‘ Sancha’ Ice-cream