8th Match - India v Sri Lanka

Questions Unanswered as India lose yet another game

Thissara Perera was once again in the scheme of things picking 4 wickets and Kulasekra supported him with 3 wickets.

Jayawardene won the toss and decided to bat first right away opening up with T.Dilshan who smacked out Brett Lee in the last match. 

India replaced MS Dhoni with Parthiv Patel, Zaheer Khan with R.Ashwin & Virender Sehwag the skipper of Team India for this match, in place of Rohit Sharma. 

T.Dilshan and M.Jayawardene started their inning on the positive note, they rotated the single by bunting down, teasing the fielders in the circle. Both the batsmen scored freely to post the 1st 50 runs in just 45 deliveries. Virender Sehwag brought Umesh Yadav early in the first powerplay removing Irfan Pathan from his spell. Both the batsmen put on 95 runs partnership in 18 overs. Irfan Pathan was brought back in the bowling power play and immediately he took the wicket of well settled Jayawardene who was batting on 45. Virender Sehwag pulled off a blinder at mid wicket diving to his left to end his battle. Dilshan too lost his wicket after 3 overs when he tried to cut it square, a faint edge was taken care by Parthiv Patel.

Sangakkara got out cheaply when he pulled a short delivery to deep fine leg, Tendulkar took it with ease even though the ball was travelling at some speed. Dinesh Chandimal and Lahiru Thirimanne built 71 runs partnership which proved vital. Thirimanne was mankaded by Ashwin in 40th over but the appeal was withdrawn by the Indian team, he was given first official warning about backing up too far.

Chandimal was bowled by Irfan Pathan when he sent a soaring inswinging yorker in the base of the leg stump. Thirimanne too was caught at sweeper cover by Suresh Raina. Thissara Perera was bowled by Suresh Raina in the 49th over of the match.

91 runs were taken in last 10 overs by Sri Lankan batsmen and thanks to some wayward bowling by Indian bowlers. Lahiru Thirimanne scored the highest 62, Dilshan 51, Mathews 49* & Jayawardene 45.

Irfan Pathan & R. Ashwin both took a couple of wickets, Yadav picked up 1 wicket but he was taken for over 7 runs in his 8 overs.

India started the innings in horrible fashion as Sehwag tried to repeat his shot to third man of Malinga in the very second delivery. Tendulkar looked in supreme form along with Gambhir and the duo were looking to lay a good platform but Kulasekra had other plans removing Tendulkar for 22 and Gambhir for 29.

Raina and Kohli put on decent stand but it was never going to enough chasing over 280 for a win. With no MS in the lower middle order, India were always going to struggle chasing 8 per over and despite a quick fire 47 from Irfan Pathan, India lost the game.