Sri Lanka in India ODI Cricket Series 2006-07
India vs Sri Lanka Second ODI at Rajkot
IND vs SL 2nd ODI: Sri Lanka beat India by 5 runs
Feb 11, 2007
Sri Lanka defeated India by five runs in a tense encounter in the second ODI at the Madhavrao Scindia Stadium in Rajkot.
From being in a position of considerable strength, India buckled under the pressure created by some good bowling and fielding by the visitors, eventually needing 11 runs of the final over.
While MS Dhoni (48) made a valiant attempt to take India home, his wicket brilliantly caught by Maharoof in the outfield, on the penultimate delivery of the match sealed India's fate.
For Sri Lanka, the game was a true test of grit and character, as they continued to keep fighting while playing catch-up on a number of occasions.
Along with this, the bowling performances of Farveez Maharoof, who bagged 3 for 37 and Malinga Bandara, who picked 2 for 36, must be a real confidence booster, considering that Chaminda Vaas and Muttiah Muralitharan are not playing this series. However, the day, without a doubt, belonged to wicketkeeper-batsman Kumar Sangakkara, who smashed a scintillating 110 of 127 balls and picked up two catches and the stumping of Sachin Tendulkar. Earlier, Dravid won the toss in the morning and put Sri Lanka to bat first. For India, Zaheer Khan was replaced by Anil Kumble.
Reported Earlier: With the first India-Sri Lanka ODI at Eden Gardens Kolkata coming to an watery end after just 18.2 overs the weather over here in Rajkot looks bleak with rain being experienced even yesterday evening.
The game today at Madhavrao Scindia Cricket ground is going to be vital for the two teams, but the Indian captain is finding hard to name a 12 member team due to injuries. Irfan Pathan is down with a shoulder injury while Yuvraj Singh is suffering from a back injury. Ajit Agarkar is also not fit through flu. The Madhavrao ground unlike Eden Garden cannot hold a crowd of over 10,000. Nevertheless an official at the grounds stated that one could expect a high scoring game today. But skipper Dravid is not going take the Sri Lankans lightly, in spite of the absence of two top players Chaminda Vaas and Mutthiah Muralitharan.
India is likely to retain the team that played in the first ODI at Kolkata, while Sri Lankans are also unlikely to make any changes.
India team : Robin Uthappa, Sourav Ganguly, Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid (capt), Dinesh Karthik, Mahendra Singh Dhoni (wk), Harbhajan Singh, Sreesanth, Anil Kumble, Munaf Patel
Sri Lanka team : Mahela Jayawardene (capt), Sanath Jayasuriya, Upul Tharanga, Kumar Sangakkara (wk), Marvan Atapattu, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Russel Arnold, Nuwan Kulasekera, Farveez Maharoof, Lasith Malinga, Malinga Bandara
Second ODI, Rajkot : Sri Lanka 257 for 8 (50.0 overs) beat India 252 for 9 (50.0 overs) by 5 runs
