India vs Sri Lanka in India, Nov-Dec 2009

Sri Lanka in India Three Test, five ODI and Two T20 match series

Sri Lanka will be looking for the elusive test match and series win when they tour India for a Three Test, five ODI and Two T20 match series from November to December 2009. The team arrive in India on November 8th for the 55-day tour.

Recently in News: Sri Lanka in India Test Series 2005 | Sri Lanka in India One Day Series 2005 | South Africa in India 2005 | England in Pakistan 2005 | ICC Super Series 2005 | India in Zimbabwe 2005 | Videocon triangular series Cricket 2005 | NPK Salve Challenger Series 2005

Sri Lanka Cricket News July 2005

Captain Dravid scripts Indian victory

In a mirror image of the first game of the Indian Oil Cup, India made heavy weather of chasing a modest total under lights at the Rangiri International Stadium in Dambulla. West Indies, after choosing to bat, made a complete mess of things, and ended up with 178, a total that India were able to overhaul with 14 overs to spare and 6 wickets in hand

In Picture: Virendar Sehwag celebrates one of his two wickets as India dismiss West Indies for 178 at Dambulla.

Scores: Windies 178 (N Deonarine 41); India 180/4 36 overs (R Dravid * 52 (65), S Raina 35 (42))

Sri Lanka stumbles, but wins opener

Sri Lanka beat India by 3 wickets with 10 balls remaining in the curtain-raiser of the Indian Oil Cup, which also features West Indies. Jayasuriya top scored with 43 (51).
Earlier, India won the toss and opted to bat. Muttiah Muralitharan and debutant Dilhara Lokuhettige both bowled well to to restrict India to 205-9. Without Sourav Ganguly or Sachin Tendulkar available, they struggled with only Rahul Dravid (54) and debutant Venugopal Rao (38) coping. India were 5-64 before Dravid hit 54 off 96 balls, with 6 4s.

Scores: India 205/9 (R Dravid 54 (96), Venugopal Rao 38 (74) Muralitharan 3-33 ); Sri Lanka 209/7 (Jayasuriya * 43 (51))

Dhoni slams stylish 88 to steer India to big victory

Wicketkeeper Mahendra Dhoni scored a stylish 88 (97 balls) to guide India to a 93-run victory over a Kurunegala District Invitation XI yesterday.
India, playing their last warm-up game before a triangular series with Sri Lanka and West Indies starts on Saturday, scored 250 in 42.2 overs and then bowled out the young Sri Lankan side for 157 in 36.2 overs.

Brief scores: India: 250 all out in 42.2 overs (MS Dhoni 88, S Raina 29; Dilan Karunaratne 3-47) bt Kurunegala District Invitation XI: 157 all out in 36.2 overs (L de Silva 51, J Mubarak 46; I Pathan 3-20, A Nehra 2-36, V Sehwag 2-18).

Two new faces in Sri Lankan one-day squad

Sri Lankan cricket selectors have named a squad that includes two uncapped players, Upul Tharanga, a left-hand opening batsman, and Dilhara Lokuhettige, an allrounder, for the one-day series against India and West Indies beginning at Dambulla on July 30.
The tournament gets underway with Sri Lanka taking on India under lights. This will be Australian Tom Moody's first one-day series as the Sri Lankan coach. His counterparts Greg Chappell, India's coach, and Bennett King, West Indies coach, are also from Australia.

Sri Lankan Cricket Team: Marvan Atapattu (captain), Mahela Jayawardena, Sanath Jayasuriya, Kumar Sangakkara, Upul Tharanga, Tillekeratne Dilshan, Russel Arnold, Chaminda Vaas, Upul Chandana, Muttiah Muralitharan, Nuwan Zoysa, Dilhara Lokuhettige, Dilhara Fernando, Farveez Maharoof, Lasith Malinga. Coach: Tom Moody. Manager: Michael Tissera.

Indian team arrives in SL for tri-series Who will Win?

The Indian cricket team led by Rahul Dravid arrived in Colombo today to take part in a triangular one-day series against Sri Lanka and the West Indies.
The Indians will travel to the Buddhist pilgrim city of Dambulla to play their first match against Sri Lanka on July 30. The following day, the Indians face the West Indies before travelling back to Colombo for the remainder of the matches. The final match will be played on August 9 in Colombo.

Dravid hints at new opening pair

Captain Rahul Dravid on Saturday sent out an ominous warning to his rivals ahead of the tri-series, saying his team had the resources and variety to counter different conditions in Sri Lanka. Dravid said the composition of the team will provide a lot more selection options during the tournament which will also give him the opportunity to try out a few youngsters.
The stylish Karnataka batsman said he had devised a few strategies for the tournament but was reluctant to discuss it with the media. "I do not want to reveal what the side will be and which pair will open for us. We have more or less set our ideas but I am not going to give it out to the media right away," he said.
With Sachin Tendulkar ruled out of the tournament because of the elbow injury and Sourav Ganguly still uncertain to make the trip, the Indians will be going into the tournament with a new opening partner to Virender Sehwag .

Dravid to lead team, Sourav 16th man

The senior selection committee named Rahul Dravid as the captain of the Indian team for the Sri Lankan tri-nation tournament besides including Sourav Ganguly as the 16th member of the team.
The 15-member squad announced here on Monday also includes two uncapped players, Uttar Pradesh all-rounder Suresh Raina and Andhra batsman Y. Venugopala Rao. V.V.S. Laxman, who was omitted from the teams that played the Bangladesh one-day series and the six-match one-day series against Pakistan at home, has been recalled. Railways all-rounder J.P. Yadav, who had featured in two ODIs a couple of years back, has also returned. Left-arm paceman Irfan Pathan, who played in the third one-dayer against Pakistan at Jamshedpur in the six-match series at home and was not part of rest of the series, is also back in the squad. Punjab left-hander Dinesh Mongia, Mumbai all-rounder Ajit Agarkar and Railways left-arm spinner Murali Kartik have been left out.

Indian Cricket Team: Rahul Dravid (capt), Virender Sehwag (vice-capt), VVS Laxman, Yuvraj Singh, Mohd Kaif, Suresh Raina, Venugopal Rao, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Harbhajan Singh, Anil Kumble, Zaheer Khan, Irfan Pathan, L Balaji, Ashish Nehra and JP Yadav. Sourav Ganguly - 16th member.

India to take on Sri Lanka on July 30 in tri-series

India will take on Sri Lanka on July 30 at Dambulla in the first one-day International of the tri-series cricket tournament involving India, Sri Lanka and West Indies to be held in the island nation. The tri-series was originally scheduled to start on August 2, but will now begin on July 30 with seven games packed into 11 days. The final will be a day-night encounter played at the Premadasa Stadium in Colombo on August 9.

Schedule: Jul 30 - Sri Lanka Vs India - Dambulla
Jul 31 - West Indies Vs India - Dambulla
Aug 2 - Sri Lanka Vs West Indies - Dambulla
Aug 3 - Sri Lanka Vs India - Dambulla
Aug 6 - Sri Lanka Vs West Indies - Colombo
Aug 7 - India vs West Indies - Colombo
Aug 9 (Finals) at Colombo
All matches are D/N and starts at 2:00 p.m. IST

When all hell broke loose..

Sri Lanka's 952-6d against India

R. Premadasa International Cricket Stadium (known prior to June 1994 as the Khetterama Cricket Stadium) was the brainchild of the late Sri Lanka President Ranasinghe Premadasa, who championed the development of this colossal 35,000-seater concrete bowl, the biggest stadium in Sri Lanka. Opened on February 2 1986, this stadium is best remembered for holding the world record for the highest Test total - 952/6 declared by Sri Lanka against India in the first test of the 1997/98 series in which former Sri Lanka captain Sanath Jayasuriya scored 340 and Roshan Mahanama 225, the pair sharing the highest partnership for any wicket in Test cricket with 576 for the second wicket.

India in fact, had a great start to the series on Aug 2 1997, scoring 280/3 with Tendulkar 65* Azharuddin 18* on the crease at the close of day one. Siddhu had scored 111 from 200 balls with 13 fours and 2 sixes.

On the second day, India declared their innings at 537/8 with Sachin Tendulkar scoring 143 with 20 fours and Azhar 126 with 11 fours. Sri Lanka were 39/1 with Jayasurya on 12 when the day's play ended. NM Kulkarni took the wicket of MS Atapattu (26, fow 39) with his first ball in Test cricket.

Day three was a boring affair for the Indians as Jayasuriya 175* and Mahanama 115* batted the whole day to reach 322/1. This was the 12th occasion in Test cricket.

Day four proved to be a replay of day three with both the batsman remaining on the crease and adding more runs to the total. At close of play, Sri Lanka were 587/1 with Jayasuriya 326* and Mahanama 211* at the crease. Jayasuriya became the first ever Sri Lankan to score 300 runs in a Test. The West Indian pair of Garry Sobers and Frank Worrell were the only ones before today to bat throughout two consecutive days (against England at Bridgetown in 1959-60).

On day five, Kumble got the break through for India, sending Mahanama (225r 753m 561b 27x4 0x6) back (lbw) with the scoreboard reading 615/2! Their partnership of 576 runs was the highest test partnership for any wicket. (previous: 467 MD Crowe and AH Jones, New Zealand v Sri Lanka at Wellington, 1990/91)
Jayasuriya (340r 799m 578b 36x4 2x6) was the next to go, in the very next over, caught Ganguly, bowled Chauhan, with the score reading 615/3. Jayasuriya's marathon and chanceless innings of 340 was the fourth highest in test cricket, after Lara's 375, Garry Sobers' 365 (not out), and Len Hutton's 364. All the Indian fielders ran to congratulate him as he departed with his head held down as he had missed his chance to overtake Lara's record. They applauded him all the way to the pavilion (In Picture) from where he got a standing ovation.
India had to suffer more batting practice by de Silva (126), Ranatunga (86) and Jayawardene (66). There were 58 extras when the innings ended at 952 for 6 wickets declared in 271 overs.

The team record 952/6d beat the previous best, 903-7d by England v Australia at The Oval in 1938 and still stands. This total is also the 3rd highest team total in First-class cricket (Highest: 1107, Victoria v New South Wales at Melbourne, 1926/27).

Jayasuriya graduated to the captaincy in 1999 and a record of 18 wins in 38 Tests and 37 wins in 60 one-dayers showed him to be a leader worthy of the respect of opposing teams.

Result: Match drawn; 2-Test series level 0-0
Toss: India
Test Debuts: DPMD Jayawardene (SL); NM Kulkarni (Ind).
Man of the Match: ST Jayasuriya

Brief Scores: India: 537/8 declared (Sidhu 111, Sachin 143, Azhar 126, Dravid 69) drew with Sri Lanka: 952/6 declared (Jayasuriya 340, Mahanama 225, DeSilva 126, Ranatunga 86, Jayawardene 66, Extras 58)

Cricket News Archives

• February 2009 - Sri Lanka Cricket News
• Aug - Dec 2008 - Sri Lanka Cricket News
• July 2008 - Sri Lanka Cricket News
• February 2008 - Sri Lanka Cricket News
• December 2007 - Sri Lanka Cricket News
• September 2007 - ICC World Twenty20 2007
• April 2007 - ICC Cricket World Cup 2007
• February 2007 - Sri Lanka in India ODI Cricket Series
• January 2007
• ICC Special (Oct, Nov 2006) - Sri Lanka's ICC Champions Trophy 2006 campaign
• August 2006
• July 2006
• December 2005 - Sri Lanka in India
• November 2005 - Sri Lanka in India
• October 2005 - Sri Lanka in India
• September 2005
• August 2005 - Indian Oil Cup at Sri Lanka
• July 2005 - Indian Oil Cup at Sri Lanka
• April 2005
• March 2005