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India keeps the hopes alive beating SL by 46 runs Colombo,
Aug 1: Yuvraj
Singh slammed a career-best 98 not out to set up a crucial 46-run victory
for India over Sri Lanka in the triangular one-day cricket series here on
Wednesday. Sri
Lanka, chasing 228 off their allotted 50 overs, were all out for 181 to
suffer their second defeat in six matches. But
the host nation have already made it to the August 5 final with eight
points and will meet the winners of Thursday's decider between India and
New Zealand, who have four points each from five games. Singh,
whose previous best was 84 against Australia at Nairobi last year, helped
India recover from 38-4 in a match they needed to win to sustain their
hopes of reaching the final. The
target appeared stiff for Sri Lanka after the fall of three wickets,
including that of skipper Sanath Jayasuriya, for a paltry 24. Left-arm
fast bowler Ashish Nehra got the prize wicket when he had in-form
Jayasuriya caught by Rahul Dravid, who dived to his right to hold a low
catch on the second attempt at mid-wicket. Mahela
Jayawardene notched a defiant 34 off 78 balls, but scored too slowly to
put his side in a comfortable position. Skipper
Sourav Ganguly (2-31) and off-spinner Harbhajan Singh (1-31) bowled
tightly in the middle overs, while Nehra (3-35) and fellow-seamer Zaheer
Khan (2-24) struck in the opening and closing overs to complete the job. The
closing-overs slog by Suresh Perera (30) and Chaminda Vaas (13 off 11
balls) came too late to pose a serious threat to India. India
hardly missed the left-arm spin of Yuvraj Singh, who suffered cramps in
the last over of his team's innings. He
needed a four off the last ball to complete his maiden century, but could
manage only two runs. Yuvraj
Singh put on 102 for the fifth wicket with Dravid (47) after Sri Lankan
new-ball bowlers Vaas and Dilhara Fernando had shared four wickets in
lively opening spells. He
then added 57 for the sixth wicket with Reetinder Sodhi (30) as India
scored 70 from their last 10 overs. Yuvraj
Singh curbed his attacking instincts to steady the innings with Dravid. His
first big shot came in the 45th over when he lofted Vaas over long-on for
the only six in his 110-ball knock, which also contained six fours. Yuvraj
and Dravid, cautious against the accuracy of Muttiah Muralitharan, found
spinners Jayasuriya, Russel Arnold and Kumar Dharmasena easier to score
off. They
kept working the ball into gaps for singles and twos to considerably ease
the pressure on India. Off-spinner
Muralitharan proved the tightest Sri Lankan bowler, finishing with two for
29 off 10 overs. The
top-order Indian batsmen were in all sorts of trouble after Sri Lanka had
won the toss in overcast conditions and elected to field. Vaas
struck with the first ball of the match when he trapped Virender Sehwag
leg-before with one that cut in sharply. Fernando
then made life uncomfortable for Ganguly, beating the bat a couple of
times in his opening over. When
Ganguly was caught at point attempting to cut Vaas, India had not scored a
run off the bat. The first seven runs in five overs contained four no
balls, two wides and one leg bye. In
all, Sri Lanka conceded 30 extras. The
first scoring shot came only in the sixth over when Venkatsai Laxman
steered Fernando for a single. With
runs hard to come by in the initial overs, the pressure mounted on the
Indians before Yuvraj Singh's confident arrival at the crease.
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