Sri Lanka showed another clinical display on the field to see off media favorite India and stormed into the super 8 of the ICC cricket world cup. Sri Lanka crushed India's super 8 dreams by defeating them by 69 runs.
Sri Lanka's convincing win over India revived Bangladesh's super 8 dream and they just need to win the match against Bermuda to reach the second round of the world cup. Considering the form of the two teams it should not take much effort from Bangladesh to defeat Bermuda.
This loss will be come hard to billions of Indian fans as before the tournament they were highly tipped as one of the favorites to lift the cup. India's demise started from the first match of the tournament when a below par performance resulted in an unexpected 5 wicket loss to Bangladesh. India?s departure will also mean huge loss to the sponsors and television companies as India is the main revenue earning ground for cricket.
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Sri Lanka was completely dominant in todays match and never allowed India to play their normal game. They batted well, fielding was extra ordinary and Indians had no answer to their controlled bu aggressive bowling attack.
Chasing a victory target of 255 to win, India started well but once they lost Uthappa, India started to derail. Chaminda Vaas took an outstanding catch of his own bowling to dismiss Uthappa. India lost wickets regularly and was never on the track since then. former Captains Sourav Ganguly and Sachin Tendulkar failed to rise to the occasion fell cheaply for 7 and 0 respectively. In the middle Sehwag and captain Rahul dravid tried to resist the Sri Lankan dominance but Sehwag eventually fell to a brilliant Murali doosra. When Murali trapped Dhoni for a golden duck, 255 looked completely out of reach for India.
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Indian Captain Rahul Dravid tried his best to steady to the innings but found no one to give him company. At the end he desperately tried to keep the tempo with the ever increasing run rate and took 17 runs from Malinga's eighth over. He had to play his shots to have any chance in the match and that eventually caused his down fall. After getting a life courtesy of Arnold, he fell in the next delivery when he tried to clear the in field. Muttiah Muralitharan took a superb catch covering a lot of ground.
After Dravid's departure Harbhajan Singh made an desperate attempt with a 20 ball 17 but that could only reduce the margin of the defeat. Finally India got bundled out for 180 in 42.1 overs.
Muralitharan was pick of Sri Lankan bowling attack and bowled brilliantly to take 3 wickets for 36 runs. Another veteran Chaminda Vaas removed both the Indian openers and finished with 2 for 39. Malinga, Fernando and Jayasuriya took one wicket each in a aggressive bowling display from Sri Lanka.
Earlier, Indian captain Rahul Dravid won the toss and decided to field first. In a seaming wicket Indian bowlers bowled with aggression and accuracy and restricted Sri Lanka's run flow. Jayasuriya fell cheaply in the deep of Zaheer Khan?s bowling but Tharanga kept his cool and rotated strikes nicely to keep the scoreboard ticking. He formed useful partnerships with Sangakkara to reach his 50. After his departure two brilliant innings from Tilakaratne Dilshan and young Chamara Sillva steadied Sri Lankan innings in the middle. Some late hitting from Chaminda Vaas took Sri Lanka's total to a commanding 254. Zaheer Khan was the most successful Indian bowler ended with a figure of 2 for 49. Agarkar, Patel, ganguly and Tendulkar chipped in with 1 wicket each.
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