Sri Lanka struggling against India

Sri Lanka struggling against India

Sri Lanka were struggling at 57 for four in the second innings, after being asked to follow on, against India at the end of the third day's play in the second cricket Test at the Green Park stadium here Thursday.

At stumps, Thilan Samaraweera was batting on one and Angelo Matthews on two. Sri Lanka were asked to follow on after they were bowled out for 229 in the first innings in reply to India's 642.

Shanthakumaran Sreesanth celebrated his international comeback with a sensational five-wicket burst and India were on track to victory over Sri Lanka in the second cricket Test at Green Park Stadium here Thursday.

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India set target 642/10 after Tea in 2nd test Kanpur

India 642 (Gambhir 167, Dravid 144, Sehwag 137) v Sri Lanka 2nd Day after tea in 2nd Test.Rahul Dravid laid the platform with a serene, yet commanding, 144 before Yuvraj Singh and VVS Laxman hit fluent fifties to lead India to a position of immense strength in Kanpur. Rangana Herath bagged a five-for and brought some joy to the Sri Lankan camp by hastening the end of the Indian innings just after tea but the hosts were firmly in control of the Test and, with over three days to go, the result of the game will now depend on how the pitch behaves.

Till Herath introduced some drama into the game, it was a classic yawn-inducing Test afternoon: The pitch was benign, the sun was out, Sri Lanka were flattened and India were almost on auto-pilot with VVS Laxman and Yuvraj Singh cruising to half-centuries without breaking a sweat.

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India won the toss 1st test against Sri Lanka

MS Dhoni won the toss and chose to bat on a good, hard Ahmedabad pitch, The last Test that Dhoni referred to was the one against South Africa, when India were shot out for 76 on the first morning.

Dhoni also suggested his team would have to change the mental approach to batting, this Test coming after 17 continuous ODIs and five Twenty20s for them. The India XI, though, wore a settled look; Sreesanth and Pragyan Ojha sitting out, and as expected the two Tamil Nadu back-up batsmen not getting a look in.
Sri Lanka, even though they have played regular Test matches and risen to No. 2 in the rankings, were looking to win a Test in India for the first time. They started off on an unfortunate note: Nuwan Kulasekara and Thilan Thushara, their two successful fast bowlers, picked niggles and were not on the final list, neither was Ajantha Mendis. Dammika Prasad and Chanaka Welegedara, total experience of four Tests between them, were to take the new ball, and left-arm spinner Rangana Herath playing in place of Mendis.
India 1 Gautam Gambhir, 2 Virender Sehwag, 3 Rahul Dravid, 4 Sachin Tendulkar, 5 VVS Laxman, 6 Yuvraj Singh, 7 MS Dhoni (capt/wk), 8 Harbhajan Singh, 9 Zaheer Khan, 10 Ishant Sharma, 11 Amit Mishra.

Sri Lanka 1 Tharanga Paranavitana, 2 Tillakaratne Dilshan, 3 Kumar Sangakkara (capt), 4 Mahela Jayawardene, 5 Thilan Samaraweera, 6 Angelo Mathews, 7 Prasanna Jayawardene (wk), 8 Dammika Prasad, 9 Chanaka Welegedara, 10 Muttiah Muralitharan, 11 Rangana Herath.

Eden Gardens to hold Sri Lanka ODI in December

Eden Gardens will host the fourth game of the coming One-Day International (ODI) series against Sri Lanka, its first big match involving national sides in two years.

The match will be played tentatively on Dec 20, Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) president Jagmohan Dalmiya said, describing the development as triumph of the spirit of fair play.
The BCCI's programme and fixtures committee cleared Eden Gardens as a venue for the home series during the day.
Eden hosted its last ODI on Feb 8, 2007, when India took on Sri Lanka. The last Test was played between arch-rivals India and Pakistan in Nov-Dec 2007. Dalmiya's bete noire Prasun Mukherjee was CAB chief during both the games.
Mukherjee was close to the powers-that-be in the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), with which Dalmiya has been at loggerhead for the past four years.
The BCCI has been citing its rotation policy for allotting ODI and Tests to different venues as the reason why Eden could not be given any match in the last two years. But Dalmiya loyalists have refused to buy the argument, and instead alleged stepmotherly treatment from the parent body.
"We have not received any written communication from the BCCI yet. But the match is tentatively scheduled for Dec 20. I think justice has been done. It's a Diwali gift to sports lovers in West Bengal," he said.
Looking happy in his plush chamber at the Eden Gardens, Dalmiya said the CAB has asked for a review of the rotation policy and hoped it would be done in the future.
"Eden deserves to have a Test also in the coming days," Dalmiya told mediapersons.
But with the stadium, particularly the galleries, undergoing renovation to match the requirements for hosting matches of the 2011 World Cup being hosted by India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, Dalmiya said holding the December match will be a 'big challenge".
CAB sources said large portions of the galleries will have to be kept empty because of the ongoing construction work.

Vettori eyes semis spot for resurgent Kiwis

New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori has a Champions Trophy semi-finals place in his sights after victory over Sri Lanka in a Wanderers run-feast.
Put in to bat, the Black Caps overcame a mid-innings crash to post 315-7 off 50 overs, the second highest total of the tournament after Sri Lanka scored four runs more in defeating South Africa on the opening day.
A defiant 77 from Mahela Jayawardene gave Sri Lanka hope of an unlikely win Sunday, but they fell 38 runs short after being all out for 277 with 20 balls left of a Group B match staged in stifling heat.
"Our fate is in our hands and we know the Wanderers wicket where the game against England will be played," said Vettori ahead of the Tuesday day-night clash that will determine the final mini-league standings.
A win for the Kiwis and they are guaranteed a place in the semi-finals of the second most important one-day national team competition after the quadrennial World Cup.
Depressed after a five-wicket loss to South Africa in their opening match at SuperSport Park in Centurion continued a run of poor batting performances, Vettori hopes his team have turned the corner.
"We have been inconsistent with the bat, especially in Sri Lanka recently, and without good partnerships a team cannnot hope to win a tournament like the Champions Trophy."
Vettori could also do with a change of luck as Jesse Ryder, 74-run hero of the win over Sri Lanka, has joined bowler Jacob Oram in quitting the tournament through injury.
Ryder, who scored 10 fours and one six with the aid of a runner in his 58-ball stand at the crease, struggled with a hamstring injury and was ruled out.
He also had to attend a disciplinary hearing for breaking a chair with his bat as he returned to the pavilion after being caught by Sri Lanka skipper Kumar Sangakkara off the bowling of Nuwan Kulasekara.
Sangakkara was furious with the fielding of his team who were suffering their second consecutive loss after surprising South Africa in the opening match of the two-week tournament.
"The standard of our fielding has to improve if we are going to challenge for titles like the Champions Trophy. For many months now we have been really shoddy in this area.
"We were in the hunt for a long time against New Zealand but, unfortunately, the one big innings that could have swung the match our way never came and now we are relying on England defeating New Zealand to survive.
"While I take heart from some great individual performances during our three matches, there is no doubt that as a team we let ourselves down," admitted Sangakkara.
Should surprise packets England complete a clean sweep by defeating New Zealand, Sri Lanka will squeeze through on net run rate as South Africa have been eliminated.

Pakistan Vs Sri Lanka T20 Pak Inning Part3

Pakistan Vs Sri Lanka T20 Pak Inning Part2

Pakistan Vs Sri Lanka T20 Pak Inning Part1

Afridi debute Captain T20 Pakistan's win

Shahid Afridi shone with bat and ball on his debut as Pakistan's Twenty20 captain to steer the world champions to an emphatic 52-run win over Sri Lanka here on Wednesday.

Afridi smashed 50 off 37 balls in Pakistan's 172-5, and then claimed 1-21 in four economical overs and effected a run out with a direct throw as Sri Lanka were shot out for 120 with 11 balls to spare.

The result was the same as seamer Rana Naved and off-spinner Saeed Ajmal picked up three wickets each to stun the hosts.

Sri Lanka lost wickets at regular intervals with skipper Kumar Sangakkara the only batsman to offer resistance against the fired-up Pakistanis with 38 off 31 balls.

Afridi hit two sixes and four boundaries after taking over the Twenty20 team from Test and one-day skipper Younus Khan, who has retired from the shortest format of the game.

Pakistan, who elected to bat after winning the toss, lost a wicket off the first ball when Kamran Akmal was bowled by Nuwan Kulasekara after attempting a big heave.

The other opener, Imran Nazir, cracked five fours and a six in his 40 off 28 balls to boost the total as Pakistan moved to 59-3 by the eighth over.

Teenager Umar Akmal, who hit a 20-ball 30, put on 66 for the fourth wicket with Afridi.

Abdul Razzaq and Misbah-ul Haq added a quickfire 33 as Pakistan plundered 47 runs in the last five overs to leave Sri Lanka facing a daunting target of 8.7 runs an over.

Shahid Afridi Man of the Match.

Pakistan was won 5th ODI 132 runs against Sri Lanka

Mohammad Aamer and an inconsistent-but-smart Naved-ul-Hasan sent Sri Lanka crashing to what was very nearly their worst-ever ODI defeat at home. Naved earlier gave Pakistan's total a boost with hefty hitting in the final overs, after Pakistan had threatened to let half-centuries from Younis Khan and Misbah-ul-Haq go to waste. Sri Lanka however, took the series having already won the first three matches.

This was also the 10th straight time that a side batting first won at the R Premadasa Stadium. It can't be ascertained if it was just the conditions, but the Pakistan pace bowlers were way better than their Sri Lankan counterparts. Aamer and Naved got more movement, and demonstrated better control and variation.

Aamer set the agenda with the first ball, a brute that injured Upul Tharanga's middle finger. Even if the finger wasn't broken, the spirit was as he played and missed at an away-swinger next. The third ball, short and climbing into Tharanga, duly produced the edge. Even before the returning Sanath Jayasuriya could cause any damage, Naved flummoxed him with a superb slower delivery, putting the onus squarely on Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara.

They added 35 in 37 deliveries, targeting Naved, before the veteran bowler fooled Sangakkara too with a slower one. Even before Sri Lanka could recover from that blow, Jayawardene edged an angling delivery from Aamer, finishing the match - at 58 for 4 - for all practical purposes.

Aamer and Naved, though, proceeded to take out whatever life remained in the contest. Aamer did away with Chamara Kapugedera and Angelo Mathews in his next two overs, while Naved came back to take out Nuwan Kaulasekara and Dammika Prasad. Kulasekara's dismissal was a splendid effort by Misbah, diving forward at first slip, giving him his third catch of the innings. Aamer finished with a career-best effort and Naved reached 100 wickets in ODIs.

Thilina Kandamby and Malinga Bandara delayed the inevitable, but the record for the highest successful chase at the Premadasa Stadium never really came under threat. That Pakistan got to that total was largely due to the responsible fifties from Younis and Misbah.
Pakistan 279 for 8 (Younis 76, Misbah 73*) beat Sri Lanka 147 (Aamer 4-28, Naved 4-44) by 132 runs.

Pakistan Hammer Sri Lanka In Colombo

Iftikhar Anjum claimed five wickets as Pakistan turned in a clinical performance to secure a face-saving 146-run victory in the fourth one-day international against Sri Lanka in Colombo.

Iftikhar claimed the key wickets of opener Upul Tharanga (80), Kumar Sangakkara (39) and Thilan Samaraweera (two) and snared Thilan Thushara and Lasith Malinga at the end.

Off-spinner Saeed Ajmal and leg-spinner Shahid Afridi also chipped in with two wickets apiece as Sri Lanka were bowled out for 175 runs inside 37 overs.

Umar Akmal had earlier slammed a quickfire 102 off 72 deliveries - the 19-year-old's maiden ODI century - to ensure Pakistan made the best of good batting conditions to post a formidable 321 for five

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Sri Lanka Won the 1st ODI by 36 Runs against Pakistan on 30-07-2009

Pakistani Catain Younis Khan won the toss elected to field in Rangiri Dambulla International Stadium Srilanka 1st ODI Against Sri Lanka, Srilanka start not good but Murli Dharan 32(15) and Angelo Mathews 43(50) is the set good target 232/9 against Pakistan, Pakistan start not good pakistan loose regular wickets, so Pakistan Allout 196.

Srilankan bowler extra effort for bowling to the win match and they are sucess, win the match 36 Runs.