India Rejects 2009 Champions Trophy

The Indian board has rejected suggestions made during the ICC's chief executives' committee meeting in Dubai on Wednesday to conduct the Champions Trophy in October 2009 because it will clash with the "very important" one-day series at home against Australia. The issue now passes to the ICC Board, which meets on Thursday.

"We have said that the Champions Trophy in October will not be possible for us since we are hosting Australia at that time," Niranjan Shah, the BCCI secretary, said "The one-day series against Australia is a very important fixture for us. It has been scheduled and we can't do anything about it. All the boards will have to find another solution or window for the Champions Trophy."

The BCCI is planning to hold the first of the seven one-day matches against Australia on October 13, three days after the conclusion of the Champions Twenty20 League, which it is organising along with Cricket Australia and Cricket South Africa (CSA).

The ICC board had, on August 24, decided to postpone the Champions Trophy that was originally scheduled to be held in Pakistan from September 12 after five of the eight participating nations expressed security concerns about the host country. David Morgan, the ICC president, said "it was considered prudent to postpone the event to October 2009, a time when we all hope conditions may be more acceptable for all the competing teams".

The concept of an alternative structure to bilateral tours, including an enhanced Test championship, with the ICC taking a greater central "ownership" of the programme, was also discussed at Wednesday's meeting. However, sources said it did not appear to make much headway during the CEC meeting with a number of boards unconvinced about the idea, especially about the extent of their ownership and role under such an arrangement.

The concept was kicked off during the ICC annual conference in Dubai in July, and Cricket Australia was entrusted with the job of coming up with a plan. The key considerations were: all three formats of international cricket should be protected and promoted with Test cricket identified as the pinnacle of the sport; "icon" Test series must be protected; ICC should look at ways of taking greater central "ownership" of international cricket outside its events or at least providing for more consistency in marketing/promotion; and the concept of a Test Championship and/or play-off should be explored further.

India Wins Idea Cup

India made the most of the toss, a vicious turner in the second innings and Sri Lanka's feeble batting to record their first bilateral one-day series triumph on the island, completing a stunning turnaround from the crushing defeat in the opener in Dambulla. Mahendra Singh Dhoni led from the front with his batting and on-field captaincy but this was a team performance as India recovered from a shaky start to choke Sri Lanka out of the match.

It turned out to be a great toss for Dhoni to win: Muttiah Muralitharan and Ajantha Mendis would have been virtually unplayable if they got to bowl second, and India's strategy of going in with four bowlers would also have been exposed. It didn't initially seem that way as India's top order floundered in the face of some disciplined bowling. There were no yorkers, no bouncers and no slower balls, just old-fashioned line-and-length to slow down the openers - only four boundaries came in the first ten overs. Kohli survived a couple of early chances before he started to grow in confidence.

At the other end, Gambhir was starved of the strike and perished when attempting to up the run-rate. That brought Yuvraj Singh to the crease for a short, troubled and runless stay. Chaminda Vaas became the fourth man to take 400 wickets in ODIs when Yuvraj was too early on an offcutter and edged it to short midwicket. Kohli unleashed some wristy shots to bring up his maiden half-century but soon paid the price for playing away from his body, an inside edge on to his stumps giving Thushara a wicket in his first over.

The score read 81 for 3 before Suresh Raina and Dhoni took charge. Both were decisive with their footwork, regularly charging down the track to negate the spin, or playing right back and reading the spin off the pitch. The running between the wickets was sharp, and with Raina playing some breathtaking lofted drives, the stuttering run-rate got a lift.

They batted sensibly, cutting out the risks, and it wasn't until India were out of trouble that the more chancy strokes - the reverse-sweep and the paddle-sweep - were brought out. While Raina played the big shots, including a massive pull for six over midwicket off Muttiah Muralitharan, Dhoni was content with some quick singles and twos - there were only four boundaries in his 71.

The spin threat was negated and the pair had powered India to a commanding 224 for 3 in the 41st over before Thushara struck. He had Raina holing out to mid-off and dismissed a tiring Dhoni soon after, leaving two new batsmen to deal with the wiles of Murali and Ajantha Mendis. They throttled the runs, which resulted in more wickets falling, and Thilan Thushara, who had never taken more than two wickets in an ODI before, took two in the final over to complete his five-for.

The tricky target didn't seem enough as Sanath Jayasuriya started in a typically murderous mood , using his favourite cut shot to pepper the off-side boundary. As he made merry, his partner Malinda Warnapura toiled at the other end. Warnapura scratched around without scoring before finally being adjudged lbw off Munaf Patel for 0 in the seventh over.

Munaf combined well with the accurate Zaheer Khan, who kept it on a back of a length around off, to stifle the runs and with only 10 runs coming in six overs, Kumar Sangakkara went for his shots. There was a cover drive for four, but his next stroke was an attempted cut, which took the bottom-edge and cannoned into his leg stump.

Jayasuriya then took over. Boundaries started to flow in every over: a bouncer on leg stump was pulled over deep backward square leg for six, and an over-the-bowler's-head drive off Praveen. The fifty came up with a pull over midwicket for four and he repeated the shot two balls later, this time for six. He had made 60 of Sri Lanka's 74 before an outside edge off a sharply turning Harbhajan Singh delivery was superbly held by a diving Raina at slip.

Sri Lanka's hopes, as it has in several matches this series, rested with their captain, Mahela Jayawardene, but he was soon run out attempting a suicidal single. That left them at stuttering at 104 for 4, with all their big-name batsmen dismissed. The pitch had by now deteriorated to the extent that even a part-time spinner like Yuvraj was difficult to negotiate. Thushara followed up his five-wicket haul with a spirited 40 but it was too tall a task for the lower order and they ended up 46 runs short.

India Wins by 33 Runs — 2nd ODI

For the second game in succession, an inspired opening spell by India's seam attack of Zaheer Khan and Praveen Kumar brought a powerful batting line-up to its knees. A middle-of-the-road target of 238 was always going to be competitive under lights but a flurry of early wickets before effectively sealed the match before the first Powerplay ended. Both captains arrested top-order slides with fighting half-centuries, but his bowlers made Mahendra Singh Dhoni's effort count in the end.

For Sri Lanka, only Mahela Jayawardene displayed the technique and temperament to craft a lengthy innings and though he had Thilan Thushara for company to give his side a glimmer of hope, their partnership came a little too late. Jayawardene fell six short of a deserved century when a paddle scoop ended his knock and with it, Sri Lanka's last chance of snatching a miracle.
The pre-match talk centered around the better batting conditions at the Premadasa Stadium when compared to the two-paced surface in Dambulla. Though the conditions were a shade easier to bat on in the afternoon, it got considerably challenging under lights as the seamers managed swing and nip off the pitch while the spinners got turn and bounce.

While the swing was hard enough for the batsmen to negotiate under lights, the nagging stump-to-stump line was largely responsible for the spurt of lbw decisions early on. Kumar Sangakkara, Chamara Kapugedera and Chamara Silva were all trapped as the trigger-happy umpires wasted no time in pondering over the appeals.

Sanath Jayasuriya whiplashed Praveen for boundaries over his favoured off side region but perished after edging an away swinger off the same bowler. Zaheer relied more on hitting the deck hard and like in Dambulla, squared up Sangakkara with one that nipped back in and struck him high on the pad.

Kapugedera began confidently with a clipped six over square leg off Praveen but paid the price for shuffling too far across his stumps. Silva became the third lbw victim of the evening, this time to Zaheer, trapped in front of middle stump to one that straightened. Tillakaratne Dilshan, tied down by the seamers' nagging accuracy, feathered an edge to Dhoni off Munaf Patel.

All the while, Jayawardene cut a lonely figure. The revival began when Thushara joined him in the middle. Runs were hard to come by initially but Jayawardene was probably mindful of India's weak link - the fifth bowler. With the field spread out and the ball getting softer, Jayawardene placed faith in his partner by rotating the strike.

Yuvraj and Rohit Sharma conceded 46 off nine combined overs as Sri Lanka added 50 runs between overs 37 and 43. Thushara regularly made room to loft the ball over vacant spaces and the anxiety began to tell on the Indian fielders as they dropped catches off Thushara and Jayawardene. Zaheer returned to york Thushara to end the 81-run eighth-wicket stand, and when Munaf sent back Jayawardene, the contest was all but over.

Sri Lanka will no doubt look back at where they let the initiative slip. After reducing India to 97 for 4 at the halfway stage, two fifty partnerships - with Dhoni the central figure in both - resurrected the innings after another jerky start. The significant factor in India's recovery in the middle overs was that the threat of Muttiah Muralitharan and Ajantha Mendis was negated fairly comfortably. Though Mendis ended with three wickets, two of those came at the fag end of the innings. Murali, on the other hand, had a forgettable wicketless outing.

Once again, Dhoni walked in to bat with the Indian innings wobbling. Often he has played a lone hand, but this time Suresh Raina and Rohit Sharma offered excellent support. Raina needed runs, and with his captain for company, accumulated steadily with the spinners operating from both ends, and never at any stage did the Indians get bogged down. Dhoni was comfortable against Mendis, committing himself forward to smother the spin of the full-length deliveries, but when the length was short, he rocked back and cut and pulled for runs.

Raina, too, was fleet-footed against the spinners, nudging, flicking and driving Muralitharan for singles in his workmanlike knock. Using his feet, he drove the same bowler to the extra-cover boundary before edging towards his sixth ODI fifty, which came off 75 balls. The running between wickets was excellent throughout, but ironically, it was a run-out that ended the 54-run partnership.

Dhoni was fortunate to find an equally able partner in Rohit, who calmly rotated the strike. Short of runs over the last few innings, Rohit grafted initially before taking his chances against the spinners. The partnership came at a quicker rate than the Dhoni-Raina stand, with the pair bringing up their fifty stand in 55 balls. Dhoni brought up his own half-century off 64 balls and celebrated it with successive boundaries off Murali, using his feet well on both occasions. Just when a score in excess of 250 seemed likely, Sri Lanka struck. Rohit fell while attempting a slog off Thushara, after which the wickets continued to fall. Dhoni was dismissed in the 49th over, scooping to cover for a 80-ball 76 and in the end his efforts didn't got to waste.

England Wins Headinglley ODI

Kevin Pietersen is having quite an impact as England captain. If it wasn't enough winning his first Test and persuading Steve Harmison out of one-day retirement, he then did more than most to help his team take a series lead against South Africa with a 20-run victory at Headingley. He hit an unbeaten 90 off 82 balls, adding 158 in 21 overs with Andrew Flintoff, then claimed two crucial wickets as the visitors threatened to pull away in the run chase.

England's latest attempt to form a winning one-day unit comes with Pietersen's stamp of aggression, hence the trend towards pace bowling and hard-hitting, free-scoring batsmen. For two thirds of their innings, though, little appeared to have changed as just five fours a six came in 34 overs - all from Matt Prior's bat. However, England banked on having a middle-order filled with strikers and in Pietersen and Flintoff, they possess two of the most destructive one-day batsmen around. The pair crunched 94 off the last 10 overs, showing what can be achieved with wickets in hand, as South Africa's bowling became ragged and the fielding was poor.

In contrast to England's sedate approach, South Africa went hard at the start of their chase and put themselves ahead of the rate, reaching 139 for 2 after 25 overs. However, everything changed when Pietersen surprisingly brought himself onto bowl. By the end of the innings he'd doubled his one-day wicket tally after getting AB de Villiers caught at midwicket and benefiting from a swift piece of glovework from Prior to stump Mark Boucher.

It wasn't just with the ball that Pietersen shone during the second innings, his captaincy had a touch of the magic about it, too. In the eighth over, Pietersen turned to Harmison and it took him less than an over to strike when he hit the perfect line to take Smith's outside edge with his fourth delivery. Flintoff wasn't quite the metronome he can be and was picked off by Jacques Kallis, but then Pietersen dipped into his captain's handbook and pulled out another trick.

Holding back the final Powerplay, he brought Samit Patel into the attack with his left-arm spin and it proved a master stroke. Patel's fourth ball was quicker and flatter, beating Gibbs as he lent back to cut. Patel's first ODI wicket was Neil McCallum, against Scotland last week, but with all due respect to the Scots this one will have meant a little more.

However, Kallis and de Villiers moved along comfortably in their third-wicket stand of 49 in 11 overs. Then de Villiers flicked lazily to Ian Bell and, shortly after reaching fifty off 63 balls, Kallis, struggling with a leg problem, was run out by some quick thinking by Bell. Boucher showed in the Test series, at Edgbaston, that he is ideal in a run chase but his opposite number, Prior, was very alert to a raised foot.

JP Duminy had the skill to guide South Africa home, but Harmison came back to find a thin outside and Johan Botha holed out at deep midwicket. The lower order, without the injured Albie Morkel, didn't have the power to keep up and Flintoff just had time to remind everyone that he's meant to be the main allrounder in the team.

England's success showed that there is more than one way to play one-day cricket, especially in their conditions, even though the new-look top three seemed to drift as more than half the innings came and went. Bell, after batting through 19 overs, and Prior after 42 off 52 balls both picked out backward point off Kallis and Owais Shah top-edged to deep square-leg.

Flintoff ignited the innings when he found the boundary in the 35th over, the first man other than Prior to locate the rope, and initially Pietersen was happy to feed him the strike. The change of ball at the 34-over mark helped England, the harder one making it easier to use the pace of South Africa's attack. Flintoff opened his front leg to hit strongly through the off side, and also rifled the ball with the straight power that typifies his batting when he's at his best. He reached fifty off 52 deliveries, his first half-century since the unbeaten 72 he made against New Zealand, at Hobart, in January 2007 and, when he was bowled moving across his stumps to Dale Steyn, his 78 was his highest ODI innings since making 87 against Australia, at Lord's, in 2005.
Pietersen was fortunate to survive an lbw shout off Botha on 18, and was close to being run out on 22 when he dived for the crease, the third umpire ruling the bat had just been grounded before it then bounced up as the stumps were broken. He eventually earned his first boundary off his 52nd delivery, but had a clear mindset on what he wanted to achieve, and then began to invent as he went to a fifty from 55 balls. He timed his charge and took 10 off two balls from Steyn in the 46th over, including the second six of the innings over midwicket.

What Pietersen is quickly realising is that his job now doesn't stop with the bat and his role in the field is just as important. It's a learning experience and he's learning fast. At some point life will get tougher for him, but today wasn't that moment.

India Level the ODI Series 1-1

India fought back to level the series 1-1 with a three-wicket win but the victory was far from convincing as they made heavy weather of a modest target of 143. Zaheer Khan's dramatic opening spell, which sent Sri Lanka's top order reeling, was the highlight of the day as India restricted Sri Lanka to a score four less than what India made on Monday.

The contrast, however, was the manner in which victory was achieved. While Sri Lanka coasted home in the first ODI, India lost early wickets, grafted, lost few more, recovered, and later limped to the target. Mahendra Singh Dhoni kept a cool head and debutant S Badrinath showed maturity in supporting his captain when he came in with 68 needed.

India's batting in the first match forced a change of strategy, but the paucity of specialist openers and the fact that India were playing four medium-pacers forced Dhoni to "bowl out of compulsion" despite a pitch that appeared good for batting by his assessment. His decision in the end proved a masterstroke.

Zaheer's deliveries moved, sliced the batsmen in half, made run-scoring an arduous task and India's body language perked up with each wicket, reflecting their hunger to turn the tables after an embarrassing drubbing.

In his first over, Zaheer produced an inswinger to Kumar Sangakkara which clipped the top of off stump after the batsman played around the line of the ball. Mahela Jayawardene and Chamara Kapugedera both fell to edges behind the wicket off deliveries that landed on off stump and seamed away. Praveen proved a good foil for Zaheer maintaining pressure with the new ball, moving it in the air and cramping Sanath Jayasuriya. He dismissed Chamara Silva off a leading edge, before Zaheer sent back Jayasuriya lbw with a delivery that cut into the left-hander. The decision was shrouded in doubt as it appeared as if he was struck high on the pads.

Tillakaratne Dilshan joined Jayasuriya with the score on 11 for 4 but looked scratchy early on, failing to make contact with his pulls. His frustration showed as he swished the air with his bat. He eventually connected against a short ball from Irfan Pathan but was caught by Badrinath who ran in from deep midwicket and dived forward to take a low catch, leaving Sri Lanka in an even bigger mess at 44 for 6.

An unlikely revival came courtesy the pair of Thilan Thushara and Nuwan Kulasekara. Once the ball had gotten softer, run-scoring became easier. Thushara was the more adventurous of the pair, freeing his arms when offered width and brought up the fifty stand with a slash down to third man off Harbhajan Singh.

Just when it looked like India were letting them off the hook, Praveen returned for a new spell and broke the 74-run stand. Thushara tried to heave him across the line but didn't get the elevation to clear Kohli at deep midwicket and three balls later, Kulasekara chipped the same bowler to Badrinath at midwicket. Harbhajan mopped up the tail to with 11 overs to spare, giving India the ideal opportunity to stay alive in the series.

India were left to bat out a nervous five overs before lunch but the experimental opening pair of Pathan and Virat Kohli - India's 12th combination since January 2007 - failed to click. Sangakkara snaffled a sharp catch to his left to dismiss Pathan off Kulasekara and Raina followed soon after, trapped lbw to the same bowler.

Kohli was solid in defence and safely negotiated the several bouncers dished out to him, before fetching boundaries through the off side off Kulasekara. Yuvraj Singh found his groove with crisply-driven fours off Thushara, but not surprisingly, continued to be a sitting duck against Mendis, falling prey to the carrom ball. Kohli took his chances against Mendis, heaving him over midwicket but eventually fell to Thushara, punching one straight to short extra cover. Rohit Sharma was sent packing two balls later and Sri Lanka were back in the match.

It was an opportunity for Badrinath to impress after being on the fringes of national selection for a while and he didn't disappoint, negating the spinners by coming forward and smothering the turn while rotating the strike. The singles and twos never dried up - Dhoni in fact started scoring at over a run-a-ball - as India steadily edged ahead. Muralitharan bowled round the wicket, but the pair used their wrists well to work the ball in the vacant areas on the leg side.

India suffered a late hiccup with eight needed as Dhoni played all over a full delivery from Dilhara Fernando, before Mendis returned for one final scalp. Though India registered a comeback win, it did nothing to allay the blaring frailties in the batting line-up devoid of senior players.

India Loses 1st ODI

The actors were different from the Test series but the script remained the same. India were injected with fresh blood but couldn't escape the slow poison of M&M. Chaminda Vaas and Nuwan Kulasekara did the initial work before Ajantha Mendis and Muttiah Muralitharan blew away the rest to bowl out India for 146. Without having to contend with the pressure of a high asking rate, a serene Mahela Jayawardene weathered the minor hiccup of the loss of the openers and steered his side home in the company of Chamara Kapugedera.

You couldn't escape the sense of deja-vu. Having lost the toss, Jayawardene delayed the introduction of the spinners till the 20th over, but when Mendis finally appeared, it was evident his spell over the batsmen remained unbroken.

India's plight was best exemplified by the dismissal of Yuvraj Singh. He had struggled against the seamers, surviving a dropped chance at five against Kulasekara, before Mendis swallowed him in a spectacular first over. It was quite a sight. The first ball hastened past a mystified Yuvraj, the second-ball skidder fetched a plausible appeal for lbw, and the third saw a desperate counterattack clear the field and the boundary. The fourth was the carrom ball; thinking it would spin away, Yuvraj pushed his bat well outside the line but the ball straightened to sound the death knell.

And Mendis dealt the killer blow almost immediately when he drew Mahendra Singh Dhoni into edging his legbreak to slip. The tailenders resisted briefly but India folded up for a measly score. It was the culmination of the good start provided by the seamers. Aided by the seam movement on a two-paced track - grassy areas punctuated by patches of dry areas - both new-ball bowlers kept it simple: Vaas interspersed his angling full-length deliveries with ones that straightened while Kulasekara troubled the batsmen with his incutters to the right-hand batsmen.

Vaas, overshadowed by Mendis and Murali during the Test series, reminded India just why he is the highest wicket-taker in India-Sri Lanka ODI encounters by breaching the defences of the in-form Gautam Gambhir with the second ball of the match. Kumar Sangakkara stood up to the stumps right away to prevent Gambhir's usual walk down the track and Gambhir drove completely outside the line.

One by one, they stumbled. Suresh Raina never looked in, constantly flirting outside off, eventually succumbing to his urge to drive on the up. The debutant Virat Kohli, replacing Virender Sehwag who'd twisted his ankle in practice, was no better. He was unsure of whether to go forward or back during his stay and was caught dead in front by an incutter from Kulasekara.

Kulasekara should have got the next man, Yuvraj but Jayawardene fluffed a regulation chance at second slip. Yuvraj's start was typical: the bat was tentatively pushed away from the body a few times before he broke free with a well-timed clip through the on side. Emboldened, he went for the on-the-up flash and the resultant edge should have terminated his stay. After that, though he never looked completely at ease, he started to play close to the body. That was until Mendis arrived.

Rohit started cautiously, opening the bat face to pinch singles, before he suddenly, and against the run of play, walked down the wicket and swung a short-of-a-length delivery from Vaas over deep midwicket in the 16th over. However, immediately after Mendis sent Yuvraj packing, Rohit steered a delivery slanted across him straight to the solitary wide slip and India continued to free fall.

Sri Lanka, too, wobbled initially in the run chase against some disciplined bowling from Munaf Patel - who prised out the openers - and Zaheer Khan. On a day when the Indian batsmen were shamed, their bowlers provided brief moments of consolation. After six overs of stalemate, Sanath Jayasuriya lost his patience. He skipped down the track but skied the lofted carve to mid-on. Sangakkara, too, fell to the urge to dominate, getting a leading edge from an attempted whip across the line.

However, Jayawardene took charge, looking good from the go. He creamed the seamers through the covers, a gorgeous on-the-up off drive off Munaf in the 17th over being the highlight. Dhoni introduced spin in the 23rd over but even he would have known that neither Harbhajan Singh nor Pragyan Ojha could have produced any miracles. The target was simply not enough on this track.

Munaf was the best Indian bowler on the view. He repeatedly whipped the ball down from a loose-limbed action and got the ball to either cut back in or shape away from the off stump. He might have even bowled the best ball of the day by a medium-pacer when he got one to seam away late past Jayawardene's bat but, as in the Tests, the Indian batsmen hardly gave the bowlers any cover to fire. The Sri Lankan summer of mystery continues to taunt and tease the Indians.

India win Versus Sri Lankan XI

Powered by Yuvraj Singh's brutal century, the Indians cruised to a pre-ODI series 92-run win against a Sri Lankan XI at the P Saravanamuttu Stadium in Colombo. Yuvraj hit 13 sixes in a 121-ball 172, taking the Indians to 342 for 5, and in reply the opposition - comprising ten internationals - produced a sloppy chase, managing 250 in their 50 overs. It was a good way for the Indians to celebrate the 61st anniversary of their country's independence.

The last time Yuvraj had scored a hundred in a limited-overs game had been on October 5 2007, against Australia. He dismissed that drought, albeit against a weaker attack, with a two-paced innings that lifted the Indians to a massive total. Yuvraj came in at No. 4 in the 13th over and struggled initially, often going hard at the ball, which resulted in mistimed drives and dragged cuts. An otherwise erratic Dilhara Fernando - his no-ball problem continued and he bowled too short - beat Yuvraj repeatedly off the upright seam, forcing him to hold back on his expansive strokeplay for a while.

But with Suresh Raina in good nick, the singles came easily. Raina broke free from a tense start by backing away and slamming Fernando over cover for four. He also had his share of mistimed shots, but came back well to blast a big six over midwicket off Jehan Mubarak. Like Gautam Gambhir, he too fell while trying an aggressive shot too many, giving Malinga Bandara his first wicket.

In the mean time, Yuvraj had settled in. Crucially, he was confident against spin - he hit Malinda Warnapura for a six in his solitary over - and his flicks across the line were all power and precision. He stood tall to punch the shorter deliveries through the in-field and his bent-knee while driving down the ground was pleasing.

Yuvraj blasted sixes off the first two balls of Thilan Thushara's comeback over, the 36th, moving past fifty with the first. A whip over mid-on followed, and Yuvraj then trained his ire towards Bandara, striking his fourth six. His century came off 95 balls, after which he decided to have some fun. In 16 balls, he raced past 150, pasting Mubarak for three more sixes and a four in his final over and hitting his ninth and tenth sixes, both effortless swings over long-on, off a beleaguered Chanaka Welegedara.

Yuvraj's final six was the pick of the lot, a stunning shot over long-off which nearly took out the press cordon. His 13 sixes were the second-most for a 50-overs innings in this decade, after Namibia's Gary Snyman, who hit 17 during his 196 against UAE last November.

Yuvraj's partners went unnoticed during his blitz, but they played their part in India putting up a mammoth total. Rohit Sharma scored a 42-ball 24 in an 85-run fourth-wicket stand, while Mahendra Singh Dhoni's contribution to a 99-run stand, which came in just 6.4 overs, was a mere 16.
In reply, Upul Tharanga gave his team as robust a start as the Indians had got. He threw the bat at anything marginally over-pitched and wide, tucking into some indifferent new-ball bowling from Munaf Patel and RP Singh. While the two bowlers produced three good lbw shouts in consecutive overs they also gave too much width; Tharanga cashed in with an upper cut over third man and into the ivy-covered scorecard.

But the aggression was short-lived. Through a mixture of edges, top-edges and poor footwork it all started to go downhill. Mahela Udawatte had a fortuitous top-edge over point, followed it up with a perfectly-placed cut for four, only to then spoon a catch to mid-off. Warnapura fell to a very good catch from Gambhir at first slip, taken diving to his left. In the next over, after going past an electrifying half-century, Tharanga tried to pull RP but top-edged to the wicketkeeper, leaving the required rate at just under eight. In fewer than five overs the Sri Lankan XI had combusted.
Harbhajan Singh's introduction tightened the Indians' grip. His accurate offspin, backed by balanced and energetic field placing, kept runs at a minimum. A trigger-happy Chamara Kapugedera tried to sweep him out of the park but found deep midwicket instead. With the asking rate burgeoning to nearly ten an over, the sprightly Chamara Silva cut and swept Pragyan Ojha's left-arm spin for boundaries. After 32 overs the Sri Lankan XI needed 191, and Ojha came back well to force a faint nick from Silva to Dhoni for 38. Mubarak remained in the hunt for a place in the national team with 60 from 74 balls but when he departed the side needed 118 from 15 balls, and the result was never in doubt.

India and Sri Lanka meet in Dambulla for the first ODI on August 18.