Raina, Jadeja save India the blushes
By IANSWednesday, January 13, 2010
DHAKA - Sri Lankan pacers wrecked the Indian batting before Suresh Raina’s fighting century saw the visitors finish at 245 in the final of the tri-nation ODI series here Wednesday.
Nuwan Kulasekara (4-48) and Chanaka Welegedara (3-53) reduced India to a precarious 60 for five before Raina (106) and Ravindra Jadeja (38) added 106 runs to bail them out at the Shere Bangla Stadium in Mirpur.
After Sri Lankan captain Kumar Sangakkara won the toss and elected to field, the new-ball bowlers Kulasekara and Welegedara gave his team the perfect start by destroying India’s top order.
Kulasekara removed Gautam Gambhir for a second-ball duck in his first over with a delivery that pitched just outside the leg stump and hit the stumps.
Welegedara then removed Virat Kohli (2) and Yuvraj Singh in successive overs, both falling to poor shot selection. Skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni (14) did not last long and India were soon in a deep trouble.
Sehwag (42) was the lone batsman to offer some resistance, hitting Kulasekara for three fours in four deliveries early in his innings.
He was dismissed while attempting to guide a rising delivery from Kulasekara to third man, that went straight to Sangakkara.
Raina and Jadeja then started to rebuilt the innings, taking runs through singles and twos and cutting down on extravagant strokes.
The pair was removed when Tillakaratne Dilshan trapped Jadeja in front.
Raina scored his third ODI century, smashing 10 fours and one six in his 115-ball stay.
Kulasekara and Welegedara joined forces in the slog overs to trigger another collapse.
