After Asia cup, India played against SL at their home ground on July 21, 2012. The match was a complete entertainer for cricket fans. India won the toss and chooses to bat first. Sehwag and Gambhir started the game but the inswing bowl from Kulasekhara made Gambhir to move to pavilion early stage of the game. Virat kohli joined the game with the same passion as he always carries with him. He played a fantastic knock and scored his 12th century or third consecutive century with Sri Lanka. Virender Sehwag looked like a cool and calm batsman on the field and played a fabulous knock, but unfortunately got run out on 96 from 97 balls. He played a brilliant innings after the comeback. Virat played his innings with an aim to make the score above 300 and which is being gently carried by MS and Raina. They have taken the score like a bullet. Raina scored a half century with beauty shots of 3 fours and 1 six. He played comfortably to Malinga. MS played a knock of skipper with 35 runs under his kit. He showed his maestro class with helicopter shots. Perera came back with super attack of two balls to pick MS and Raina on consecutive balls. After that Irfan joined the race with a score of 7 in 3 balls in the final over. With all of the team effort India scored 314-6 in 50 overs. Perera took 3 wickets, Kulasekhara 1 and Mathews 1.
With a target of 315 SL started their Innings, but the inswing of pathan has made Dilshan lbw in the early stage of the game ,but the partnership of Sangakarra and Tharanga continued and they carried the score well till 86 where Ashwin made the breakthrough by picking Tharanga. Indian bowlers did well with the bowl with ups and downs in the overs. Sangakkara played a superb innings with his bat and scored 133 and made the game so curious to watch for. It was Umesh delivery which turned the game in favour of India. Sangakkara and Perera made the game interesting by hitting between 35-45 overs. Sangakkara's century has really given the crowd a chance to enjoy with their horns. After the wicket of Sangakkara the game turned towards India, finally SL scored 293 in 50 overs with a superb knock of 19 from Malinga in the final over. To reach 293 from 191 in the final overs is really good. Indian team have to look further for this as an analysis to correct it in the final overs.
After IPL, the first ODI of Indian team started with a win in SL. SL has very good team and may comeback strongly in the further matches. Let's look for other matches of the series to watch wonderful games ahead.
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