India and Sri Lanka finished in a sensational tie in their triangular one-day international series at the Adelaide Oval yesterday.
India skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni needed to hit four runs off the last ball bowled by Lasith Malinga, but he only managed to scamper through for three runs to level the scores.
Both teams finished with 236 for nine from their 50 overs in a dramatic finale after India had needed nine runs off the final over to win.
Dhoni, who steered India to a final-over victory against Australia at the same ground on Sunday, failed to replicate that success as Sri Lanka searched desperately for their first win of the series.
“I looked to stay until the end,” ice-cool Dhoni said. “If you have a decent partnership, you can stick it out. Malinga is very difficult to hit, so we were looking to target [Angelo] Mathews. [The last hit] was a bit difficult here, but in India that would have been two bounces and four. When you need 10 or 12 in the last over, your heart rate will always be up.”
The tie was tinged by controversy with India facing one less delivery than they should have, with the 30th over of their innings containing just five balls.
Dhoni was accepting of the mistake, saying: “There was a five ball over. In the past what we have seen is the third umpire interferes, and you have to come back and bowl that ball.”
“Usually, that is what has happened to us, it didn’t happen in this game — it’s fair enough, nothing much can be done now,” he said.
The tie lifted India to the top of the tournament standings ahead of Australia, with Sri Lanka yet to win in their three games.
Dhoni finished unbeaten on 58 off 69 balls, with one booming six and three fours, while opening batsman Gautam Gambhir was out in the 90s for a second consecutive innings after he was run out for 91 off 106 balls.
India looked poised to nudge past plucky Sri Lanka in the final over, but Ranganath Vinay Kumar was run out on the second-last ball by a direct throw as he tried to get Dhoni on strike.
Dhoni then faced a final ball tilt for a winning boundary, only for Sachithra Senanayake to cut off the shot and enable India to take three runs and level the scores.
It was the first-ever tie between India and Sri Lanka in one-day internationals and the 26th in history.
Once again, star India batsman Sachin Tendulkar failed to score his 100th international century after he was dismissed for 15.
Earlier, Dinesh Chandimal top-scored with 81 as Sri Lanka reached 236 for nine off 50 overs.
Chandimal, 22, hit six fours and a six off 91 balls, before he was run out and Sri Lanka, who won the toss, set India just over 4.7 runs an over to win.
Kumar Sangakkara scored just 31 off 56 balls with two fours, before he was caught off a leading edge at mid-on off spinner Ravi Ashwin in the 20th over.
Jayawardene hit 43 off 49 balls and put on 94 for the fourth wicket with Chandimal, before he was trapped leg before wicket by Vinay Kumar in the 37th over.
Chandimal was out in the next over when batting partner Angelo Mathews went for a quick single to short-cover, only for Rohit Sharma to whip the ball back to wicketkeeper Dhoni to break the stumps.
Senanayake cracked 22 off 14 balls to remain unbeaten, with Mathews (17) and Thisara Perera (5) out cheaply. Vinay Kumar finished the best of India’s bowlers with 3-46 off 10 overs.
Bayer 04 Leverkusen go into today’s match at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim stung from their first league defeat in 16 months. Leverkusen were beaten 3-2 at home by RB Leipzig before the international break, the first loss since May last year for the reigning league and cup champions. While any defeat, particularly against a likely title rival, would have disappointed coach Xabi Alonso, the way in which it happened would be most concerning. Just as they did in the Supercup against VfB Stuttgart and in the league opener to Borussia Moenchengladbach, Leverkusen scored first, but were pegged back. However, while Leverkusen rallied late to
If all goes well when the biggest marathon field ever gathered in Australia races 42km through the streets of Sydney on Sunday, World Marathon Majors (WMM) will soon add a seventh race to the elite series. The Sydney Marathon is to become the first race since Tokyo in 2013 to join long-established majors in New York, London, Boston, Berlin and Chicago if it passes the WMM assessment criteria for the second straight year. “We’re really excited for Sunday to arrive,” race director Wayne Larden told a news conference in Sydney yesterday. “We’re prepared, we’re ready. All of our plans look good on
The lights dimmed and the crowd hushed as Karoline Kristensen entered for her performance. However, this was no ordinary Dutch theater: The temperature was 80°C and the audience naked apart from a towel. Dressed in a swimsuit and to the tune of emotional music, the 21-year-old Kristensen started her routine, performed inside a large sauna, with a bed of hot rocks in the middle. For a week this month, a group of wellness practitioners, called “sauna masters,” are gathering at a picturesque health resort in the Netherlands to compete in this year’s Aufguss world sauna championships. The practice takes its name from a
When details from a scientific experiment that could have helped clear Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva landed at the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the leader of the organization’s reaction was unequivocal: “We have to stop that urgently,” he wrote. No mention of the test ever became public and Valieva’s defense at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) went on without it. What effect the information could have had on Valieva’s case is unclear, but without it, the skater, then 15 years old, was eventually disqualified from the 2022 Winter Olympics after testing positive for a banned heart medication that would later
RSS