da bwin： Ravneet Ricky and Manish Sharma got off to an aggressive start againstSri Lanka in what was their first difficult match of thetournament
Anand Vasu22-Jan-2000Ravneet Ricky and Manish Sharma got off to an aggressive start againstSri Lanka in what was their first difficult match of thetournament. Both teams were keen to score a win in the match as thiswould make their future path in the tournament easier. In the end,India were keener than Sri Lanka and ended up being deserved winners -their third successive victory in the Super League.India began positively with Ricky (32) rattling up the bowlers withsome aggressive batting. After Ricky departed, the captain MohammadKaif played some good strokes before he was dismissed by spinnerDhammika for 12. Yuvraj Singh, the pick of the Indian batsmen in thetournament so far played in characteristic fashion as he made 36before he was run out. From this point on, the vice captain ReetinderSingh Sodhi, who has had a low key tournament thus far made a timely74 and helped India along to a challenging total. Some sensiblebatting towards the end by Niraj Patel, who made 43 without scoring asingle boundary and YV Rao (15) saw India to 242 off 50 overs.The Sri Lankan openers began positively, hitting the ball hard andfinding the boundary with regularity. The Indian bowlers did not losetheir composure and were well backed up by some very tightfielding. The Lankans lost wickets at regular intervals and the factthat the highest partnership of the innings was 57 for the seventhwicket tells its own tale. Only stumper RT Peiris (66) showed thetemperament required to play at the highest level. Unfortunately forhim, his gutsy innings was in vain as the hosts slumped to 201 allout.