Suresh Raina smashed a gutsy century as India recovered from a horror start to reach a competitive 245 against Sri Lanka in the triangular one-day series final in Dhaka yesterday.
India were wobbling at 60-5 following incisive opening spells from pacemen Nuwan Kulasekara and Chanaka Welegedara, but left-handed Raina came to his team’s rescue with a superb 106 for his third one-day hundred.
Kulasekara finished with 4-48 and left-arm seamer Welegedara grabbed 3-53.
Raina steadied the innings with a 106-run stand for the sixth wicket with Ravindra Jadeja, who made a useful 64-ball 38. Raina went for big shots in the latter stages, once hoisting spinner Suraj Randiv over long-on for a six.
He completed his century in the 44th over when he flicked seamer Thissara Perera for two runs but fell soon after, bowled by Welegedara after cracking one six and 10 fours in his 115-ball knock.
India were earlier undone by a combination of poor shot selection and Sri Lanka’s disciplined pace bowling, losing wickets at regular intervals after being put in to bat in the day-night match.
Virender Sehwag kept playing shots despite the fall of wickets from the other end, hammering three fours in a Kulasekara over. His flourish did not last long though as he became the bowler’s third victim.
Sehwag was caught behind after hitting seven fours in his 27-ball cameo.
He also became the sixth Indian to complete 7,000 one-day runs after Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, Mohammad Azharuddin and Yuvraj Singh.
The Indian batting woes began with the match’s third delivery when Gautam Gambhir was bowled for a duck by Kulasekara. Welegedara had in-form Virat Kohli caught behind for two and then Yuvraj Singh was caught at first slip by Thilan Samaraweera in successive overs to send India reeling at 16-3 in four overs.
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