The indian team came into the sri lankan match with a new look side, featuring gagandeep singh, and zaheer khan, with a two spin attack, of harbhajhan and kumble, on a wearing pitch, india were able to win the toss, and bat first. Sehwag and Laxman opening at the top of the order. As with the first time, the openers refused to get a move on, and laxman fell shortly after. But after that, Tendulkar came in and started to play afew shots, but just as he was getting into his stride he was undone, by a wicked flipper from chandana, who got the nick of tendulkar's bat, and sangakarra behind the stumps making no mistake. yuvraj singh came into bat, and got stuck in a rut, and the scoring rate threatened to fall under 3.5 an over, but sehwag soon improved after reaching his 50, and unveiled his traditional square cuts that had been so far missing from his innings. And yuvraj singh as well, got into the act, with a 11 runs of an over from murali, which included a 6. Sehwag ending with a century, and yuvraj with a 50. And the final score, of 224, looked to be a compeititive one, on a wearing track affording some turn to the spinners.
The seamers started economicallly, with gagandeep singh, snaring the crucial wicket of jayasuria, but then attapatu and jayawardene opened up the repertoire, and started playing shots, taking the asking rate, even lower, when the spin twins of harbhajan and kunble were introduced into the attack, the scoring immeadiately dropped, and the turbanator was rewarded with the scalp of both, attapatu and jayawardene, with kumble chipping in with samaraweera. But the problem arose with the fifth bowler, since all the part tiners were being smacked around the park, by tillkaratne dilshan, and Russel Arnold. And that is what cost india the match, albeit a much better performace from them. The Indian team will no doubt take the positives from this match, and apply to the two matches that they have coming up against west indies.
