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GAME
5
MEN
SRI
LANKA vs INDIA
The
two newest World Cup teams doing battle on the first day. Sri Lanka
have some good form in recent times, and India were in South Africa
in 2000. We favour Sri Lanka, and will watch this game with great interest.
Result
(Teams mentioned in the order they batted):
|
Team
|
Skin
1
|
Skin
2
|
Skin
3
|
Skin
4
|
Total
|
|
India
|
-13
|
36
|
-2
|
12
|
33
|
|
Sri
Lanka
|
29
|
6
|
63
|
38
|
137
|
With
some Indian Men players still making their way to New Zealand, India
have enlisted the help of two young local players, Sunnie Chan and Veeral
Patel. Both players acquitted themselves extremely well, with Sunnie
especially bowling with great pace and effect. But it wasn't enough
to prevent Sri Lanka from scoring a convincing first ever win in the
World Cup.
Batting
first, India were in early trouble. The first ball was a runout, and
the first over ended up with 4 runouts (-18 runs off the over, bowled
by Roshan Weerasinghe). Although the next two overs yielded 16 runs,
the 4th over (bowled by Iroshan De Silva) cost India -11, for a partnership
of -13.
Local heroes Sunnie Chan and Veeral Patel batted next and put on a superb
36 run partnership, taking 14 runs off the 8th over (bowled by earlier
wrecker Iroshan De Silva). Unfortunately for India, the remaining two
pairs scored -2 and 12, for a team total of 33. Once again, inconclusive
calling lead to a large number of runouts (12 to Sri Lanka's 4).
Although the first ball of Sri Lanka's innings saw Dilshan Witharana
bowled by Santhamoorthy Sengeni, Dilsan and his partner Thushendra Dezoysa
batted positively and came off the court with 29 runs on the board.
India lifted both in their fielding and bowling, and kept the second
pair to just 6 runs. Local Sunnie Chan carried his fine form with the
bat into the field, having zero and -3 from his overs (both bowled to
the Indian second pair). But despite this performance, Sri Lanka had
already passed the Indian total.
Then Lyndon Hannibal (who entertained us all so superbly at the official
opening with his voice and guitar) and Iroshan De Silva walked onto
the court. By the time they walked off they had added 63 runs to the
total, being particularly punishing toward Sanjay
Kumar, plundering 24 runs off his first over (Sanjay fought back well
in his second over, giving up a meagre 5 runs).
With the score then 98, the pressure was well and truly off the last
pair, and Sri Lanka finally scored 137.
By virtue of this difference between runs scored and runs scored against
them, Sri Lanka would eventually take second place on the table after
day 1.
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