Raina, Gambhir star in India’s record chase against Lanka

Colombo: Chasing a target of 287 could never have been be easy, but thanks to some explosive and sensible batting by Suresh Raina, who was ably supported by Irfan Pathan towards the end, India managed to rope in the match with a record chase on Sri Lankan soil and took a 2-1 lead against the hosts in the five-match One-day series at the Premadasa Stadium here on Saturday.

But before the Raina-Irfan onslaught on Lankan bowlers, it was Gautam Gambhir who yet again played a superb innings of 102 off 102 balls to lay the foundation for India. With Virender Sehwag once again failing with the bat, Gambhir took upon himself the onus of building the Indian innings and added 105 runs with Virat Kohli (38) for the second wicket until the in-form youngster gave a simple catch to Herath on his follow through.

Indian skipper MS Dhoni promoted himself ahead of Rohit Sharma and started steadying the Indian chase and when it looked the duo had taken the game away from the Lankan Tigers, Dhoni departed to a perfect Yorker from Lasith Malinga who trapped the struggling Sharma on the very next ball for a duck. The fall of two wickets off successive deliveries did put India in a tizzy situation but Raina found an able partner in Pathan and th duo saw India through with two balls to spare.

Earleir, Mahela Jayawardene won the toss and decided to bat first. His decision didn’t work for the team as Sri Lanka lost Dilshan, Tharanga and Chandimal with just 20 runs on board.

Two of the most experienced Lankan batsmen – Jayawardene and Sangakkara then stabilized the innings with a century partnership between them. Rahul Sharma broke the partnership as he dismissed Mahela (65) in the 30th over.  Sangakkara who scored a ton in the second ODI was dismissed by Ashok Dinda for 73. Just like the Indian innings, the hosts too were struggling at 182/5 after which Angelo Mathews (71*) and Jeevan Mendis (45*) added 104 runs for the sixth wicket as Sri Lanka posted a formidable total of 286 runs.