Sri Lanka vs India Third Test 2008: Fourth Day Report
Sri Lanka won the three-match test series against India ensuring an emphatic victory in the third test at the P.Saravanamuttu Stadium, Colombo today with a day left in the match. Well, Sri Lanka’s 8-wicket victory looked pretty much certain by the end of third day’s play. However, India’s last hope of coming back to the match went away when the 6th wicket partnership of 85 between Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman came to end.
Dravid went back to the pavilion after picking up his first and only fifty in the series. He scored 68 off 166 balls. Thoug Laxman remained not out on 61, he did not find enough support from Indian tailenders, except Harbhajan Singh who contributed 26 runs to help India throw a target of 122 runs to Sri Lanka. The match literally ended even before the Sri Lankan openers walked into the wicket to chase such a small total on a good-natured wicket like this. India’s second innings ended at 268 runs while Laxman remained not out on 61 runs. Muttiah Muralitharan and Ajantha Mendis took three wickets each in India’s second innings.
Indian bowlers struck early in the innings, picking up the wickets of Michael Vandort on 8, who lost the last chance of justifying his place in the test squad, and the first-innings centurion Kumar Sangakara on 4. Despite losing two wickets on 22, Sri Lankan batsmen did not let the Indians create pressure on their shoulders, and you can not even ask for more from the bowlers after giving just 121 runs on the board to fight for. Malinda Warnapura and Captain Mahela Jayawardene guided Sri Lanka to reach the target contributing a 101-run third wicket unbeaten stand. Both scored half century on their way to lead Sri Lanka win the match. Warnapura remained not out on 54 and Jayawardene on 50. Harbhajan Singh and Zaheer Khan picked up a wicket each. Ishant Sharma did not take the field due to his injury, but did bat in the second innings, though that was of no avail as he was dismissed for a duck.
India will face Sri Lanka in a five-match ODI series beginning from 18 August 2008. Both sides already declared their ODI squad. Now, let us see if India can come back in the ODI series or Sri Lanka continues dominating in the ODI series as well.
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