Port Of Spain: Being good is just a matter of temperament in the end and that’s what the magical innings of Mahendra Singh Dhoni was all about which was studded with five fours and two sixes. With 15 runs needed off the final over, he kept his cool and smashed three consecutive boundaries to make sure that India clinch the tri-nation series trophy against Sri Lanka by one wicket and two balls to spare here on Thursday.
The final contest saw some remarkable bowling from Rangana Herath and Ravindra Jadeja who picked up four wickets each to make this match a heart-racing thriller. Rohit Sharma and Kumar Sangakkara did play some crucial knocks but it was the best finisher of modern cricket, 'Captain Cool' who stole the show with his match-winning sixes.
Despite Shikhar Dhawan scoring a couple of boundaries, India were off to a shaky start as the southpaw was dismissed by Eranga when ball took an awkward bounce and surprised him. Eranga struck in his next over to dismiss Virat Kohli and India was reduced to 2/27. Rohit Sharma and Dinesh Karthik played the waiting game really well and knitted a beautiful partnership of 50 runs for the third wicket. Karthik was undone by Herath when he was looking really good at 23.
Rohit didn’t lose his cool and showed some great temperament to steady the ship for Indian team. Raina, who came in the middle after Karthik was dismissed, played some exquisite shots to accelerate the scoring rate and added 62 runs in just 54 balls. Rohit was deceived by the low bounce which the wicket offered to Herath and winded up his innings at 58 runs. And very soon Lakmal got the wicket of Raina who was looking good at 32 runs.
Herath was getting great purchase from the wicket and he made it count by getting the wicket of Jadeja and Ashwin in quick time to push India on the back foot as they were 7/152 after 38th over. Dhoni scored three boundaries in next few balls that he faced which brought India an inch closer to the victory. Bhuvneshwar couldn’t do much against the yorker of Malinga and was dismissed for duck. But it was cometh the hour, cometh the man who kept his cool and smashed one four and couple of sixes to finish off the game in style.
Earlier, Sri Lanka had a decent start as they scored few boundaries off Bhuvneshwar Kumar but the right-hand bowler came back well to dismiss bot the Lankan openers. First he got the wicket of Upul Tharanga and then off Mahela Jayawardene and reduced Sri Lanka to 2/49.
Pitch was just too difficult to bat on and Indian pacers made the life difficult of Kumar Sangakkara and Lahiru Thirimanne. Dhoni decision of introducing Raina and Kohli into the attack instead of his front-line spinners too back-fired. This bowling change allowed Sangakkara to shift his gear to take his side to 2/77 after 22 overs. Ravi Ashwin was introduced alongside Raina to restrict the flow of runs but that didn’t happen and Lanka reached 2/150 after the 36th over.
As soon as Sangakkara reached his fifty, he was looking in incredible touch as he started smacking the boundaries all over the park. But Thirimanne’s innings came to an end when he tried to slog the short ball of Ishant Sharma but was caught by Bhuvneshwar who ran left from his position of mid-off. The 40th over of the Lanka’ innings made the world of difference as Sangakkara, trying to go for a big shot, was caught at mid-on when he was looking rock solid at 77. Kusal Perera followed the foot-steps of Sangakkara and was dismissed in the very same over and Lankans were 5/177.
Angelo Mathews was undone by Ishant when he tried to go after a short ball and was caught at third-man. Jadeja’s left arm spin came into play and dismantled the lower order of Lanka and they were bundled up for 201 runs in just 48.5 overs.
Jadeja ended up with the figures of 4/23 whereas Ashwin with 2/42.