The agony for the Indian cricket team continued, as India went down against their spirited neighbors Sri Lanka to lose the 8th match of the Commonwealth Bank series. With this defeat, India dropped to the third spot in the points table and now have to win their remaining two matches against Australia and Sri Lanka, respectively, to stand any chance of making it to the finals of the tri-angular tournament. Sri Lanka outplayed India in every department of the game, as they put up a thoroughly professional performance. India managed to avoid giving away a bonus point this time around, but still this win was enough for Sri Lanka to climb to the second spot in the points table.
Sri Lanka put up a solid batting performance after winning the toss and deciding to bat first. Openers Mahela Jayawardene and Tillakaratne Dilshan gave Sri Lanka a great start, as both negotiated with the swinging new ball well. Although it wasn’t a quickfire start but both Jayawardene and Dilshan had ensured that Sri Lanka don’t lose any early wicket. Sri Lankans kept building considerable partnerships for every wicket which enabled the scoreboard to keep ticking. India had to wait for as long as the 19th over to finally get the first wicket. It was comeback man Irfan Pathan who brought back the smiles on Indian supporters’ face as he removed Sri Lankan captain Mahela Jayawardene for a well compiled 45, ending a marathon 95 run opening stand. Dilshan (51) followed soon as he was caught behind of the bowling of Ashwin in the 22nd over, shortly after he completed his half-century. India managed to get yet another wicket in this period of play, as Kumar Sangakkara failed to trouble the scoreboard with his 15 ball knock of 8 runs. India was back in the game, that’s what at least the players thought. Dinesh Chandimal and Lahiru Thirimanne had other plans though, as both avoided further damage. Dinesh Chandimal grinned it out with singles and doubles while Lahiru Thirimanne was having a rather comfortable stay at the crease scoring the odd boundary every now and then. 
Both added a precious 69-run stand for the 4th wicket as Sri Lanka made sure they have wickets in hand to launch an all-out attack on the less experienced Indian bowling outfit. Chandimal’s resistance was ended by Irfan Pathan in the 39th over, as Irfan disturbed Chandimal’s woodwork, knocking his stumps over. While Chandimal departed after a hard earned 38, Thirimanne continued to score runs at brisk rate. Angelo Mathews too joined the party as both Thirimanne and Mathews punished the Indian death bowlers. Thirimanne’s fine effort was finally brought to an end by Ashwin in the 46th over, as Thirimanne ended his run-a-ball 62 runs knock in trying to boost the scoring rate. Angelo Mathews blasted his way to a 37 ball 49 not-out as Sri Lanka piled on 289/6 in 50 overs. What was absolutely unbelievable to see was Suresh Raina and Virat Kohli were bowling at the end of the innings while Zaheer Khan was ‘rested’. This decision by Indian selectors was hard to understand as this was a very important encounter for team India. Sri Lankan batsmen showed no mercy against India’s new death bowlers as 24 runs were scored of 2 overs bowled by them.
India, for the second successive time, had a gigantic task in front of them. And they didn’t disappoint us, as once again Indian top order denied to learn from their mistakes. India was potentially fielding four openers in Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Gautam Gambhir and Parthiv Patel. And ironically, none of them fired for India. India practically opened with 3 openers. Yes you read that right, I did write 3 purposely there. For, Gautam Gambhir, India’s number 3, was facing the 3rd delivery of the innings thanks to Virender Sehwag. Sehwag continued on his charity work as he gifted his wicket away on the very 2nd ball of the innings, trying to hit a ball that was probably heading towards 2nd slip. When a captain leads this way, its highly inappropriate to expect something different from the team. Tendulkar (22) and Gambhir (29) departed early after getting starts as India was once again playing the catching up game. Suresh Raina and Virat Kohli put up a brave front as both started to rebuild Indian innings. This was perhaps the second time, first was at the start of the match, when India looked somewhere near winning. Sri Lankan bowling was at their disciplinary best as both Kohli and Raina were made to work hard for their runs. The 92 run stand was broken in the 31st over as Perera dismissed Raina on 32. Kohli and Jadeja tried to carry the momentum further but Kohli (68) went down soon as he tried to score another boundary, only to be caught at mid-on. India was now fighting for a lost cause as Jadeja (17) and Ashwin (5) fell cheaply. 
Irfan Pathan, though, denied Sri Lankans an outright win, as he played a fearsome innings of 47 from just 34 balls. For a moment, it looked like Pathan may win it for India but he was running out of partners. Pathan finally perished in the 46th over to draw curtains over the Indian innings. India sorely missed the services of their captain MS Dhoni, as they failed to ‘take the match in the 50th over’.
Sri Lanka continued their good bowling performance as Nuwan Kulasekara and Thisara Perera starred with the ball. Kulasekara was very economical earlier on as he got the important wickets of Tendulkar and Gambhir to put India on back foot. Perera kept striking at regular intervals and ended the Indian resistance with an overhead catch of Irfan Pathan. Sri Lanka next play Australia on 24th February at Hobart, where they would look to go atop the points table. India now needs to win both matches and their chances of making it to the finals depend on Australia and Sri Lanka’s performance.
Brief Score : SRI LANKA : 289/6 in 50 overs (Thirimanne 62, Dilshan 51 ; Ashwin 50/2)
BEAT INDIA : 238/10 in 45.1 overs (Kohli 66, I.Pathan 47 ; Perera 37/4) BY 51 RUNS
Man of the Match : Nuwan Kulasekara (SL).
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