Saturday, December 4, 2010

India Set 164-Run Target For Sri Lanka

India Set 164-Run Target For Sri LankaGROS ISLET, Saint Lucia: India made 163 for five against Sri Lanka in a World Twenty20 Super Eights match here on Tuesday after winning the toss.


Suraish Raina hammered 63 from 47 balls with seven fours and a six while opener Gautam Gambhir made 41 off 32 balls.


Among others, captain Mahendra Dhoni remained not out on 23 while opener Dinesh Karthik and Yousuf Pathan made 13 each. Yuvraj Singh could score only one run.


For Sri Lanka, fast bowler Lasith Malinga and Thilan Thushara claimed two wickets each while Thissara Perera took one wicket.


India made three changes from the side that lost to the West Indies by 14 runs in Barbados on Sunday. They brought in opening batsman Dinesh Karthik for Vijay Murali, Vinay Kumar for fellow quick Zaheer Khan and leg-spinner Piyush Chawla for left-arm slow bowler Ravindra Jadeja.





Sri Lanka also altered the line-up that suffered a heavy 81-run defeat by Australia in Barbados last weekend. Spinner Ajantha Mendis, batsman Dinesh Chandimal and pace bowler Chanaka Welegedara have been replaced by left-arm quicks Thissara Perera and Thilan Thushara as well as seamer Chinthaka Jayasinghe.


For India, the inaugural champions back in 2007, to get through to the semi-finals they had to beat Sri Lanka by at least 20 runs and then hope that hosts West Indies lost to Australia in the day’s second and last Group F match, also taking place at Beausejour.


Sri Lanka, currently in second place in the group thanks to a better run-rate than that of the West Indies, knew that if they beat India and Australia beat the hosts, the Aussies and themselves would go through.


Sri Lanka will also be through if they lose to India by fewer than 20 runs and Australia beat the West Indies.


However, even a win over India would not assure last year’s losing finalists of a semi-final spot should the home side defeat Australia.

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