The Indians have had two easy wins where they were hardly stretched and the Sri Lankans need to win this game at Jaipur to make things look better for them in this 7 ODIs Series. Unfortunate bomb blasts occurred in the capital city Delhi just ahead of the Festival Of Lights - Diwali but the match at Jaipur would go according to the schedule amidst tight security. The Indian team needed to pull off a memorable victory in tribute of the innocent lives lost a couple of days back. And yes International Cricket returns to the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in the Pink City - Jaipur after six long years.

The Toss

Marvan Atapattu won the toss for the first time in this series and he choose to bat first. Sri Lanka strengthened their batting with the inclusion of middle order bat Thilan Samaraweera and removed Nuwan Zoysa from their outfit, Chandana was kept as the super sub. India on the other hand had gone with the same victorious XI and had got in Suresh Raina as the super sub in place of Sreesanth.

 

 

Sri Lankan batting

The Sri Lankan openers Sangakkara and Jayasuriya got the scorers busy with few boundaries but Ajit Agarkar had serious plans of making some impact in this game. He started to bend the ball back into the left handed Jayasuriya and couldn't get the lbw decision in his favour. But his persistence of getting the better of the batsmen paid off as Jayasuriya's inside edge crashed onto his stumps. Atapattu then tried to consolidate along with Sangakkara and the pair started to put in a decent partnership which was a bit too slow. Atappatu after playing 49 balls for just 17 couldn't get any positive results for his side with his innings as he poked at J.P.Yadav's outswinger to leave Sri Lanka at 77/2 in about 20 overs. Jai  Prakash Yadav and Harbhajan were bowling really well and were absolutely giving nothing away to the Lankans at this stage.

 

 

 

Jayawardene and Sangakkara who had thrown their wickets in the previous two games were determined this time to bat out the overs and put Lanka in control. They did exactly that and with some calculated strokes, Sri Lanka were looking ominous in the game. Murali Kartik in particular was targeted by the two batsmen and later it was J.P.Yadav. Both these youngsters - Sangakkara and Jayawardene with their century stand put Lanka on a good platform and they were up and ready for the slogs. Agarkar however provided the break as he got Jayawardene to hold down to third man. Mahela who is not going to play the 4th ODI had done well to score a 70 ball-71 and he indeed was a proud bride groom ahead of his wedding. With Farveez Maharoof, Sangakkara provided the big shots for Sri Lanka and in the end, it was a fantastic total of 298/4. Sangakkara has to be appreciated for his near flawless knock of 138 which had 13 4s and 2 lovely sixes. The wicket keeper batsman played both the first ball and the last ball of the innings! For the Indians, all the bowlers took serious hammering with the exception of Harbhajan who finished his 10 overs quota giving away just 30 runs.  

Indian chase

We are in for the real contest, with Sri Lankans scoring 298, a close contest in expected and this is where the likes of Vaas and Murali excel. But the first ball that was bowled by Vaas was put away to the cover fence by Sehwag and that started to ease off any initial pressure. Vaas then fought back with his last ball of the first over as Tendulkar chased a wide delivery to get out behind the stumps. A rank bad shot from Sachin and one would have loved to see him score a big knock when India was chasing a huge score.

 

The last match saw J.P.Yadav walk in at no.3 and in the first game it was Irfan Pathan at that slot and today it's the turn of Mahendra Singh Dhoni. No doubts about Dhoni's potential but he sure had to be tested in a huge run chase from the beginning. Without wasting much time he started to get on his business. Dhoni got stuck into Vaas as he cover drove him out of the ground for two powerful sixes. Chaminda was having problems all around and he already got warned twice for running down the wicket. Sri Lanka started to panic at this stage as Sehwag and Dhoni kept on the momentum brilliantly. When Atappatu decided to spread the field after the 10 overs, the two batted sensibly picking up the singles. Dhoni however was more eager to take the risks and go for the big hits whenever he got the length he wanted. As India were going along well, Muralitharan struck for Lanka as he got Sehwag lbw by his doosra. Sehwag had gone for a sweep and he failed to make contact with the ball, Sri Lanka back in the game with India at 99/2 in a ball less than 15 overs.

 

 

With a guiding partner in Dravid, Dhoni continued to play his games of crackers and fireworks. Most of his aerial shots went out of the ground, not a bowler with the exception of Muralitharan was spared. Murali was however hit along the ground by Dhoni and Dravid. India were getting the runs in a hurry and Sri Lanka's woes of having the 2 powerplays left made matters even worse. The 2nd powerplay between the 17 and the 21st over was blasted for 41 runs. Murali struck again for his team, this time he got Dravid out through a caught and bowled as he deceived the batsman in the air. India at this stage was comfortably placed at 185/3.

 

Watching Dhoni blast his way to a magnificent hundred, everything else that had happened in the series seemed to be forgotten. Sangakkara's brilliant century looked to be thrown out of the window amazingly. Yuvraj who joined Dhoni got along with the game until he got outsmarted by Dilshan's off break. Venugopal Rao got a hit in the middle finally and he and Dhoni completed the formalities and guided India to a comfortable victory with 23 balls to spare. A couple of sweet shots from Venu marked his class at the international level. Dhoni was unbeaten on a scintillating 183 which had as many as 10 sixes. There were 15 boundaries too which meant that he had picked up a hundred and twenty runs from standing and hitting boundaries! In fact he had finished off the match in emphatic style hitting a huge six off Dilshan to move from 177 to 183! Sehwag made 38, Dravid made 28 but the chase as well as the match was about Dhoni with a superb 183*. We got to feel sorry for one Kumar Sangakkara who scored a brilliant 138* in the morning. 

 

Dhoni had told this writer in an interview about fifty days back that if he could make 148 once he sure can repeat such an innings. He is a man full of confidence, he does what he says! Now with India going 3-0 up, Sri Lanka need to go on to win 3 matches in a row from now on to stay alive in this series. The 4th ODI is at Nehru Stadium, Pune on the 3rd.