COLOMBO, 28 July 2004 — Former champions India duly made it to the final of the Asia Cup when they narrowly defeated a below strength Sri Lanka in a nail-biting Super League match by four runs at the Premadasa Stadium here last night.
India will meet hosts Sri Lanka in the final on Sunday and while qualifying, they knocked out holders Pakistan from the reckoning.
The bonus point which Pakistan had conceded while defeating India on Sunday proved too expensive for them.
Even if Pakistan defeat Bangladesh in their last league match tomorrow, the maximum they can get will be six more points and their total tally will be only 11, one less than India.
Thus this match has been reduced to only of academic interest. Sri Lanka with 12 points before this match had already booked their final place and hence could afford to rest star pace bowler Chaminda Vaas.
Muralitharan did not play because of his grandfather’s death on Monday.
Responsible knocks from opener Sehwag who made 81 and skipper Ganguly who struck 79, enabled India to put up a respectable 271 for six. Ganguly shared a second wicket stand of 134 with Sehwag and was concerned in a fruitful 71-run partnership with Yuvraj who made a rapid-fire 50 off only 46 balls. And despite a fighting century from Jayasuriya, Sri Lanka fell short of the target and could manage only 267 for nine.
Opener Tendulkar appeared in ominous form as he struck Zoysa for successive boundaries after Ganguly had won the toss and elected to bat first. But Zoysa had the last laugh when he trapped the master batsman leg before as he played across and missed.
Sensing the need of the team, the usually effervescent Sehwag curbed his natural game initially but opened out later.
He had two reprieves - slashing over the slips early in his innings and then holing out to cover as he momentarily appeared to lose concentration and Ganguly had to go across and tell him to take it easy.
Ganguly was tentative to start with as he always is but then punished the loose deliveries that came his way. He had a close shave when on 35 as Jayewardene failed to reach the ball in the deep and caught it first bounce.
The third umpire had to be consulted and TV replays confirmed that Ganguly was not out.
Sehwag and Ganguly were well set but it was the introduction of left-arm spinner Jayasuriya which provided Sri Lanka with the much-needed breakthrough. Sehwag tried to sweep and was smartly taken by Sangakkara behind the stumps. Despite being subdued most of the time, Sehwag had two mighty blows that cleared the fence, in addition to six more boundaries.
Dravid, the Mr. Reliable of India, had a poor match, fishing outside the off stump to give a diving Sangakkara a low catch off seamer Maharoof.
Ganguly went trying to force the pace and hit nine force during his stay at the crease.
Young Yuvraj yet again came up with a sparkling knock but had the mortification of seeing Kaif getting run out in an unfortunate manner.
Kaif was backing up as Yuvraj played the ball straight back to the bowler and Jayantha broke the wicket with Kaif yards out.
Parthiv and Irfan did throw their bats about after Yuvraj’s departure but the Indian run rate failed to climb and the total was at least 20 runs short of expectation. Malinga was the most successful Lankan bowler with two for 56.
The Lankans were suffered an early setback when Zaheer struck to remove opener Gunawardena for seven. And Indian hopes were raised when Irfan forced Jayantha to edge to the wicketkeeper on his individual score of five.
However, the experienced Jayasuriya kept one end going. He had struck form after a lean patch by hitting an unbeaten century in the last match of the tournament against Bangladesh.
He cut, pulled and drove to pile up runs.
At the other end, wickets fell regularly as Harbhajan bowled a tight line and length.
Atapattu, Sangakkara and Jayewardene were unable to settle down after good starts. But Dilshan dug in and provided valuable support o Jayasuriya. Sehwag, bowling off-spin, broke the resistance of Dilshan bowling him with one that turned in sharply.
Dilshan made 39.
Jayasuriya who was getting cramps and was in considerable pain, got to his century and seemed set to take Lanka to a worthy win.
However, he drove uppishly to be missed in the covers and was immediately out when he ballooned the ball to give Sehwag an easy return catch. Jayasuriya’s 130 came off 132 balls, with the help of one six and 13 fours.
Despite Jayasuriya’s departure, the target seemed achievable. The Lankans needed 15 runs in the last two overs.
Even after Chandana was well held by Yuvraj, the Lankans could still do it but Irfan gave just four runs. The reliable Zaheer came on to bowl at the death with 11 runs needed for a win.
Zaheer yorked Maharoof and bowled a couple of dot balls to see Parthiv jumping for joy as the Indians rushed to congratulate each other on a well-earned but hard-fought triumph.
Sehwag took three for 37 and the fine bowling coupled with his fine knock, earned him the man of the match award.
