5th ODI : India vs Srilanka

India played Srilanka in the 5th ODI of the tri-series today at Harare Sports Club, Harare. India out of 3 matches has won only 1 match. Zimbabwe is looking comfortable as they have almost made into finals. On the other hand it is almost difficult situation for India to make it to finals of the series. This is a supposed to be a must win match for India.

Sri Lanka won the toss & requested India to bat first. In today’s play India has replaced one of its openers; it was Naman Ojha playing instead of Murali Vijay. India gave a poor start, their run rate was around 4 runs per over in the first 10 over. Yusuf Pathan & Virat Kohli played for some time & scored 41 & 68 runs respectively which helped India to put up decent total. After the fall of these 2 wickets, other players contributed some more runs. India scored 268 runs loosing all 9 wickets in 50 overs, which was a good come back for India after loosing all top order batsmen. Main contribution was from 51 runs partnership which was between Ravindra Jadeja & Ravichandran Ashwin. Suraj Randiv bowled beautifully taking 2 important wickets & his was economy rate was just 3.8 runs per over completing 10 overs.

Chasing the target of 269 runs, Srilanka started their batting innings with the openers, Upul Tharanga & Tillakaratne Dilshan. Dilshan was out when Srilanka had scored 29 runs in 5.1 overs. Dinesh Chandimal played too good where he gave good partnership with Upul Tharanga, Chamara Kapugedara & Jeewan Mendis. He scored a magnificent 111 runs 118 deliveries which included 6 fours & 5 sixes. This greatly helped the Srilankans to win the match comfortably. By 48.2 overs, Srilanka chased the target successfully loosing just 4 wickets.

Srilanka won the match by 6 wickets with 10 deliveries to spare. Now, India are out of the series. Srilanka still have to play their 4th match against the Zimbabwe after this again they both will be facing each other in the finals.