India vs Sri Lanka: In attack,all guns blazing,even M S Dhoni

Jayawardene,clearly unimpressed with his dismissal few things can be more embarrassing than being trapped by a full-time wicketkeeper bowling his third over in 50-over cricket or how the Sri Lankan innings effectively 61/4 in the 24th over with Tillakaratne Dilshan retired hurt at that point had panned out,decided to review Dars decision. And unfortunately for Dhoni,a fine inside edge had been captured by Hot Spot. Jayawardene survived. But Dhoni had proved his point.

A Bold move

Against a shaky Lankan batting line-up and supplemented by conditions that finally suited natural swing bowling,Dhoni afforded himself as many as four overs,going for just 17 overs and was unfortunate not to add to his wicket tally. With the three pronged pace attack keeping Sri Lanka on a suffocating leash for the first 22 overs when was the last time that India didnt use their spinners for that long?,Dhoni ensured that India didnt regret not fielding a fourth pacer for this semi-final match.

On a day that saw the toss being delayed by 30 minutes due to a wet Sophia Gardens outfield,luck also played its role in Dhoni and his bowlers restricting Sri Lanka to 181/8 in 50 overs. The Indian captain called the right side of the coin and inserted the Lankan batsmen in. They never did look comfortable after that. Not under floodlights for assistance at 11 am in the morning. And the new ball combination of Umesh Yadav and Bhuvneshwar Kumar seaming it this way and that.

Yadav finished the day as the only full time bowler with no wickets,but the scoreboard doesnt tell you that it was him who made the biggest incision into the Lankan batting line-up. An over after Kumar hurt Lanka with the wicket of Kusal Perera swung away from the left-hander,nicked and caught at second slip by Suresh Raina,Yadav hurt Dilshan,literally.

Having been smacked for two boundaries from the first four balls of the fourth over of the day by an attentive Dilshan,Yadav darted it in fuller and terribly close to the batsmans toes. Falling over,Dilshan did exceedingly well to dig it out,but not so much so in his attempt to break his fall. The right calf twisted and a couple of overs later,Dilshan was off,retired hurt for 12.

There were two spells of play worth noting in the India bowling innings. The first was by Ishant Sharma,introduced after the new ball boys had had their say in the 12th. Right from the offset,Ishant was unplayable. He had Kumar Sangakkara ducking and missing and Lahiru Thirimanne swishing outside his off-stump. In Ishants third over,the ball sprang up off a length and swung away from a suicidal Thirimanne,the edge carrying fast and quick to Raina at second slip.

In came Jayawardene and joined the man with whom he had added 5284 partnership runs,Sangakkara. But the left-hander looked to be in no mood to add much to that tally,doing a Thirimanne in Ishants following over. Once again,Raina was right there,taking his third catch at second slip.

Breaking resistance

The next spell of play that further turned the innings Indias way was the batting powerplay. At this point,with 74 runs between them,Jayawardene and Mathews were slowly patching over the cracks. But this period,the powerplays,is Ravindra Jadeja territory. And Jayawardene learned that the hard way. After Ravichandran Ashwin conceded just four singles in the first powerplay over with his around-the-wicket ploy,Jadeja bowled his first ball to Jayawardene. A fast and sharp rocket on to his pads.

Like so many batsmen before him in this event,Jayawardenes eyes lit up,hoping to slap it into the vacant square leg region. He missed,Jadeja found the stumps and finished with a wicket maiden. With just one run from the next two overs and a total of 12 runs from the powerplays,Dhoni took the gloves back from Dinesh Karthik,having enjoyed his time as a fielder,bowler and captain.