December 16th, 2009 
Aman 
Indian Inning: First one day match played between Sri Lanka and India was a good game played at Rajkot with high scores. Even scoring 414 runs it was not an easy win for Indian team and they were struggling till last ball for it but they finally won the match with 3 runs and got 1-0 lead in the one day series. Sri Lankan team really gave them a tough fight even after such a big total. Sri Lankan team won the coin toss and elected to field first. Shewag and Sachin Tendulkar were opening players from the Indian side and they gave a good start to the team and both started smashing bowlers with their hits. They gave partnership of 153 runs for the team and it was a good contribution for the first wicket. Tendulkar was first man to go back to pavilion from Indian team who was at a score of 69 runs with the help of ten fours and one six on 63 balls. Fernando showed him way to the pavilion. Captain MS Dhoni replaced Tendulkar and Dhoni started playing his captain’s role for his team. He also hit the big shots all around the ground. India had reached a score of 309 when Sri Lankan bowler took wicket of Shewag and it was already very late for them. Shewag made smashing 149 runs off 102 balls with strike rate of 143.14 which included 6 sixes and 17 fours. India had reached a score of 309 but there were still about 14.3 over pending. Dilshan caught him on the bowl of Welegedara. After Shewag Dhoni was caught by A Mathews on bowl of D Fernando when he was an individual score of 72 runs off 53 balls with the help of 8 fours and 3 sixes and at a strike rate of 135.85. Suresh Raina had replaced Shewag and Gautam Gambhir took place of Dhoni. But none of the batsman did so well and Gautam Gambhir was caught by Sri Lankan Captain K Sangakkara at the bowl of N Kulasekara when he was at an individual score of just eleven runs. Soon after him Raina was caught by S Jayasuriya on the ball of N Kulasekara when he was at 16 runs. After them Harbhajan Singh and Virat Kohli failed to contribute much for the team and they scored 11 and 27 runs respectively. Ravinder Jadeja and Parveen Kumar were unbeaten till end of 50 over at individual scores of 30 and 5 respectively. None of the Sri Lankan bowler was able to control Indian players. Nuwan Kulasekara, Chanaka Welegedara and Dilhara Fernando each took 2 wickets for their team while Angelo Mathews got only one wicket. India was at 414 for 7 wickets at end of 50 over and it was not an easy score to chase and win. It was also highest total ever made by Indian team against any team in one day match.
Sri Lankan Inning: Sri Lankan team starting chasing big score of 414 and opening batsman gave good starting to the team. Upul Tharanga and Tillakaratne Dilshan made a partnership of 188 runs for first wicket. Tharanga was stumped by Mahendra Singh Dhoni on the ball of Suresh Raina when he was an individual score of 67 runs off 60 with 4 sixes and 3 fours. Captain Kumar Sangakkara joined Dilshan in the middle to continue chasing the targeted score by the opponent and he played captain’s role very well scoring quick 90 runs off just 43 runs with a strike rate of 209.3 with 10 fours and 5 sixes. He was caught by Ravinder Jadeja on the ball of Parveen Kumar. Sanath Jayasuriya who is very experienced player failed to contribute much for the team and scored just 5 runs. Mahela Jayawardene replaced Jayasuriya and joined Dilshan. Dilshan played well for the team and he was send back to pavilion by Harbhajan Singh when he was at 160 runs off 124 runs with 20 fours and 3 sixes. Thilina Kandamby was next batsman to come in to join Jayawardene. Soon after Mahela Jayawardene also lost his wicket as run out when he was at just 3 runs. Angelo Mathews was next hope for the team but Thilina Kandamby lost his wicket when team was at 401 runs. It was crucial stage for both of the team. Thilan Samaraweera was next batsman but he also failed to do much in crucial conditions and was sent back to pavilion without making any score even. Kulasekara was next batsman for the team to come in on the stage and there were hopes from Mathews that he can do the magic for the team to chase this big total. Ashish Nehra was having last over when Sri Lankan was not much far from the target. Nehra took important wicket of Mathews on his fourth ball of the over. Welegedara who came in after them failed to do the magic for the team. Welegedara and Kulasekara were unbeaten at 1 and 2 runs respectively. From Indian side Harbhajan Singh took 2 wickets while Ashish Nehra, Suresh Raina and Praveen Kumar got one wicket each for the team.
Tough fight: It was a tough fight between the two teams and 825 runs were scored in the match. It was big total to chase but still Sri Lankan team gave a good competition to India and Indians struggled for the win till last ball of last over. Shewag was declared as man of the match for his good inning due to which Indian team was able to reach this big total. It was second time when such a big total was made in 50 over one day international match as before this it was happened against South Africa by Australia and still South African team had chased that big total making a record in year 2006. Indian team got lead of one match over Sri Lanka by winning the first one day match but still series is not over and team need to work hard to win the series.
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