Agarkar sets up series win over Sri Lanka

PUNE (India)—India fought back from the brink to defeat Sri Lanka by four wickets in the fourth One-Day Iinternational here to take a decisive 4-0 lead in the seven-match series.
Chasing Sri Lanka’s 261, India slumped to 180-6 before the seventh-wicket pair of Mahendra Dhoni and Suresh Raina steered the hosts home with an unbroken 82-run partnership on Thursday.
Dhoni, India’s new one-day wonder who smashed an unbeaten 183 in the previous match at Jaipur on Monday, sealed the impressive win in the 46th over with two consecutive sixes off Russel Arnold.
Dhoni returned bat in hand with a 43-ball 45 and super-sub Suresh Raina justified his substitution at the expense of seamer Sri Sreesanth with an unbeaten 39 off 34 balls.
It was India’s first one-day series win on home soil since beating Zimbabwe 3-2 in March 2002 and came with three games in hand in Ahmedabad on Sunday, Rajkot on November 9 and Baroda on November 12.
Faced with a do-or-die situation, Sri Lanka appeared to do everything right till Indian seamer Ajit Agarkar grabbed five wickets and captain Rahul Dravid hit 63.
The Indians, electing to field on a hard wicket assisting seam movement and bounce, reduced Sri Lanka to 51-3 by the 11th over before skipper Marvan Atapattu led the tourists’ fightback with a defiant 87.
Atapattu, who had scored just 22 runs in the first three matches, dropped himself down the order to number five and returned with his 54th one-day half-century studded with seven boundaries.
Atapattu put on 97 for the fourth wicket with Tillakaratne Dilshan (52) and 83 for the fifth with Russel Arnold (32).
But the tourists, coasting at 231-4 in the 44th over, lost their last six wickets for 30 runs.
India themselves saw Sachin Tendulkar and Yuvraj Singh being dismissed by the ninth over before Dravid took charge.
He put on 78 for the third wicket with Virender Sehwag, who made a typically aggressive 48 off 58 balls, and 64 for the fourth with Venugopal Rao (38).
Sri Lankan off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan removed Sehwag, Rao and Irfan Pathan in quick succession and Dilhara Fernando dismissed Dravid to raise hopes of an upset win.
But Dhoni and Raina, cheered by some 35,000 home fans at the Nehru stadium, kept their cool under pressure to thwart the tourists.
“With guys like Dhoni, Raina and the rest around, the future of Indian batting is very exciting,” said an appreciative Dravid.
“It looked a close game but Dhoni and Raina made it easy for us.
“We can’t ignore the contribution of Agarkar and Harbhajan Singh, who bowled superbly and helped us restrict the Sri Lankan total.
“It has been a very good team performance in the series, I hope we can keep it up”.
Sri Lanka’s Atapattu was disappointed the game did not turn his team’s way.
“We put up a good score but things did not go too well for us and India ended up finishing the game pretty well,” he said.
“There were some crucial misses in the field but that happens when things are not going for you.
“We are now very keen to win the last three games and take something from the series”.

Scoreboard

Sri Lanka:
K. Sangakkara lbw b Agarkar 8
S. Jayasuriya lbw b Agarkar 16
U. Tharanga c Agarkar b Sreesanth 21
T. Dilshan c Tendulkar b Harbhajan 52
M. Atapattu c and b Sehwag 87
R. Arnold b Pathan 32
Farveez Maharoof b Agarkar 3
C. Vaas c Dhoni b Agarkar 11
M. Muralitharan b Agarkar 9
N. Zoysa run out 2
D. Fernando not out 0
Extras: (lb11, w9) 20
Total: 261
Fall of Wickets: 1-17, 2-36, 3-51, 4-148, 5-231, 6-237, 7-241, 8-252, 9-261

Bowling: O-M-R-W
Pathan 9-0-49-1
Agarkar 9.5-1-44-5
Sreesanth 8-2-49-1
Yadav 4-0-23-0
Harbhajan 10-0-35-1
Yuvraj 2-0-14-0
Sehwag 7-0-36-1

—Agencies