Compaq Cup Final Full Time: Bhajji Brings Trophy Home

--> -->

Sreelata YellamrazuSep 14 2009

The forty-six runs margin does not tell the story of the pressure the Indian team felt trying to protect 319 from the hosts. As India swept the Compaq Cup, the hosts will be feeling bad but Dhoni has his eyes firmly on the bigger prize.

bhajji ecstatic1

Harbhajan Singh produced the breakthrough without which the match would have been much closer than it was. It needed a concerted effort from him given that India had a mixed day in the field, and nearly ended up not defending their colossal total at the R. Premadasa Stadium in Colombo.

Sri Lanka's long, in form batting line up was always going to go for the total given that it was the final. Defying the popular conclusion about the pitch and batting under lights, Sri Lanka kept the Indians on their toes to the very end.

Perhaps Sri Lanka will not change their chase strategy, keeping at more than the required run rate, but will perhaps rethink the cost at which they would like to do it. The only reason Sri Lanka fell short in this match was because they ran of wickets.

Tillekeratne Dilshan and Sanath Jayasuriya soon made it obvious that if the Indians thought they could rest on Sachin Tendulkar's forty-fourth ODI century, they were in for something else.

While the duo were at full tilt, there was every danger that the hosts would make a mockery of the Indian total. Notching up seventy-six in less than ten overs, India had their first important breakthrough given by Bhajji of Dilshan's wicket for forty-two runs.

Jayasuriya's thirty-six runs were the second critical factor for Sri Lanka but his dismissal then was also equally crucial for India. But despite Sri Lanka losing wickets, their healthy run rate always kept him in the run chase.

While India were building on their innings with the loss of one wicket in the seventeen over, Sri Lanka had lost five for 131. Up until that point, the Indian captain was lauded for his bowling changes, where every bowler was picking up a wicket in his first over.

But that did not deter Kumar Sangakkara from staying with the chase. The Sri Lankan skipper's efforts for thirty-three runs always made the game an even score at that stage.

India could not rest easy. But despite their many blunders in the field, reminiscent of their efforts two days ago, India were fortunate as an angry Sangakkara found himself hit wicket as the bat slipped out of his hands facing R.P. Singh and it promptly fell on his stumps.

A stunned, disconsolate Sangakkara stormed off the field and it was considered, with him went Sri Lanka's chances. Despite the additional twenty runs needed over the a-run-a-ball scenario, Thilina Kandamby then set the cat amongst the pigeons for the Indians.

His sixty-six runs saw the Indians tear each other's hair out over misgivings in the field and there was no doubt that as monumental as the run chase was, Indians were feeling the heat, getting into a comfort zone for this match.

Harbhajan Singh restored matters for India at the tail end again snaring Kandamby's wicket in a desperate scenario in the forty-fifth over and hastened the end for Sri Lanka, who presented a respected 273 in 46.4 overs, just not enough to dampen India's winning chances.

On a thoughtful gesture (after sufficiently berating the team that they had slipped from the ICC ODI ranking top spot within twenty-four hours and what would be needed to get there), the Indian captain, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, dedicated the victory to the last Raj Singh Dungarpur.

Raj Singh Dungarpur: The Man Who Breathed Cricket Breathed His Last

Compaq Cup Final Half Time: Century No.44 Props India to 319

Compaq Cup Controversy: BCCI Sent Injured Kohli to Sri Lanka?

Compaq Cup Final Preview: India More Realistic After Defeat to Lanka

Ind Sl ODI 3 Compaq Cup Full Time: Matthews Rips Apart World's No. 1

IND SL ODI 3 Compaq Cup Half Time: SL Raise Mammoth Total

"I Did Not Think of the 25 X 4 Idea for ODIs"

Ind NZ ODI 2 Compaq Cup Full Time: NZ Head Home, India to Top

Ind NZ ODI 2 Compaq Cup Half Time: Nehra, Yuvraj Shipwreck NZ

Injured Sehwag Finds Alternate Profession - Fashion Model!

Gambhir's Groin Injury Means Tri Series Without Regular Openers

Team India Forced to Change Flight Plans to SL