by Rupesh

The warm up match with Sri Lankan XI before the five-match one day series was all joy for Yuvaraj Singh who scored a cracking ton to ensure the Indians a victory and more importantly, a much needed morale booster, after its slump in the recently concluded test series.

India walk into the one day games with a different team sans Sachin Tendulkar, whose injury problems keeps him away from active participation for a few weeks. He is replaced by Tamil nadu player Subramaniam Badrinath.

India won the toss and opted to bat first at the same venue where they had lost the final test match. With a new opening pair of Gautam Gambhir and Virat Kohli, the Indians started their innings at a brisk pace. The openers looked good, especially Gambhir, who seemed to carry his excellent form from the test series, but, by the twelfth over both the openers were back to the dressing room. This marked the beginning of the Yuvaraj Singh show.

Although, Yuvaraj looked uncomfortable in the beginning, he spent his time in the middle in company of Suresh Raina, who also in prime form kept the run meter moving. Yuvaraj launched an initial attack on Malinda Warnapura, by hitting the bowler for his first six of the 13 sixers which came from his bat later and then remained in silent mode for the next 13 overs straight without scoring a boundary.

It was after the 35th over, Yuvaraj decied to go for the big ones and he targeted left arm medium pacer Thilan Thushara first, by hammering the bowler for two consecutive sixers and two boundaries in the same over. Also, in the hit list was spinner Jehan Mubarak who got clobbered for four continuous sixers followed by left arm medium pacer Chanaka Welegedera, who was tried at the same end where Mubarak had delivered, only to be seen hammered for three more sixes.

For the next three overs Yuvraj and M.S.Dhoni maintained the stroke play giving the Lankans a dose of one six per over until Yuvaraj got out, much to the relief of the fielding team. Yuvraj scored 152 runs off 121 deliveries and his 100 to 152 came in a mere 16 deliveries. But the damage was already done and Indians scored 342 runs losing 5 wickets.

With no other game plan but to go for a win, the Sri Lankan XI started their innings at a steady pace with Upul Tharanga scoring freely. Tharanga scored a splendid half century before he got out. The rest of the team gave starts but none of the batsmen capitalized and the Sri Lankan XI team eventually could manage 250 runs in the allotted quota of 50 overs. Only Jehan Mubarak contributed a magnificent 60. Also, some tight bowling from spinners Harbhajan and Pragyan Ojha and a defiant Munaf Patel with his steady bowling ensured that the Lankans do not score beyond the required run rate. In the end, India emerged winners by 92 runs.

Positives from the match is the good form shown by the Indian team, an all round performance and Yuvraj’s batting. In the absence of big names, Yuvraj’s stay in the middle will always be crucial for the team.

It would be interesting to see how Yuvaraj Singh, who was not a member of the test squad would face the likes of Muralitharan and Mendis, the dangerous spin duo who had tormented the Indian batsmen throughout the test series and more likely to haunt the one day series as well.

Badrinath and Kohli are yet to make their debut and Suresh Raina, a strong contender for the middle order slot looks promising. Incidentally, Raina’s last match was against the Lankans, in the Asia cup final, where he was then bowled out by Mendis. India had lost the match and the Asian title by 100 runs.

The touring party moves to Dambulla for the first One Day international match against Sri lanka, to be played on August 18.