Sangakkara hit 73 off 82 balls and Jayawardene remained unbeaten on 53 during a match-winning stand of 104 for the third wicket. But it was Maharoof, a veteran of 94 One-Day Internationals, who set up the win as he trapped Ravindra Jadeja leg-before, bowled Praveen Kumar and had Zaheer Khan caught behind off successive deliveries in his ninth over.
India were without opener Virender Sehwag, who was ruled out of Tuesday’s match and the final due to a hamstring injury sustained against Pakistan on Saturday. Dinesh Karthik, who flew in from Chennai to replace Sehwag, hit 40 off 43 balls after an opening stand of 58 with Gautam Gambhir.
Sri Lanka, who rested three frontline bowlers in Lasith Malinga, Nuwan Kulasekera and Muttiah Muralitharan, though still managed to reduce India to 110 for four by the 23rd over.
Rohit Sharma (69) and skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni (41) retrieved the situation by adding 79 for the fifth wicket, before the Indian captain was run-out. Dhoni’s dismissal triggered a collapse as India lost four wickets in in the space of four deliveries as Maharoof sliced through the lower order.
Sri Lanka then got off to a confident start under lights, racing to 80 for one in the 14th over.
India missed the rested bowling duo of Ashish Nehra and Harbhajan Singh as Sangakkara and Jayawardene fired Sri Lanka home in the one-sided contest.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 23rd, 2010.
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