IND V/s SL

We move on to Taunton today, with probably a knockout match on our hands. The English weather is ready to play again as the forecast predicts chances of showers with a min temp of 5 degrees. This could be a repeat of 1996 with Sri Lanka being the cause for India's failure at the world cup.Furthermore with all the hate mail in Azhar's mind, he seems to have lost his luck as well (moustache is not working). Sri Lanka put India in to bat, (rubbing their hands in glee) trying to put the early pressure as they know all to well that the Indian bowlers can't bowl.

The batsmen can sure bat though. There was an early setback as S. Ramesh was comprahensively bowled by a beautiful ball coming in by Chaminda Vaas. After seeing his off stump uprooted he went awayin tears after having failed to give the Indians the opening they would have wanted. Rahul Dravid has been batting well off late but what he did today was exceptional. He came in and was prepared to make the Sri Lankans weep for forgiveness. He scored hard and fast reaching his 50 at more than a run a ball (he was pretty happy at having come in after somebody and score his 50first, unlike last time remember MUMMY).

Well With Dravid hitting 4's and 6's, the Prince of Calcutta seemed to call in the marines. He seemed pretty aggravated that Dravid should come in and put him in the background so quickly. He too started hooking and pulling and whacking the ballto all parts of the stadium. Well, before you knew it, it was 100 after 18 overs and 150 off 28. Then something happened to Ganguly, cause when Aravinda came on to bowl his second over (he bowled pretty well in the first) the first ball the Bengal Tiger came down and hit it soooooooooooooooo haaaaaaaaarrrrrrd that the ball cleared the stadium by about 15 metres and Dravid looked Flabergasted. He quickly went down the wicket to give his partner a hug as if to say "Don't hurt me puuleese." Dravid completed his 100 in just 102 balls being the only other batsmen (M. Waugh the other one) to get consecutive 100's in the World cup. Ganguly wasn't to be left behind as he raced on to his 100 off 119 balls to try and catch up with Dravid. And he did too, Overtook him even! They reached 250 in 41 overs. That brought on Muralitharan for his last over. This time Ganguly had it in for him. He hauled another huge 6 which only came down after hitting the roof. The next ball Murali tried bowling down the leg side and was hit for 4. That got Ganguly irritated (imagine him thinking I have a weakness on my legs) and he hit another huge six straight down past the bowler reaching his highest score of 131. But he wasn't out yet. The Indians raced to 300 in the 45^th over blazing boundaries and sixes at will. Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly successively broke the record partnership for any wicket in one day internationals for the first time crossing 300. Ganguly reached 150 (before Dravid) and Dravid in his valient effort to reach 150 was run out for 145 by Murali after he dropped the catch ending the record partnership of 318 off 274 balls It must be mentioned that the Sri Lankans had a big hand to play in this as their feilders seemed to be on a continuous drinks break as they misfielded, overthrew, DROPPED, fumbled and everything else wrong you can think off. The only problem after the wicket of Dravid was that it brought Sachin onto the field. WHOA! I don't think the Sri Lankans wanted that!!! But Sachin lived up to what I expect of him and was bowled middle stump of Jayasurya for just 3 runs. Jadeja came, hit 5 off 4 and went. Azhar seemed to be frightened to come out as he then sent Robin Singh to whack the shit out of the SL bowlers. However, he didn't get his muscles with him as he was out off a high lollipop to Wickremasinghe. Azhar finally came out and looks like he brought his luck with him as the bowler bowled a wide to take the Indians to 350, the last 150 coming of just 79 balls!! Ganguly on the other hand proving himself a Prince, carried on his innings to break the record of the highest score by an Indian in the world cup shattering Kapil Dev's record of 175 leaving some poor soul to get 183 to break the record again. Whats more he did it in just 160 balls, with 7 sixes and 17 fours, and he got out off the second last ball of the innings trying to hit another biiiiiiigggggg six, after being dropped about 5 times! The Indians ended up with a record total of 373-6.

Sri Lanka decided to try and answer fire with fire, too bad India didn't want any part of it.They were not about to give runs away like the Sri Lankans did. This was proven when Srinath run out Jayasurya for only 3 runs off his own bowling. Imagine trying to steal a single from him No no no no no no!!!! Well,I guess Kalu was missing his buddy too much cause he was next to go out lbw by Srinath. Atapatu and Jayawardhena played some fine shots to the midoff boundary until both of them were out lbw by Mohanty and Kumble resp. in successive overs! That left the dangerous Aravinda and Ranatunga at the crease (Remember they are the ones who made all the runs at Eden Gardens in 1996). They hit a flurry of shots trying desperately to keep up with the runrate which was now edging 9 per over! They seemed to be getting along well until on came a little bird whispering in their ear that they had to get out! Yes I'm talking about Robin Singh. He caught Aravinda off guard getting him out lbw and providing the vital break through. He then went on to get Ranatunga after a few more overs with a slight inswinger which was dragged back on the stumps (come back here you!) knocking the off stump off the ground! This was 181-6 with Roshan Mahanama the last recognised batsmen left on the field! Azhar would have felt like holy cow shit when he dropped Upashanta but he made up for it when he caught him the next chance he got! Robin Singh out of all people ended up taking 5 wickets and wiping off the tail (as I said holy cow shit). The Sri Lankans got pay back for 1996 when they were put it and ridiculed India. They put India in to bat today and payed the price for it. Revenge is sweet! The Sri Lankans were bowled out for 216 leaving India with a 167 run victory.

Man of the match was Sourav Ganguly for his splendid, record breaking 183, although more than one person would be thinking that Rahul too should have got a mention in the same league! Well, that’s cricket (especially for Indians) do good and u get nothing! Azhar would be thanking the lord (and his moustache) for the win. This could very well help the Indians to qualify for the Super Six stage even if they lose to England (which I hope they do) because their run rate has improved considerably.