Rajkot: Hundred overs of indiscriminate hitting ended in a thrilling narrow three-run win for India at the Madhav Rao Scindia Stadium on Tuesday.

Chasing India’s mammoth record total of 414 for seven, the Sri Lankan batsmen made a match of it with some fearless batting, before losing their way towards the end.

Virender Sehwag overcame One-Day cricket’s limitations and its many intrusions to take India to its highest ever ODI score — bettering the previous highest of 413 for five set against Bermuda in the 2007 World Cup.

But little did anyone expect Sri Lanka to put up such a chase.

If Virender Sehwag showed if he could carry on being the uncluttered destructive force he was in the Tests, Tillakaratne Dilshan and Kumar Sangakkara were equally ruthless.

Sri Lanka was cruising at one stage, needing just 124 from 15 overs with nine wickets in hand, thanks to the efforts of Dilshan and the skipper.

Spectacular chase

Dilshan and Upul Tharanga began in caution, but found nothing in the bowling to deny them a spectacular chase.

Ashish Nehra varied his length to Dilshan, but the batsman was suitably prepared to deal with it.

He cleared mid-off, pulled the follow-up short delivery, and scooped cheekily to notch up three boundaries in the eight over.

He got to his half-century in just 38 balls, drove Zaheer Khan confidently through covers, clubbed Ravindra Jadeja for maximum and reached his hundred in a blink, in 73 balls.
Tharanga kept himself entertained with two sixes over Jadeja’s head, bringing up his half-century.

On Tharanga’s departure, Sangakkara batted with a singular mission — to clear front foot and clobber over mid-wicket or long-off. The left-hander’s placement was splendidly in sync with his intent.

Against Zaheer, Nehra, Harbhajan and Jadeja, his execution was similar. His 43-ball 90 very nearly took the match away from India.

Sangakkara’s wicket — a miscued effort off Praveen Kumar, taken at deep square leg — looked like it would briefly halt the torrent of boundaries.

Dilshan had brought up his 150 and looked set for plenty more. But Sri Lanka then began losing it.

Quick dismissals

Dhoni quickly replaced Zaheer with Harbhajan Singh to bowl to the left-handed Jayasuriya.

The left-hander was stumped, and Dilshan was bowled going for a big one off Harbhajan.

The dismissals — in the 38th and the 40th overs — were both in the batting Powerplays.

Thilina Kandamby and Angelo Mathews brought it to within hitting distance, but some splendid, restrained death-bowling from Zaheer and Nehra proved the difference at the end.

India’s catching was dismal, with plenty of easy chances grassed, but the ground-fielding redeemed the side at the end with crucial run outs.

India’s bowling very nearly ruined the spectacular 102-ball 146 of Sehwag.

His innings had it all. Casually dismissive daring, majestic near-misses and moments when it appeared it would meet a tragic-comic end.

Sangakkara’s decision to bowl might have worked — for there was definite movement for the bowlers upfront — if it wasn’t for Sehwag’s ability to render strategies redundant.

There was the flick-pull hybrid done on one toe, and, lest Sehwag’s more orthodox credentials were questioned, an imperious four through covers.

Sehwag’s contempt

Mathews’s gentle medium pacers were the quickest to earn Sehwag’s contempt.

Immediately after the bowling Powerplay ended, he clubbed Mathews straight for maximum, and then proceeded to a bigger six over square immediately. There was great support from Tendulkar with a 63-ball 69.

The great man showed his class upfront with shots straight down for boundaries, and then proceeded to duck a Fernando bouncer, before a last minute dash of bravado led to an upper-cut boundary.

Dhoni was in great form as well. True to style, he hit Jayasuriya for a straight, simple six and followed it up with the most complex of bat revolutions — the sweep-swivel combine — which fetched him a boundary fine.

Sehwag and Dhoni left Sri Lanka gutted with a 156-run second-wicket stand, and looked like breaking all records, before India lost three wickets for 33 runs in the batting Powerplay.