India and Sri Lanka can’t be separated

India and Sri Lanka have played out a thrilling tie in their Commonwealth Bank One-Day International Series encounter in Adelaide on Tuesday.

Remarkably at the end of another tense match of what has been a quite enthralling triangular series both teams finished on the exact same score line – 9 for 236 – following eight hours of drama at Adelaide Oval.

After winning the toss and electing to bat first Sri Lanka struggled early but finished well to post a solid total of 9 for 236 from their allocated 50 overs.

Middle order batsman Dinesh Chandimal (81) was the stand out in his side’s innings and along with Mahela Jayawardene (43) the pair rescued Sri Lanka from their poor start to lead them to posting them a reasonable total.

In reply India looked set to be cruising to victory especially after opener Gautam Gambhir (91) and man of the match and captain MS Dhoni (58 not out) tore apart the Sri Lankian bowling attack.

However a batting collapse late in their innings saw the game end in a tight finish with Dhoni hitting a three of the final ball to tie the game as India ended their innings at 9 for 236 from their allocated 50 overs.

Incredibly India who at one stage needed 59 for victory with 58 balls remaining looked set for victory before a mini collapse which was triggered by Gambhir once again falling short of his century after being run out.

Gambhir and Dhoni had controlled the innings up until the opener’s dismissal which triggered a batting collapse which saw the world champions lose five wickets for 45 runs.

Needing 24 from the last two overs the world champions lost one wicket but reduced the margin to nine from the final over and India needed four runs off the final ball after carving off five runs from the first five balls from Lasith Malinga’s over.

Tailender Vinay Kumar, who claimed three wickets, sacrificed his wicket with the second last ball to give Dhoni the strike and the battle between the world’s best ODI batsman and the best clutch bowler came down to one delivery.

Malinga who had been bowling superbly in the final over decided on bowling wide to Dhoni’s off-stump and the Indian captain connected on the ball as he hit it over the covers.

It looked for all money as though the ball would race to the boundary but Sachithra Senanayake produced a magnificent diving effort to prevent the ball from hitting the rope and knocked it back to his team-mate who threw it back to the crease as the batsman had just crossed over for their third and tying run.

Amazingly it was the first time the two teams had played out a draw in this format of the game and afterwards the match ended in controversy as it was uncovered that Malinga had only bowled a five-ball over earlier in the match.

Umpire Nigel Llong miscounted meaning that Malinga bowled five balls in the 30^th over and both teams believe they would have won with the lost delivery as India believe they would have won whilst Sri Lanka believe they would have got the final wicket needed.

Sri Lanka 9 for 236

Dinesh Chandimal 81 (91)

Mahela Jayawardene 43 (49)

Vinay Kumar 3 for 46 (10 overs)

Ravichandran Ashwin 2 for 30 (10 overs)

India 9 for 236

Gautam Gambhir 91 (106)

MS Dhoni 58 not out

Lasith Malinga 2 for 53 (10 overs)

Thisara Perera 2 for 45 (nine overs)