The underdogs have done it! Earlier today, Rahul Dravid led the Indian squad to a massive 350-198 victory against the heavily favored Sri Lankans, giving them a 1-0 lead in the nascent seven-match series.

Stars of the match included spinners Harbehajan Singh and Murali Katik, with three wickets each, and Sachin Tendulkar who scored an impressive 93 runs for the Indians.

Meanwhile, Shri Lanka was collapsing. From NDTV:

The Sri Lankans lost captain Marvan Atapattu (1) early but kept themselves in the chase with a 64-run second wicket partnership between Sanath Jayasuriya (27) and Kumara Sangakkara (43).

But the visitors’ run-chase, after they were set an asking rate of 7.02, went haywire once Jayasuriya and Sangakkara departed in the space of two overs.

Jayasuriya spooned a drive straight to Dravid at short extra cover in the 11th over off a Harbhajan delivery. In the very next over, Sangakkara was deceived by Sehwag’s extra bounce and turn and gave a return catch as Lanka slid to 76 for 3.

Harbhajan then struck two blows in four balls to send back the promoted Upul Chandana (3) and Russel Arnold (0) and the tourists were on their knees.

A really tremendous match for India. Match number two will be taking place under the flood lights at Mohali on October 28, where hopefully India wil maintain their lead. Until then!

A couple good pics and another exciting review at Technofunk’s blog.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 25th, 2005 at 1:27 pm and is filed under Cricket. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.