The everlasting saga of India-Sri Lanka cricket matches continued in Harare, and India's disappointing form in recent times continued right with it; a sparkling maiden century from wicketkeeper-batsman Dinesh Chandimal knocked India out of the 2010 Micromax Cup, upsetting pre-tournament predictions of a guaranteed India/Sri Lanka final. While India improved on their shambolic performance from their Zimbabwe game, Sri Lanka were always one step ahead, and in the end proved too much for India to contain.
Put in by Tillekeratne Dilshan's successful call at the toss, India suffered an early setback when debutant Naman Ojha was sent back by Nuwan Kulasekera. Murali Karthik made sure the scoring would not be as sluggish as it was in India's last name, but gave Thissara Perera an easy caught & bowled for 27. Again dispelling visions of the Zimbabwe debacle, India showed some intent by calling for the batting Powerplay in only the 18th over. Virat Kohli built the innings with a good, but sedate 68 (95), and Yusuf Pathan struck six 4s in his 44 before Suraj Randiv had him caught at long on. The Sri Lankan fielders choked the runs and took some brilliant catches - Chamara Kapugedera's to get rid of Suresh Raina (19), and Thilan Thushara's reflex caught-and-bowled to get the dangerous Ravichandran Ashwin (38) were the highlights. Ravindra Jadeja had the dubious dishonor of being one of the few people to actually be run out off a no-ball, such was India's day. India finished on 260/9, a slightly subpar score on what was a very good batting wicket. India had to win to stay in the tournament, obviously, but to stand a chance of making the finals the tournament, they would have to limit Sri Lanka to 214 or less, to achieve a bonus point that would make up for their two losses to Zimbabwe.
In reply, Tillekeratne Dilshan didn't last too long, but his quickfire 21 must have felt good after a run of slow (but decent) scores. Upul Tharanga and Chandimal steadied the ship while keeping the required run rate under control, and even when Tharanga was snapped up by a good Virat Kohli catch at first slip for 27, Chandimal was more than content using his feet against the spinners to hit some big 6s, while Chamara Kapugedera ensured the singles kept coming. India started wilting under the pressure, basic misfields giving boundaries away and missing gettable catches - like Ashwin fluffing a chance to catch Chandimal, which went for 4 to make him the youngest Sri Lankan centurion in international cricket. He was eventually dismissed for 111, but it was enough for Jevan Mendis (35*) and Thilan Samaraweera (28*) to take Sri Lanka home by six wickets, with 10 balls remaining.
So India failed on two counts, to either beat Sri Lanka or keep them to under 214. The larger picture reads even more dismally - out of four games, India only won one, and lost twice to Zimbabwe. The batting was much improved from the last game, but playing three debutants (Ashwin, Ojha and Pankaj Singh) in a crucial encounter calls to question India's focus on winning this tournament - true, the Micromax trophy is no world cup, but this series was supposed to showcase India's future stepping out from under the shadow of their established legends. Instead, India retreat to lick their wounds before playing two token Twenty20 games after Zimbabwe, who beat them twice - soundly each time - and Sri Lanka play a final for which everybody had penciled India's name.