Improvement : Slow but steady

First 74 all out, then 194 all out and now 267/4. The performance has been steadily improving and that augurs well with the competition going into the 2nd round of the triangle. Its a pity that India has had 2 consecutive games washed out and that might just hurt them in the final tally if the points go down to the wire. Lets hope that India wins enough ( preferably all ) to make it through to the CB finals.

Coming to the 2nd ODI, India started well with Sachin and Sehwag seemingly having little trouble negotiating the Lankan pacers. It all started with Sachin dragging one on to his stumps and Sehwag perishing in a pretty lame fashion. This was probably the best period for Mahela to apply pressure and he did so by bringing in Murali. Sharma, Yuvraj and Gambhir were bound to have trouble negotiating the off-spinner. Especially with Sharma facing him for the first time, Yuvraj coming back amidst a form slump and Gambhir also being relatively new to the Lankan attack although he had scored a century against them before.

And the move paid out, with Murali getting Yuvraj and Sharma in his first over, although Sharma was unlucky to have been given out caught behind to a delivery he did not edge. Gambhir also had a lot of trouble against him initially.

But what shone through in the second half of the Indian batting was their utter dominance over the Lankan attack, including Murali. Vaas was unusaully expensive and off the boil. Dhoni found his way to some big runs and Gambhir just carried on from where he left off against Australia. They both milked the bowling till the 40th over and then launched a controlled attack by scoring 105 runs in tha last 10 overs.

All in all, a very satisfactory fight back and hope to see Yuvraj and Sharma getting a few good scores in the coming matches.