The second match of the Micromax Cup in Zimbabwe between India and Sri Lanka has a lot to offer. Although the rivalry between the two sides has been intense, so much so that the players must be tired of seeing each other’s faces again and again, yet the contest promises to be entertaining.

Primarily, it is because India lost to Zimbabwe in the first match of the tournament, causing the tournament to be wide open. On the other hand, Sri Lanka would find this a perfect opportunity to make a winning start to their campaign, which could give them confidence to win more as the tournament progresses.

India needed to hit back. Pressure was intense on Suresh Raina, the stand-in captain. However, on a windy day and a slow pitch in Bulawayo, he won the toss and elected to field first. His Sri Lankan counterpart, Tillakratne Dilshan knows the conditions perhaps better than any other foreign cricketer playing in this tournament.

It is because he made his debut at the same venue back in 1999. He too got carried away about what happened at the toss and miraculously for India, Sri Lanka faltered. Upul Tharanga, Dilshan’s opening partner, got run out as early as the second over.

Sri Lanka further struggled with their captain playing a Test-match innings, and forgetting that he was playing an ODI. Dilshan seems to have lost his Midas touch that he possessed in 2009, despite scoring a more-or-less responsible 61, until he was also run-out as well.

Thilan Samaraweera, batting at No.3, also played an uncharacteristic shot, getting himself stumped for just 19 runs. Angelo Matthews batted extremely well in a tough situation at No.4, slamming 75 runs of 95 runs. He was the only bright spark of the Sri Lankan innings which suffered largely due to lack of partnerships, which meant Matthews wasn’t given any support at all.

Thissira Perera tried to up the ante with his 32 runs scored of just 23 balls. However, it was too late for Sri Lanka as they could manage a paltry 242 all out with one ball to spare in the innings.

India did everything right. Their bowling was outstanding in the powerplay overs, a rare sight indeed! Even their fielding could be called ‘decent’ enough with two run-outs in the entire innings.

Amit Mishra and Ravindra Jadeja have yet again proved how their bowling can be crucial to India’s success in this format. However, India had to chase 243, which was not easy considering the Sri Lankan bowling attack having some experience.

India’s openers needed to start well, as the pitch was slowing down. Dinesh Karthik and Murali Vijay weren’t amongst the runs recently and thus to win it for India was an uphill task for them.

At 47/2 in the 10th over with both of them gone, it was huge pressure. It was then that the centurion of the last match, Rohit Sharma walked in to bat with Virat Kohli at the other end. And it was a counter-attack that would last long in every person’s memory who watched the match.

Kohli has a fascination for Sri Lanka and yet again he proved his increasing maturity with a fine 92-ball 82, with just four boundaries. His batting was outstanding considering how well he could find the gaps in a tight field set by Dilshan for his spinners to attack.

Kohli, the vice-captain on this tour, in fact helped Sharma get his second hundred on the trot, as it was he who looked to tear apart the opposition. Rohit Sharma has been in top form since the IPL this year.

His experience is what Raina has been banking on so far and he has repaid his faith by steering India to a comfortable win of 7 wickets with 7 overs to spare! Looking at the public displeasure in India after the defeat to Zimbabwe, this win was crucial in appeasing them and Raina too, who as captain has to face the heat the most.

Rohit Sharma was the man-of-the-match undoubtedly. Unlike India, it was Sri Lanka’s bowling which struggled. Apart from pacer Nuwan Kulasekara, none of the other bowlers impressed. Tillakratne Dilshan took a huge gamble by taking both Ajantha Mendis and Dilhara Fernando.

Mendis has become too predictable now and Fernando is not much of use on slow pitches. So like Raina, it is Dilshan who will be under the pump, ahead of the clash against Zimbabwe next up.

His experience will be a must for his young team, to help beat a confident Zimbabwe team, who are constantly improving. If Sri Lanka get their act right in the next game, the points table will get interesting further. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but Zimbabwe might even beat Sri Lanka convincingly, which means that in my book, they are the favourites to win!

Okay, India won the series 3-1 following the abandoned encounter at Delhi. However, the batters from both sides dominated the series. If Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir and Virat Kohli starred for India, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Upul Tharanga and Kumar Sangakkara were in explosive form for the Lankans.

The bowlers from both sides, experienced and inexperienced, were at the receiving end. As such, if there was one factor that decided the fate of the series, it was the inability of the weak Lankan middle-order to capitalize on the great starts provided by the trio mentioned above.

Except for Mahela Jayawardene, they did not have much when it came to experience in the middle-order. Thilina Kandamby showed some spark when India visited Sri Lanka earlier in the year, but on this tour his deficiencies were clearly exposed.

In fact, he will be remembered more for his innumerable fielding lapses during the series more than anything else. Then, there is Chamara Kapugedara, who has been retaining his place in the side for reasons unknown.

He hasn’t registered a decent score in a while and it’s about time the Lankan selectors tell him to shape up for ship out. Among the others, Thilan Samaraweera is still finding his feet as an ODI batsman, while Sanath Jayasuriya has looked anything but comfortable while batting down the order. And so, Jayawardene’s failure proved all the more critical for the visitors.

Despite being on the losing side, it was great to see Dilshan in full flow. 2009 has been his watershed year and he can only get better from here on. The drives on the up, cuts, pulls and of course the Dilscoop have made him as devastating a batsman as Sehwag.

Like Dishan, Tharanga too was in ballistic form. He had lost his way after a sensational start to his career, but this series should set things right for him once again. And about Sangakkara, one can’t be effusive enough in praise of his batsmanship. The effortless ease with which he cleared the boundaries throughout series was in stark contrast to the power play on demonstration by Dilshan, yet equally effective.

However, if the Lankan trio was explosive, India were even more deadly. Sehwag carried his murderous form from the Tests into the ODIs and gave India some enthralling starts. And when Sehwag failed, Tendulkar was there to hold fort. Gambhir only made one major contribution in the series, but it was perhaps the most significant of all. Further, this series could end up being the turning point in rookie Kohli’s career. Prior to the series, he was not able to convert the 50s into bigger scores. But at Kolkata, in the company of Gambhir, he achieved it in an impressive manner, and more importantly under pressure.

In the other departments, it has to be said that India were the slightly better of the two bowling sides, while Lanka took the honours when it came to fielding, despite not being at their best. At the end of the day, however, their overall failure as a batting unit sealed their fate.

Ravindra Jadeja was the unlikely hero with the ball for India, claiming a career-best 4/32 and helping India overcome an unbelievably belligerent start by Sri Lanka, who batted first after winning the toss. In the end, India won easily by 7 wickets thanks to yet another supreme effort from Sachin Tendulkar, who remained unbeaten on 96, as India chased down a modest target of 240.

The way the Lankans began, they looked well on course to score over 350. Tillakaratne Dilshan and Upul Tharanga slammed nearly each and every delivery out of sight as the partnership raised 65 in less than seven overs. Once again, the left-arm pace duo of Zaheer Khan and Ashish Nehra were at the receiving. Ishant Sharma, who took the place of Praveen Kumar in the playing XI, wasn’t spared either. If anything, he was singled out for special treatment by the dynamic opening pair. The Indians once again were let down by their fielding. MS Dhoni’s keeping replacement Dinesh Karthik missed one of the easiest run out chances amidst the run carnage, Dilshan being the beneficiary. Luckily for India and Karthik, the slip-up did not prove too costly as Nehra snapped him up a few runs later, caught by none other than Karthik himself of a short, rising delivery which Dilshan (41) top-edged.

The troubles though were far from over for the Indians. Tharanga continued the good work in the company of skipper Kumar Sangakkara. Mixing caution and aggression perfectly, the two laid a solid foundation for Lanka. The pair had added exactly a hundred when Sangakkara’s charge down the track to his opposite number Virender Sehwag proved fatal. Sangakkara missed the ball and a fumbling Karthik somehow managed to get rid of the bails, giving India some much-needed respite. There was no looking back for India from thereon as they took firm control.

The left-arm spinner Jadeja began his demolition job by cleaning up the well-set Tharanga (73) from one which came back in sharply and breached his defence. Soon, he had Chamara Kapugedera bowled off an inside edge. At the other end, Harbhajan Singh was doing a wonderful job, strangling the runs. He was rewarded for his efforts with the wicket of Mahela Jayawardene. The former skipper fell to a tame dismissal when he lofted a long hop straight into the hands of a floating short mid-on. Sharma, who had a woeful first spell, then came back to dent the Lankans further with a double blow. He had the dangerous Thilina Kandamby bowled and Suraj Randiv caught behind off successive deliveries. Jadeja then continued his good work trapping Nuwan Kulasekara lbw and cleaning bowling Ajantha Mendis as the Lankan innings drew to a close. From 165/1, the visitors miraculously collapsed to 239 all out.

For the Lankans to stay in the game, early wickets were essential. However, a whirlwind start by stand-in skipper Sehwag (44) ensured the nerves were settled in the Indian dressing room. Gautam Gambhir and Yuvraj Singh also made useful contributions, but it was Tendulkar who saw India through till the end in the company of Karthik (36*). On most days, such a performance would have been enough to earn Tendulkar the man of the match, but on this day it was undeniably Jadeja whose performance stood out.

Sanity was restored to cricket at Nagpur as the scores returned to the usual 300-bracket from the extraordinary 400 plus totals achieved at Rajkot. But, there was no shortage of drama here too as the match once again went down to the wire. Yet again, it seemed Sri Lanka would throw it away after being in a commanding position for most part of the chase. However, an unimpressive bowling effort and some slack fielding in the closing stages combined to let Lanka off the hook in the end. For the visitors, Angelo Mathews (37*) played a brisk cameo, batting with a runner towards the fag end of the innings, to ensure the Lankans did not repeat the mistakes made in the first game.

Earlier, it was Tillakaratne Dilshan who once again set up the chase of 302 perfectly for Sri Lanka, notching up his second blistering ton in as many games and fifth overall. Like in the first game, he got excellent support from his opening partner Upul Tharanga. The duo batted as if they were continuing from where they finished at Rajkot. All the bowlers were taken to the cleaners from the very start of the innings. Zaheer Khan was pulverized, as were Ashish Nehra and Praveen Kumar. Most of Dilshan’s big strokes came hitting on the up, either straight down on the ground or over mid-on and mid-off. It was a typical Dilshan effort which saw the Lankans race past fifty in the 7th over. At the other end, Tharanga played his part well, finding the boundaries every time width was offered to him as the duo registered their second century partnership in consecutive matches.

With the Lankan openers going great guns, MS Dhoni had to turn to Harbhajan Singh as early as the 8th over. But Dilshan took a liking to him as well, playing mind games with him. At times he trudged down the ground to the spinner and on other occasions, he stayed back and nudged or cut the bowler for boundaries behind square. Eventually though, it was Harbhajan who got the breakthrough, beating Tharanga in the flight and having him caught in the slips. Dilshan then helped India’s cause by running out his captain Kumar Sangakkara for 21.

The match continued to ebb and flow from there on with Nehra cleaning up Dilshan for a magnificent 123 with a perfectly-directed yorker. At the other end, Zaheer delivered three big strikes in his final spell to keep India in the hunt. Ironically, his erroneous fielding lapses in the penultimate over settled the matter in favour of the visitors.

Batting first after winning the toss, India rode on a lucky century from skipper Dhoni – he was let off on more than one occasion – and half-centuries from Virat Kohli and Suresh Raina to post 301 for 7. This after Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir fell cheaply and Sachin Tendulkar failed to convert a good start. The recall of Ajantha Mendis benefited Lanka while debutant spinner Suraj Randiv was more than impressive, picking up three crucial scalps. India still ended up with a fighting total. But the kind of form Dilshan is in, no total can be termed match-winning. He missed out on the man of the match award by a whisker at Rajkot, but at Nagpur there were no two choices.