India vs Srilanka - 3rd ODI - Preview

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India vs Srilanka - 3rd ODI

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Sri Lanka are under the pump ahead of a must-win tie against India at the Premadasa stadium in Colombo on Tuesday. If the Indians pull it off on Tuesday then they not only take an unbeatable lead in the five match series but also it will be their second successive series win against the Lankans on their soil.

Sri Lanka were badly let down by their top order the other day at the Premadasa but amidst all the carnage they found a new batting star in Thilina Kandamby who fought valiantly till the end. Also the second ODI marked a welcome return to form of their skipper Mahela Jayawardene although he would be disappointed that he did not finish the job off. Also this might be the match that could bring Murali the world record of most ODI wickets after he finished wicketless in the last match.

India are a team on a roll and after having won seven on the trot Dhoni would like to make it eight in a row, which would also render the rest of the series redundant. Sachin has got out both times to dubious decisions so expect a backlash from the Bombay bomber at the top of the order. The pace trio of Zaheer, Munaf and Praveen Kumar were quite magnificent with the ball under the lights and if the Sri Lankans were to chase again then they will be hoping for an encore.

Team news:

Both the teams are most likely to go in with the same squad that played in the second ODI unless an injury or two scuttles their thinking.

Pitch conditions:

Chasing under lights at the Premadasa is one of the toughest jobs in ODIs with the new ball doing quite a bit, so expect the team winning the toss to bat first without batting an eyelid. Mahela is yet to win the toss in this series so he would like to reverse that trend. Beautiful conditions for cricket are predicted for what is a mouth watering contest.

Trivia:

2- The number of wickets required by Murali to overhaul Wasim Akram's tally of 502 ODI wickets and become the highest wicket taker.
8- The number of wins that India have managed on the trot. They have done it 3 times with Sunil Gavaskar and Kapil Dev, Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid being the captains respectively.
17- The number of runs needed by Mahela Jayawardene to reach 8000 ODI runs. Source:www.cricfever.com