India Clinch ODI Series

Team India gave an audacious performance on the field today ... the boys in blue beat hosts Sri Lanka in the 4th ODI to clinch the IDEA Cup.

India won a very fortunate toss and elected to bat first. And the boys took full advantage of the bright sunshine and dry ground. The openers started out solidly with Gambhir being the cautious guy and Virat Kohli hitting sme lusty boundaries.

But Sri Lanka came back with a and Gautam Gambir fell for 17 off Kulasekara. Yuvraj Singh followed suit a short while later, having played for two overs without scoring a run.

But in came a very determined Suresh Raina who along with Kohli swatted the ball across the ground. Kohli, the captain of the U-19 World Cup winning team made his maiden ODI half century. Just when things seemed to favor India's way, Kohli dragged a Thusara ball back onto the stumps. And at 81-3, it looked like India wouldn't make more than 150.

But then Mahendra Singh Dhoni set a great example and proved why he was made the captain of the team. Dhoni along with Raina very cleverly kept rotated strike and frequently chipped 1's and 2's, scoring at almost 6 an over. When both batsmen set in, the boundaries started coming. Both batsmen scored fifties and everyone expected a score in excess of 300.

But then the boat rocked again and Raina departed due to a careless shot. The rest of the batsmen got out before anyone could blink. Indis ended up scoring a slightly disappointing 258.

The Sri Lankan innings couldn't have gotten a better start. Sanath Jayasuriya was in ferocious form as he made a mincemeat of Praveen Kumar and Zaheer Khan. But then Praveen trapped Warnapura for a duck and later snared Sangakkara for just 6.

Captain Jayaardane got into a horrible mix up and got run out for just 16. The middle order collapsed like a deck of cards as spinners Yuvraj Singh and Harbhajan Singh sniped out the batsmen with ease. Apart from Jaysasuriya who made 60, the Sri Lankan batsmen seemed short on adrenaline. Some great catches by Suresh Raina helped matters.

Sri Lanka bundled out or 212 and India won the match by a commanding 46 runs.... and claimed the ODI series.