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          The carrom ball of the century

          • Nitin SundarJun 20, 2013, 06:24 PM
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              Social media manager Nitin spent his formative years perfecting the art of landing the googly, before blossoming into a book-cricket specialist. More excellence followed in the underarm version of the game before, like the majority of India's misguided youth, he started taking studies seriously. After four forgettable years of electrical engineering, followed by a rigorous MBA and 16 months in the strategy consulting industry, he began to ponder life's more profound issues. Such as the angle made by Brian Lara's bat with the horizontal at the peak of his back-lift. A move to ESPNcricinfo followed and Nitin is now a prolific nurdler in office cricket, with a questionable technique against the short ball.

          The pre-game forecast suggested rain might wash out the 55th India v Sri Lanka game in five years. However, the weather relented after a heavy morning downpour. India were overwhelming favourites given their form and recent track record against the familiar opponents.

          The toss was delayed by only 30 minutes and no overs were lost.

          India bowled first on a moist wicket that had something in it for every kind of bowler. Bhuvneshwar Kumar was in the business immediately, removing Kusal Perera with an away-swinger. Umesh Yadav had Tillakaratne Dilshan hopping - he injured his leg trying to play a shot, and had to leave the field despite treatment.

          Yadav and Bhuvneshwar made run-scoring close to impossible in their opening spells.

          Ishant's hair was the big talking point when he came on for a bowl. The broadcasters even turned the HotSpot camera on him. It made for hair-raising viewing.

          Ishant nipped out Kumar Sangakkara and Lahiru Thrimanne, both of them edging to Suresh Raina, making it a hat-trick of catches for him.

          Sri Lanka pottered about to reach 41 for 3 after 18 overs. Blame it on the typically English conditions in Wales.

          The ball was seaming about so much that MS Dhoni relinquished the keeping gear to come on for a trundle. Most watchers were caught by surprise...

          ... But not all of them.

          Dhoni nearly had Mahela Jayawardene out in his first over.

          Ravindra Jadeja came on and began to spin the ball big. The tricky nature of the pitch had even the commentators stumped.

          Jayawardene's exit meant Sri Lanka had to shut the shutters and rebuild. The batting Powerplay included two maidens and went for only 12 runs.

          Sri Lanka kept losing steam though. The highlight of the slog overs was R Ashwin bowling Nuwan Kulasekara behind the legs.

          Tillakaratne Dilshan came back to bat, but he was clearly in a lot of strife. A pitch invasion caused a flutter near the end of the innings. It happened while the ball was in play too.

          India's in-form top order was faced with a chase of 182. The openers - Rohit Sharma in particular - were edgy, but survived the early movement.

          Shikhar Dhawan didn't let the misses and edges curb his attacking mindset.

          Rohit perished just as he looked good for a substantial knock, but Dhawan continued to pile it on.

          Virat Kohli marched past 50 as well, against his favourite opponents.

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          India finished the chase with 15 overs to spare, extending their scarcely-believable run in the tournament.

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          So an India v England final. Plenty to look forward to on Sunday, on and off the field.

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