India beat Sri Lanka at the WACA

9 Feb 2012, 12:22 am   -   Source: AAP
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Virat Kohli almost went from hero to villain after running himself out late in India's victory over Sri Lanka at the WACA.

Virat Kohli cracked a match-winning 77 before injuring his leg attempting a suicide run in India's four-wicket triumph over Sri Lanka at the WACA Ground on Wednesday.

India, chasing 234 for victory, were in the box seat at 5-181 in the 36th over before Kohli's attempt at a quick single proved disastrous.

Not only was Kohli run out by Lasith Malinga's direct hit, the batsman damaged his left leg in his sprawling dive and had to be carried off the field by two trainers.

The dismissal left India with just four wickets in hand and needing a further 53 runs off 84 balls.

But tail-enders Ravi Ashwin (30no off 38 balls) and Ravindra Jadeja (24no off 28 balls) kept their cool to lift India over the line with 20 balls to spare in front of a small but vocal crowd of 6685.

The winning run came in comical fashion.

Ashwin should have been caught after skying Angelo Mathews straight up into the air.

But the two Sri Lankan fielders underneath the ball hesitated, and in the end neither even attempted to go for what would have been a simple catch.

The result gave India just their second victory in what has been a trying tour of Australia.

Sri Lanka will attempt to nab their first win under new coach Graham Ford when they take on Australia at the WACA on Friday.

Although India managed to grind out the win, Sachin Tendulkar's bid for a century of centuries continues to drag on after he was dismissed for 48.

Tendulkar, who was almost rested for the Perth match, was in good form before chopping all-rounder Angelo Mathews onto his stumps.

But it mattered little, with India reaching 6-234 in 46.4 overs after restricting Sri Lanka to 8-233 earlier in the day.

Sri Lanka's innings lacked firepower and excitement, with Dinesh Chandimal (64 off 81 balls), Tillakaratne Dilshan (48) and Angelo Mathews (33no off 28 balls) the only batsmen to get going.

Indian paceman Zaheer Khan claimed the key wickets of Kumar Sangakkara (26) and Upul Tharanga (four) to finish with 2-44 off 10 overs, while spinner Ravi Ashwin (3-32 off 10 overs) also played a key role in restricting Sri Lanka to a modest score.

In an innings bereft of highlights, the most entertaining moment came in the 47th over when fieldsman Suresh Raina toppled over the top of a seated security guard while attempting to save a boundary.

The boundary was saved and both Raina and the security guard were fine.

"We were probably 30, 40 runs short of our target," Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardene said.

"We had a good start. We just had to have one more big partnership and we would have been 260, 270. That was our target."

India captain MS Dhoni was satisfied with the win, but said there were still areas his team needed to improve.

"I was quite happy with the performance but the batting department can still improve," Dhoni said.

"It was a two-pace wicket. Some of the balls weren't coming through while others were zipping past."

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