2011-12 Commonwealth

Bank Series

The 2011-12 Commonwealth Bank Series was held between three countries. India, Sri Lanka and Australia, the hosts. The captain of India was Mahender Singh Dhoni, the Sri Lankan skipper was named Mahela Jayawardene and Michael Clarke captained Australia.

This was the first match of the CB Series. India won the toss in windy conditions and elected to bowl first. Australia was seeming to be under pressure when they lost two batsmen for 35 runs. There was a shortage in the 50 overs due to rain and the match was reduced to 32 overs per side. The Australians finished of on a massive total of 216/5 in 32 overs because of smashing innings by the debutant Matthew Wade(67) and David Hussey(61). India did a shameful batting performance of 151 all out. Virat Kohli batted well for his 31. Clint McKay picked up four wickets and Australia won the match by 65 runs(D/L) method. Matthew Wade got the Man of the Match for his smashing innings.

1st Match(Ind vs Aus)

The second match of the CB Series was played between India and Sri Lanka. The match was played at the WACA Ground at Perth. Sri Lanka batted first and scored a 233/8. Dinesh Chandimal was the top scorer with his 64. Ravichandran Ashwin picked up three men with giving of 32 runs. The second innings went very well for India, Sachin Tendulkar was looking well and got to a start but got bowled out for48 with five fours included in the innings. Virat Kohli again top scored for India with 77 runs from 94 balls. He smashed a six before the ball he got run out by Malinga trying to take a quick single. Ashwin scored 30 not out off 38 balls and Jadeja scored 24 not out off 28 balls and India finished off at 234/6 off 46.4 overs. India won the game by four wickets and Ashwin received the MOM Award.

2nd Match(Ind vs Sl)

The third match of the CB Series was played at the WACA Ground at Perth. Sri Lanka won the toss and elected to field first. Australia did not batted very well in the first innings an scored a low total of 231 all out. Michael Clarke top scored for Australia with his 88 balls 57. Angelo Mathews picked up 2 wickets with giving off 37 runs. The second innings went worse than worst for the Lankan men. Angelo Mathews scored 64 off 76 balls and became the best batsman of the innings and the match. The Lankans got all out for just a 226 in 49.5 overs with Xavier Doherty picking two wickets went for 24 runs. Australia won the match by 5 runs and Michael Clarke got the MOM Award.

3rd Match

The fourth match was held at the Adelaide Oval. Australia won the toss and chose to bat first in terrific batting conditions. Australia did not get to a kind of start but when the debutant Peter Forrest(66) and David Hussey(72) fired the Indian bowling lineup. Australia finished off their innings giving India a massive total of 271 runs scoring 270 for the loss of six wickets. India came into bat and straight away Gautam Gambhir got a fifty. Things went a little hard for India as they were playing defencively but had a plenty of wickets in hand. Gautam Gambhir got out for 92 off 111 balls. The Indian skipper was batting really very defenceively. Suresh Raina gave good support to Dhoni and then came the last over. India needed 13 off the last over and Ashwin coul not face the first ball. He took a single in the second ball and the skipper came on strike. He smashed the ball down the ground all the way for six. This six was the biggest six of the CB Series of 112 m. 6 off 3 and it was a full toss. Dhoni smashed it through the pull shot and got caught by Davi Warner. The Indian fans went all quiet. But a signal of No Ball came from the umpire. Relief . 3 off 3 balls and Dhoni ran three runs and India won the game by four wickets. The skipper got 44 runs with just one six in the innings. Gautam Gambhir got the MOM Award for a magnificient battin performance.

4th Match (Ind vs Aus)

The fifth match of the triangular series was held at the Adelaide Oval at Adelaide. The Lankans won the toss and elected to bat first. Sri Lanka could not get to a very good start and scored 236/9 in their 50 overs. The leading run scorer of the innings with a tremendous 81 of 91 deliveries was Dinesh Chandimal. India came in to bat an were looking well. Virat Kohli raised up his bat to salute a 3000 ODI runs. The skipper came at the stage of 118/4. He played tremendously along with Gautam Gambhir(91). Gautam Gambhir was run out on 91 from 106 by Kulasekera. The Indians required 4 of the last ball and the skipper smashed it to long off for 3 runs. He finished off with 58 runa with three four and a six. He got the MOM award for a brilliant batting performance and the game was ended in a tie.

5th Match (Ind vs Sl)

The sixth match of the series was held at the SCG. Australia won the toss and chose to bat. The Lankan bowling lineup was very strong and they were getting the Australians into trouble. A little rain interrupted in between the game an reduced 9 overs per team and the match became of 82 overs. The Lankans restricted the Australia to a low score of 158 all out. David Hussey was the hero in batting with 58 runs. The Lankans came into bat and finished off things in style. They scored 152/2 in 24.1 overs and the skipper Mahela Jayawardene played a good innings of 61 and Thisara Perera received the MOM Award for his 2/29 in 7 overs.

6th Match (Aus vs Sl)

The seventh match was held at the Gabba at Brisbane. The Australians won the toss and elected to bat first. They got off to a very slow start. But they got a good score of 288/5 from 50 overs. Peter Forrest(52) and Mike Hussey(59) got half centuries. Irfan Pathan picked up three men and gave off 61 runs in 10 overs. The Indians could not bat their 43.3 overs very well. They got restricted on just a 178 runs and lost the game by 110 runs. The skipper again played a good innings of 56 of 84. Ben Hilfenhaus picked up five wickets and Matthew Wade had a good time behind the wickets and he also took five catch. Hilfenhaus finished off with bowling figures of 5/33 and got the MOM Award.

7th Match (Aus vs Ind)

The eighth match was played at Brisbane. Sri Lanka won the toss and chose to bat first. They were looking wonderful as Dilshan(51) and Thirimanne(62) got the Lankans to a score of 289 for the loss of 6 wickets. India was in great pressure to score a massive total of 290. They got to a slow start and Virat Kohli only played very well for his 66. Irfan Pathan even got 47. the Indians got bowled out for 238. and Thisara Perera got 4 wickets for 37 and Kulasekara picke up three for 40 and got the MOM award. Sri Lanka won the game by 51 runs.

8th Match(Ind vs Sl)

The ninth match of the CB Series was held at Hobart. The Australians won the toss and chose to bat first. They got off to a lovely start and were looking very well. Peter Forrest got his maiden international cricket century and got the first hundred of the series. He got out for 104 off 138 balls. The Lankans were lookig so well because of Mahela Jayawardene who got an 85 runs of 81 balls. They were in a pressure situation until Thisara Perera id not score 21 runs off 11 balls. The Lankans won the game by 3 wickets and became the table toppers. Mahela Jayawardene got the MOM award for his magnificient batting performance. It was a goog game of cricket.

9th Match (Sl vs Aus)

The tenth match was played at the SCG. Australia won the toss and chose to bat first. David Warner fired in the innings at the start and got 68 off 66 balls. David Hussey (54) and Matthew Wade(56) got fifties as well. At the end the Australians finished of at 252/9. Virender Sehwag picked up 3 wickets for 43 runs. The Indians batted very baly and got all out for just a 165 runs. Ravichandran Ashwin became the top scorer with 26 of 37. The skipper of Australia, Shane Watson picket up two wicket for just 9 runs. David Warner got the Man of the Match. Australia won the game by 87 runs and gained a bonus point. It was a good game to watch.

10th Match (Ind vs Aus)

The eleventh match was played at Hobart. India won the toss and chose to field first. Mahela Jayawardene got 22 runs of 33 balls as he got out trying to play the late cut shot and got caught at first slip by Ravindra Jadeja. TM Dilshan(160 not out) got a centurion along with Kumar Sangakkara(105). They both aded a partnership of 200 runs and it was the highest partnership at Hobart in ODI History ever. Sri Lanka got a total of 320 for 4. India came into bat and got to a very fast start and Sachin(39) and Sehwag(30) got a wonderful opening partnership of 54. Gautam Gambhir and Virat Kohli got a partnership of 115 runs. Gautam Gambhir got 63 of 64 balls. Suresh Raina came in to bat and these both got a partnership of 120 not. Suesh Raina got 40 of 24. Virat Kohli got a century and hit Malinga for 24 runs in an over and the sequence was 2,6,4,4,4,4. He ended at 133 not out from 86 balls. This was the highest score for Virat Kohli in his career and this was the most expensive bowling figures in ODI cricket. India chased the total of 320 in just 36.4 overs. India had to gain a bonus oint to stay alive in the series and a chance to reach in the finals. And they did so. Virat Kohli got the MOM Award for a fabulous job.

11th Match (Ind vs Sl)

The twelfth match of the triangular series was played at Melbourne. Sri Lanka won the toss and chose to bat first. The top batsmen were Dinesh Chandimal(75), Kumar Sangakarra(64) and Lahiru Thirimanne(51) got runs. The Lankans got all out for 238 in their 50 overs. The Australians things did not go that well as they expected. David Hussey got 74 of 74 but the Australians got all out for 229 runs and lost the game by 9 runs. The Lankans were in the finals with Australia. Dinesh Chandimal got the Man of the Match award for a spectacular performance.

12th match (Aus vs Sl)

The Finals

The first final was played at the Gabba at Brisbane. The Australians won the toss and chose to bat first. The Australian opening partnership went too good as Matthew Wade got 64 runs and David Warner got 77 runs till the partnership ended. David Warner was hitting the ball to the fence as well as over the fence. He got his maiden one day international centurion. He got good support by his teammates. Especially by Michael Clarke(37). The Australians got 321 runs for 4 at the end of the overs. David Warner got out for 163 of 157 and got out on the last ball. The Sri Lankans didn’t got a very good start but Tharanga(60) along with Kulasekera(73) got a fifty. But Sri Lanka got all out for 306 from 49.2 overs. David Warner got the MOM award for his beautiful performance. Australia was 1-0 ahea in the 3 finals.

1st Final(Aus vs Sl)

The second final of the series. Australia won the toss and chose to bat first. Australia lost the first wicket for 22 runs. The second wicket went down for 56 runs. Michael Clarke got a wonderful partnership of 184 runs with David Warner. David Warner(100) got back to back centuries along with Michael Clarke(117).Australia finished of at 271 runs. Sri Lanka was looking out to a beautiful start. The opening partnership was of 179 runs. Mahela jayawardene got 80 runs and Dilshan got his 12th century in ODI’s. Kumar Sangakkara got 51 of 57. Sri Lanka got 272 runs for 2 in 44.2 overs and the finals were level 1-1.

2nd Final (Aus vs Sl)

The final match that will decide who will win the series was held at Adelaide again. Sri Lanka won the toss and chose to field first. Nathan Lyon made his one day debut. The first wicket fell on 75 runs. David Warner got out on 48. Matthew Wade, the top scorer of the innings with his 49 runs got out on when the team was 115 for 2. Australia got all out on 231 runs in 49.3 overs. Sri Lanka got all out for 215 at the other side. Upul Tharanga scored 71 runs and Clint McKay picked up his 2nd ODI five-wicket haul as he ended 5/28 an Australia won the triangular series.

3rd Final(Aus vs Sl)

Most Runs: Tillitakaratane Dilshan : 505 runsMost Wickets : Lasith Malinga : 18 wicketsMan of the Series : Tillitakaratane Dilshan

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