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Bad weather forces third one-dayer to be abandoned

The third and final one-day international between Sri Lanka and India was abandoned due to rain and bad light and a fresh match will be played today at the SSC grounds.

Tickets purchased for this game will be valid today.

India who were sent into bat, reached a challenging 291 for 9 wickets off 50 overs, and Sri Lanka facing a revised target of 195 to win off 25 overs were 132 for 6 wickets off 19 overs when bad light brought the game to a abrupt halt around 6.05 p.m.

Prior to the first stoppage for rain around 4.00 p.m., Sri Lanka, chasing a victory target of 292 off 50 overs were 80 for 0 off 7.3 overs with Jayasuriya going great guns on 66 n.o and Marvan Atapattu 11 n.o.

For India, Trinidad born Robin Singh recorded his first one- day international 100 helping India to reach their total.

Robin Singh promoted in the batting order at number three, justified his promotion and batted for 149 minutes facing 101 balls with 11 fours and a six. Singh and Dravid (78) with nine fours off 79 balls provided the best stand for the Indians with 162 runs for the third wicket off 24.2 overs.

Azharuddin added a further 62 runs for the fourth wicket with Robin Singh but the Indians lost their last six wickets for 23 runs off 33 balls. Azharuddin also became the third cricketer to top the 7000 run mark in one-day cricket besides Desmond Haynes (West Indies) and Javed Miandad (Pakistan).

Aravinda de Silva inflicted the middle order damage, first having Dravid caught by Kalpage and then shattering Azharud- din's stumps and having Jadeja smartly stumped by Lanka de Silva on the leg side.

In the 45th over, India were 269 for 4 and with Mongia, Ku- ruvilla and Chauhan running themselves out in a desperate search for runs, India's chances of a score in excess of 300 faded away.

Sri Lanka's fielding which was not upto expectations at the initial stages, came back to its own during the latter stages of the game which enabled them to apply pressure on the Indian bats- men.

In the Sri Lanka innings Sanath Jayasuriya continued to tor- ment the Indian bowlers.His accomplished hitting saw the Indian field- ers despairingly chasing and then retrieving the ball.

India's tactics of opening the bowling with spinner Rajesh Chauhan badly miss fired as Jayasuriya plundered 23 runs from him which included four boundaries and a six in his third over.

He was replaced by Venkatesh Prasad but he too got the same treatment, being hit for two consecutive sixes.

But after the break for rain Jayasuriya looking to score quicker was caught in the deep for 68 off 38 balls with six fours and four sixes.

Sri Lanka were 97 for 3 off 12.3 overs at one stage but with the dismissals of Ranatunga, Mahanama and Kalpage rapidly in the quest for quick runs it was left to Aravinda de Silva to salvage his side.

Robin Singh, the medium pacer, took his third wicket sending back Aravinda de Silva and Sri Lanka's chances of survival were slim