Mumbai: Sri Lankan skipper Kumar Sangakkara tried hard to delay the inevitable but his resistance ended in the very first over of the fifth day as Zaheer Khan made him edge one to Dhoni. It was the beginning of the end for the Sri Lankans and the beginning of a new era in World Cricket. As India won the third test by an innings and 24 runs and the series 2-0, they overtook South Africa to become the Number 1 test team in the world.

India needed just four wickets to win the game and wrap up the series on the final day at Brabourne and it took the Indian bowlers just 40 minutes to polish off the Sri Lankan tail.

Sri Lanka started Day 5 at 274 for 6, still needing 59 runs to make India bat again. Their only hope was the skipper Kumar Sangakkara (137), who had kept India away from a win on the fourth day, batting on 133. But in the very first over, Zaheer bowled a ripper with the ball swinging into Sangakkara in the air, pitching and just moving away a little bit to take the edge and Dhoni didn’t make any mistake behind the stumps.

Once Sangakkara was dismissed, it was just a matter of time before the Sri Lankan innings ended. Both Rangana Herath and Nuwan Kulasekara couldn’t handle short deliveries from Zaheer Khan, who was the pick of the Indian bowlers, returning with figures of 5-72, with his figures on the final day reading 4-1-21-3.

The crowd went berserk when Muttiah Muralitharan edged a delivery from Harbhajan Singh and Dhoni took a brilliant catch to put an end to the Sri Lankan innings as they witnessed a historic moment in the history of cricket. Mahendra Singh Dhoni and his men had become the Number 1 team in Test cricket.

The victory has given India three points in the ICC rankings, taking their overall tally to 124 and leaving them ahead of South Africa and Australia in the ICC table.

Virender Sehwag was named the Man of the Match for his breathtaking knock of 293 in the first innings. He was also the Man of the Series for scoring 491 runs in 3 matches at an astonishing average of 122.75. He scored 2 centuries and one fifty in the series where his strike rate was an astounding 108.14. And we thought it was a test series!

As India recorded their second successive innings victory and clinched the Number 1 spot, the celebrations started in full flow. Well, the Indian players don’t have too much time to celebrate as they gear up for their next challenge in 3 days time with the first T20 encounter against Sri Lanka at Nagpur to be played on 9^th December.

Brief Scores:

India 726 for 9 dec (Sehwag 293, Dhoni 100*, Vijay 87, Dravid 74, Laxman 62, Tendulkar 52) beat Sri Lanka 393 (Dilshan 109, Mathews 99, Harbhajan 4-112) and 309 (Sangakkara 137, Paranavitana 54, Zaheer 5-72) by an innings and 24 runs

Man of the Match: Virender Sehwag

Man of the Series: Virender Sehwag

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