India vs. Sri Lanka: Raina left embarrased by powerplay faux pas

In a clear potrayal of inexperience, young Indian captain Suresh Raina forgot to tell on-field umpires about bowling Powerplay that he intended to take against Sri Lanka in the tri-series match on Sunday.

Needs a lesson or two.

Raina won the toss and asked Sri Lanka to bat first. After the first 10 overs, the Powerplay field settings were still preserved though there was no official confirmation from Raina to the Umpires about the bowling powerplay. The confusion prolonged till the 15th over after which the fielders were pushed back in the deep, as is done after the Powerplay.

One more over went like this before Raina realised the gaffe and approached the on-field umpires, who told him that they had not been informed anything about Powerplay. The episode left many amused, including the Sri Lankan captain Tillakaratne Dilshan who was seen giggling.

Eventually, official Powerplay was taken from 17th to 22nd overs and Sri lanka unofficially got 25 overs of Powerplay.

Earlier, before the start of the tournament, Raina said leading the country was an honour and dream come true for him but it has also imposed extra responsibility on his shoulders. At 27 years of age, with 90 One-day Internationals under his belt, Raina is easily one of

Mis-hit

the senior cricketers in the touring party. He has figured in the middle-order for quite some time now (beginning with 2004), has got opportunities at the highest level and has also enjoyed the support of coach Gary Kirsten and captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni over the last couple of years.

Also on Sunday, Team India registered their first win of the tournament by thrashing Sri Lanka by seven wickets. It was also the first victory of Team India under Suresh Raina as captain. After being spanked in the opening game, Indian bowlers produced a disciplined show to dismiss Sri Lanka for 242. Rohit Sharma hammered his second successive ODI century as India crushed Sri Lanka by seven wickets in their second match to put their campaign back on track in the tri-series. With an unbeaten match-winning hundred, Rohit Sharma has registered his second in successive innings. In his previous outing against Zimbabwe, he had recorded a career-best 114 on May 28, 2010.

Rohit and Sachin Tendulkar now share an Indian record for posting two hundreds in Zimbabwe.