DAMBULLA: Sri Lanka squandered a great start by the top order to lose the first one-day international to India by nine wickets at the Rangiri Dambulla International Stadium yesterday.
Invited to bat first on a slow batting track Sri Lanka raced away to 139-1 by the halfway mark but lost their last nine wickets for just 77 runs in the next 19 overs to finish with a disappointing total of 216 that hardly proved competitive to an Indian side that had one of the strongest batting line ups in contemporary one-day cricket.
Dhawan who was not in the original squad for the Test series that India won 3-0 but subsequently recalled following the injury to Murali Vijay carried his exceptional form into the one-day game by striking his third hundred of the tour 132 not out off 90 balls inclusive of 20 fours and three sixes. He had won the Man of the Series in the Tests with two big hundreds at Galle (190) and at Pallekele (119).
With skipper Virat Kohli also weighing in with his 44th one-day fifty – 82 not out off 70 balls (10 fours, 1 six) Dhawan put the result of the match beyond doubt by sharing an unbroken second wicket partnership of 197 off 143 balls following the early loss of Rohit Sharma for four off a run out when his bat got jammed in the ground trying to beat Chamara Kapugedera’s direct hit from cover point.
The way man-of-the-match Dhawan batted he seemed to be toying with the Lankan bowling on a docile pitch which the Lankan batsmen failed to make full use of. Sri Lanka had a chance of getting his wicket at 120 but lo and behold the captain Upul Tharanga who had spoken a lot about improving the fielding in the pre-match press conference dropped him on 120 at mid-on off Lasith Malinga.
Niroshan Dickwella and Dhanushka Gunathilaka produced another solid opening partnership laying the foundation for a competitive total when they put on 74 off 14 overs. The stand was broken when Gunathilaka who was well set at 35 tried to reverse sweep off-spinner Kedar Jadhav and hit the ball straight to extra cover.
Kusal Mendis who replaced him helped Dickwella add a further 65 for the second wicket before the rot started. Jadhav trapped Dickwella lbw on the sweep shot for 64 and Mendis playing too much across the line was ‘done in’ by the left-arm spin of Axar Patel for 36.
From there onwards Sri Lanka’s batting lost direction as the batsmen got out to some poor shots and allowed India get back into the game. Once they got a grip of things the Indian spinners simply strangled the batting with some intelligent bowling that led to some desperate shot making.
The later order batsmen and the tail forgot that there was a frontline batsman Angelo Mathews at the other end and simply threw away their wickets instead of trying to help him bat out the full quota of overs.
Mathews was left high and dry on 36 not out desperately seeking a partner who could hang around with him. Patel ended up with his best figures in ODI cricket taking 3 for 34.
The two teams meet up at Pallekele on August 24 and 27 for the second and third ODIs. - ST
Sri Lanka’s Niroshan Dickwella who top scored with 64 tries to avoid a bouncer from Hardik Pandya.
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