Cricket

Sri Lanka vs India, 1st ODI: India out for 146

India were shot out for a paltry 146 in the first ODI against Sri Lanka at Dambulla. Captain MS Dhoni opted to bat first after winning the toss and he would have hoped for a better showing than this, even though the team was missing dashing opener Virender Sehwag.

Scorecard

In his absence, Gambhir and debutant Virat Kohli opened the batting. The idea was to preserve wickets in the beginning to counter the spinners effectively but it all fell flat as Gambhir was out for a duck and Kohli followed his soon after. From 2 for 23, India were reduced to 36 for 3 as Raina too succumbed to the pressure of building a partnership and then, everything rested on the shoulders of Yuvraj and Dhoni.

The duo added 37 runs before Mendis came on and it was too unlucky for Yuvi as he cut one onto his stumps. Rohit Sharma didn’t last long either and then the tail was exposed. Dhoni went for 6 and Irfan for 7 and India were down to 7 for 87.

The tail wagged as much as possible though with all the bowlers contributing 55 runs to the total. Murali took 3 for 37 and Mendis hauled 3 for 21 as this series already looks lost.

Tags: 1st odi, ajantha mendis, gautam gambhir, Idea Cup 2008, India, MS Dhoni, muralitharan, ODI series, sri lanka, virat kohli, yuvi, yuvraj singh