Cricket

Sri Lanka beat India, 1st ODI: Review

Sri Lanka beat India by eight wickets in the first ODI at Dambulla and took a 1-0 lead in the five match series.

Scorecard

After having won the toss, India elected to bat first but were crippled from the start itself as dashing opener Virender Sehwag was missing in action due to an ankle injury sustained in the nets. Virat Kohli made his ODI debut in his place but could not impress much as he was trapped in front by Kulasekara. The match had earlier started with a bang for the hosts as they got the prize wicket of Gambhir on the second ball of the match, as Vaas took his 399th ODI victim.

Suresh Raina and Yuvraj Singh tried to do the repair job but were unsuccessful as Raina was out driving. From 37 for 3 the match looked dead and buried, but Dhoni walked in and put on 37 runs with his vice captain. It almost looked as if the two would pull India out but were not able to, as after hitting Mendis for a six, Yuvraj was out next ball.

The whole Indian batting collapsed after that and with the tail wagging for 50 odd runs, a target of even 147 looked impossible at one stage.

Sri Lanka seemed to be in no hurry to get the runs as they got the chase going. Munaf Patel provided the Indians with two early break throughs and bowled non stop for his ten overs to end up with 2 for 34. But Jayawardene 61 n.o and Kapugadera 45 n.o had no intentions of letting the Indians sniff anything but defeat and held on till the end to register a fine victory.

The next match is at Dambulla again on the 20th of August.

Tags: 1st odi, ajantha mendis, Dambulla, gautam gambhir, Idea Cup 2008, India, Jayawardene, Kapugadera, kulasekara, live coverage, MS Dhoni, munaf patel, ODI series, result, score, sri lanka, suresh raina, Vaas, virat kohli, virender sehwag, yuvraj singh