Captain Cool M.S.Dhoni steers India to a smart victory in first ODI

Captain Cool M.S.Dhoni guided India to a comprehensive 6-wicket win in the first ODI of the Wealthsurance Cup at Dambulla. It was an all-round team effort from Team India with three batsmen including the skipper chipping in with 50s while the bowlers earlier had made sure that the target wasn’t going to be too big. Hosts Sri Lanka heavily depended on the 39-year-old veteran Sanath Jayasuriya who scored his 28th ODI hundred and failed to match their opponents overall. It wasn’t a batting paradise at Dambulla with the ball holding up on the surface.

Toss: MS Dhoni won a crucial toss and he elected for the obvious ‘bowl first’ decision at Dambulla which has always been seamer friendly. India received a blow when Virender Sehwag was ruled out with a glute (buttock strain) injury.

Old man scores a 100 but his team falls short

Sri Lanka started their innings on a disastrous note when makeshift opener Tillakaratne Dilshan ran himself out in the third ball of the innings! After that early blow, the hosts decided to mix caution with aggression and the runs came at a moderate pace. Sanath Jayasuriya was going after anything that was wide and Sangakkara was determined to play out the fast bowlers. Sri Lanka went to drinks after the completion of the first two powerplays at 59 for 1 in 15 overs. This 2nd wicket partnership of Sanath and Sanga continued to consolidate to put up a solid platform and had it stayed little longer till the 35th or the 40th over then SL would have blasted to a big score. However that didn’t happen as Sangakkara threw his wicket away with a careless chip shot which went straight to mid wicket. Pragyan Ojha was the one who broke this potentially dangerous partnership and along with Yusuf Pathan had done well in containing the 2nd wicket pair. Sangakkara scored 44 from 86 balls with 2 fours and had put on 116 with Sanath in 27.3 overs.

The loss of Sangakkara had pulled the momentum down as the new batsman Thilina Kandamby struggled to keep the scoreboard ticking. Sanath Jayasuriya at the other end was puffing with a loss of energy and was just not able to run any more. There was an unusual sight of the field umpire holding energy drink for Sanath who would consume that after every run! Jayasuriya completed his century though, his 28th in ODIs and became the oldest ever player at 39 years and 212 days to score an ODI hundred beating the previous record of Geoffrey Boycott. Sri Lanka took their batting powerplay in the 39th over and that saw two more wickets going down in the form of Kandamby (17 from 32 balls, miscuing an Ishant Sharma delivery towards mid off) and three balls later Sanath Jayasuriya (107 from 114 balls with 10 fours and a six) tiredly hoiked a Zaheer full toss to mid off. Sri Lanka went onto score 72 runs in the final 10 overs thanks to Maharoof’s knock of 35 from 27 balls (with 2 fours and a six). India were the happier team though as SL were restricted for 246 for 7.

The Indian bowling was pretty good with the exception of Munaf Patel. Zaheer went for just 40 in his 10 and Ishant picked up 3 wickets for 52 in his 10. The spinners Ojha and Pathan did contain the batsmen well in the middle overs although the former got a beating in the final overs. In fact the most staggering thing was even Suresh Raina and Rohit Sharma getting a bowl and the duo conceded just the 38 runs in a combined 8 overs. The fielding from India was a mix bag, there were some good stops from someone like Suresh Raina and at the same time some silly mistakes especially from Yuvraj Singh.

Gambhir, Raina, Dhoni star in a successful chase

It was quite an eventful start to the Indian innings after Sachin Tendulkar (5) was wrongly adjudged lbw in the 4th over by debutant umpire Kumar Dharmasena (former Sri Lankan off spinner). Tendulkar was struck by a Thushara delivery that pitched outside the line of the legstump and had also hit him high on the pad. In the 5th over, India almost lost Gambhir when Kulasekara appeared to have pulled off a stunning caught and bowled with just two fingers! Gambhir wasn’t convinced that it was a clean catch and so did the TV Umpire and even now it is difficult to say whether the ball touched the turf or not! There was more luck to follow for India when Dilshan at point had put down a relatively simple catch offered by Suresh Raina in the 6th over.

In the 7th over, India stole the momentum of the match when Suresh Raina played a couple of classy straight drives on either side of the wicket for boundaries followed up with a lofted ondrive for a six. At this moment the vulnerability of the Sri Lankan pace attack got exposed. The two Indian left handers decided to go big with their partnership and even Mendis and Muralitharan couldn’t outsmart them. Singles kept on coming with ease to let off any pressure. There was a twist in the match though which came in the 25th over when Gambhir played a tired lofted shot to the outfielder off Murali to provide the opening for SL. Gambhir (62 from 68 balls with 5 fours) by then had played his part scoring his 14th ODI fifty and putting on 113 for the 2nd wicket. A couple of overs after that SL were back in the game after Suresh Raina got run out in the silliest fashion because of a miscommunication with Yuvraj. Like Gambhir, Raina did his bit with his 9th ODI fifty, scoring 54 from 71 balls with 3 fours and a six.

India were at 137 for 3 in the 28th over when Yuvraj Singh was joined by MS Dhoni. Yuvraj survived the initial threat from Mendis and that was enough for India to feel comfortable. There was another good partnership in the making before it got spoilt by a needless big shot from Yuvraj (23 from 40 balls) that was miscued to leave India at 181 for 4 in the 38th over. It was a matter of scoring another 66 runs in 72 balls and there was plenty of batting left plus a batting powerplay! Sri Lanka’s only chance of winning from here was by setting in panic amongst the batsmen but that was not possible with Dhoni like always keeping his cool. Rohit Sharma was a surprise as he never got over ambitious and stuck to his basics under his captain. The two batsmen didn’t over attack and kept their cool in the batting powerplay that was taken during the 43rd over. Ajantha Mendis for the first time crumbled under pressure and the 9 runs he leaked in the first powerplay over made the difference reducing the equation to 37 from 42 balls.

India eventually cruised through the target with 11 balls to spare. MS Dhoni scored 61 from just 65 balls with 5 fours and Rohit made a matured 25 from 30. India’s successful chase was mainly because of the aggressive running between the wickets that always got the extra runs, the only casualty of that was the run out of Raina. The Indian batsmen gave away just the one wicket to Murali and Mendis and had miled them for 99 runs in 20 overs! The Man of the Match award went to Sanath Jayasuriya for his hundred. The two teams clash again on the 31st in a day night affair at the RPS in Colombo.