Sri Lanka Squander Solid Start To Collapse To 216

20 Aug, 2017 20:32 IST|Sakshi

Sri Lanka frittered away a promising start to be bundled out for 216, losing nine wickets for 77 runs in the first One-day International against India.

Dambulla: Sri Lanka frittered away a promising start to be bundled out for 216, losing nine wickets for 77 runs in the first One-day International against India here on Sunday.

Niroshan Dickwella (65) and Danushka Gunathilaka (35) gave the hosts a solid start with a 74-run stand, but after the openers' dismissal, Sri Lanka went on a self destruction mode to be all out in 44th over from a solid 139 for one. Left-arm spinner Axar Patel, playing his first international match since October last year, was the stand out bowler for India with a career-best figures of three for 34 runs in 10 overs. Sri Lankan fans turned up at the venue expecting an improved showing from the meek surrender in the preceding Test series but they were left disappointed, at least on the batting front.

The home team's ordinary batting show came after Virat Kohli won a fourth-consecutive toss on this tour and opted to field. India opted to go in with left-arm spinner Patel and leg spinner Yuzvendra Chahal as Kuldeep Yadav was surprisingly left out. Sri Lanka openers Gunathilaka and Niroshan played out the first five overs calmly, testing out the opening pair of Bhuvneshwar Kumar (0/33) and Jasprit Bumrah (2/22). Dickwella later played some attacking shots as Lanka reached 55/0 in the first ten overs.

Their 50-partnership had come off 53 balls, and they looked good for a long vigil at the crease as India were bereft of ideas to break their stand. Dickwella reached his 5th ODI half-century off 65 balls. But things started happening when the spinners, particularly Kedar Jadhav (2/26), came on to bowl. In the 14th over, Dickwella survived a run-out attempt with a dive, but then in that same over, Gunathilaka perished playing a needless reverse sweep off Chahal (2/60).

Kusal Mendis (36) then played some attractive strokes and put on 65 runs with Dickwella as they looked to attack the Indian spinners. Jadhav though trapped the opener lbw in the 25th over, with the batsman not surviving the DRS review either. The big blow came when Patel bowled Mendis against the run of play in the 28th over, with the scorecard reading 150/3 at that stage.

Lanka still looked good to reach 280 at that stage, but the spinners strangled the runs and collapse came expectedly thereafter. First, skipper Upul Tharanga (13) got off a horrendous full toss from Jadhav in the 33rd over and was caught at long on. In the next over, Kohli ran out Chamara Kapugedara (1) with a straight hit from extra cover.

In the same passage of play, Bumrah cleaned up Thisara Perera (0) with a beautiful yorker and Lanka's hopes of a challenging total all but vanished. Patel accounted for Waninda Hasaranga (2) and Lakshan Sandakan (5) to dismiss any fightback from the lower order. It was his best effort in ODI cricket, going past 3/39 against South Africa in Indore (2015).

Lasith Malinga (8) put on 22 runs with Angelo Mathews (36 not out) for the ninth wicket as they pushed the Lankan score past 200. But the former departed in an attacking manner, stumped off a wide delivery from Chahal as the Lankan innings crossed the 40-over mark. They didn't last long however, despite Mathews' best efforts, with Bumrah cleaning up Vishwa Fernando (0) in the 44th over to bring another hapless showing from the hosts to an end.