India vs Sri Lanka, 1st ODI: The quick and the dead

The Test rollovers happened at sparsely-attended grounds. The Dambulla International Stadium witnessed a near full house. Fancy dresses, trumpets, bugles – it was a party out there on the terraces. A group of young supporters in front of the press box started a series of lung-busting songs early afternoon, when Kohli and Upul Tharanga walked out for the toss.

By the time, Dhawan reached his hundred with a steer to the square third man boundary, the drums were packed and the noise level dropped to barely audible. Sri Lankan fans have now learnt to accept defeats with a rueful smile. If Dhawan hammered the hosts in the second half, Kedar Jadhav rattled the Sri Lankan innings with his low-arm, seemingly innocuous off-spin after Kohli won the toss and elected to field. Niroshan Dickwella and Danushka Gunathilaka’s smooth passage to a 74-run first-wicket stand had started to question the India captain’s wisdom. Sri Lanka were 139 for one in the 25th over, when the slide started. They lost nine wickets for 77 runs to be all out for 216.

Dickwella looked Sri Lanka’s best bet to take his team to a challenging total. He was well past his half-century and showing promise. Jadhav fired in a straight delivery from around the wicket. The opener attempted a lap sweep, completely unprepared for the faster ball. He was trapped plumb in front. Then, Jadhav bowled a full-toss and had Tharanga caught at long-on. The job was done and the part-timer nonchalantly took a back seat to allow the frontline bowlers to take charge. Axar Patel had been an automatic pick in this game because of the additional benefit in terms of his lower-order batting. Yuzvendra Chahal being preferred over Kuldeep Jadhav was down to having a left-right combination. Two left-arm spinners, albeit one of the chinaman variety, could have been a little predictable.

Patel accounted for Kusal Mendis with a faster delivery. He held it back a little to outsmart Wanindu Hasaranga. The left-arm spinner finished with three wickets. Chahal and Bumrah bagged two scalps apiece. But the first half of the match was basically about second-string Indian spinners exposing Sri Lanka’s batting naivety. At the post-match press conference, Dhawan was asked whether this was the weakest bowling he had ever faced. The opener chose to be politically correct, saying: “No, I wouldn’t say that. I don’t use those harsh words. The left-arm bowler (Vishwa Fernando) bowls decent pace and even the other fast bowler… They have a good fast bowling attack, even in the Champions Trophy, they beat us. It’s just that we have got a mature side…”

The fact of the matter is that, with Malinga now over the hill, pedestrian would be an understatement to describe the Sri Lankan bowling. Dhawan had them at his mercy; cutting, pulling and reverse-sweeping to reach his ton in just 71 balls – his fastest in ODIs. His innings had 20 fours and three sixes.

The entire Sri Lanka innings had 20 boundaries. A cover drive off Malinga early in his innings was Dhawan’s finest on the night. The shot of the match, however, came from his skipper, when Kohli got to the pitch of a flighted delivery from Lakshan Sandakan and flicked his wrists to send it over mid-wicket for four. Then, Kohli went back to a short ball from the chinaman bowler and dispatched it over the long-on boundary with a straight bat. As easy as it gets…

The only mishap during India’s chase was Rohit Sharma’s run out. The newly-appointed vice-captain dropped his bat and had his feet in the air despite crossing the crease. Back to PlayStation cricket and the unbroken 197-run second-wicket partnership between Dhawan and Kohli felt like setting the degree of difficulty at the beginner’s level.