Colombo: Unrecognisable from the team that crashed and burned during the Twenty20 series, Sri Lanka showcased tremendous resolve at the R Premadasa Stadium. Having squandered the initiative in the first half of both innings in the first One-Day International, they staged stirring fightbacks, first with the bat and then with the ball, to secure a dramatic tie against India on Friday night.
After stuttering and stumbling throughout their chase once Dunith Wellalage, the Player of the Match, ended an opening salvo of 75 between skipper Rohit Sharma and new vice-captain Shubman Gill, the game was India’s to win when Shivam Dube’s cameo brought India level with Sri Lanka’s 230 for eight. With two wickets in hand, India should have got the job done when Charith Asalanka, the home skipper, provided the final twist in the tale.
The part-time off-spinner, who had taken four wickets at the same venue against the same opposition in the Asia Cup last year, got one to go on with the arm to trap Dube in front, then defeated last man Arshdeep Singh’s unintelligent and ill-advised hoick next ball to win a leg before shout. India were bowled out for 230, the tie perhaps in the fitness of things considering that neither side really took the game by the scruff of the neck.
Asalanka’s decision to bat first was influenced by the nature of the track – there was turn aplenty right from the off, and the consensus was that batting would become even more difficult as the night wore on. Rohit seemed determined to debunk that theory, charging and lashing Asitha Fernando way over deep mid-wicket off the second ball of the chase. It was the beginning of a boundary-barrage as the captain hurtled to his fifty off just 33 deliveries, but when he was trapped in front not long after a beleaguered Gill top-edged a slog-sweep, India lost momentum aplenty.
Wickets kept tumbling with Wanindu Hasaranga and Akila Dananjaya also getting into the act. India were in a hole at 132 for five when KL Rahul, preferred to Rishabh Pant, and Axar Patel put on 57. Sri Lanka didn’t give up, not even when Dube seemed to have sealed the tie.
India did all the early running in the afternoon, Mohammed Siraj finding instant success with the new ball. While Pathum Nissanka carried forward his T20 form, the others succumbed around him and Sri Lanka found themselves at 101 for five, just past the halfway mark. Enter Wellalage, the former Under-19 captain who successfully reviewed a leg before decision first ball and batted as if on a shirtfront.
Without taking undue chances, he held the lower order together, eking out useful partnerships with Janith Liyanage, Hasaranga and Dananjaya, with whom he put on an innings-high 46 for the eighth wicket, on his way to a maiden half-century. Towards the end, India were off their disciplines a little bit, leaking 65 runs in the last ten overs. A huge influence on the final result, that.