|
August 18, 2008
 Sri
Lankan bowling was yet again too tough to handle for the
Indian batsmen. The first ODI turned out to be a
morale-shattering defeat for Team India. It didn't matter that
the One Day Team was a lot different from the Test Team. Now
the Sri Lankan bowling led by the Mystery Bowler - Ajantha
Mendis has not only dictated terms to batsmen who had scored
thousands of runs in Test Cricket but also to the young crop
of fearless Indian cricketers as seen in the first ODI at
Dambulla. Sri Lanka cruised its way to an easy 8-wicket win
after cleaning up the Indian batting for a paltry 146 in the
morning.
India's woes started a day before the match
when Virender Sehwag, its best batsman on tour stepped on a
cricket
ball to injure his ankle. That incident meant
that India had lost its sole match winner on this tour and in
Sehwag's place came a rookie Virat Kohli. The India U-19 World
Cup winning Captain was given the best of opportunities in
opening the batting along with statemate Gautam Gambhir. The
second ball of the match showed curtains to India's second
batsman on tour - Gautam Gambhir, who got cleaned up by a
swinging delivery that came back sharply through bat pad.
Chaminda Vaas was the bowler who did the damage but the wicket
came his way because of the strategy of having the wicket
keeper Sangakkara standing upto the stumps from Ball no. 1!
That denied Gambhir the liberty of walking down the pitch to
negate the swinging ball and it was a duck for the left
hander. Suresh Raina was the new man in and what he could do
was just to stick together with Virat Kohli and the Indian
innings never really moved forward. Both youngsters allowed
Vaas and Kulasekara the way they wanted and the pitch assisted
them with some good seam movement.
It was just matter of one mistake each from
the batsmen and the weak Indian top order was back in the hut
before drinks. In the 8th over, Kohli (12 from 22 balls with 1
four) got plumb infront to an incoming delivery from
Kulasekara even when he was about to come onto the frontfoot.
And in the 12th over, Raina (17 from 35 balls with 2 fours)
lost his patience to play a rash drive off Kulasekara on the
up to give catching practice to the man at covers. It was a
huge crime to lose three wickets to the Sri Lankan medium
pacers because the real threat of Ajantha Mendis and an
equally potent one from Muralitharan was yet to come! Yuvraj
Singh showed his maturity in this tricky situation and he
started to stitch along a partnership with Rohit Sharma. The
medium pacers were never going to be a problem but in the 20th
over, Mahela brought in his chief weapon - Ajantha Mendis.
Yuvraj had a shaky start, not able to read what was coming in,
but then went after a flighted delivery to smack Mendis for a
huge six over long on. The very next ball, Mendis flicked the
ball to force it to cut from outside off to hit the middle
stump while driving past the big bat pad gap of Yuvraj! The
dangerous Yuvraj (23 from 30 with 2 fours and a six) lasted
just 4 balls off Mendis and his team slipped to 73 for 4!
Unfortunately for India, the 23 scored by
Yuvraj was going to end as the top score of the innings! After
a while Rohit Sharma (19 from 31 balls with a four and a six)
and Captain MS Dhoni succumbed to the pressure created by the
mean bowling from Mendis. Rohit Sharma fell trying to be
cheeky against Thilan Thushara as at the other end, it was
almost impossible to get any runs off Mendis. And MS Dhoni (6
from 28 balls) tried to play a forceful cut shot off Mendis
but only to edge it to Mahela Jayawardene in the slips who
took back to back catches there. The match was confirmed to be
over for India with Dhoni's wicket falling at 87 for 6 in the
28th over. Had Dhoni lasted the distance, then India could
have got about 175 which is generally a tricky target for
teams batting second at Dambulla. India somehow stretched its
innings till the 46th over to put on 146. The unorthodox Munaf
Patel, coming in at no. 11 scored 15 with a four and a six to
put on 29 for the last wicket with the impressive Pragyan Ojha,
who remained unbeaten on 16 from 29 balls. Although the
limelight continued to be on Mendis, Muralitharan managed to
take three wickets as well like his new spin twin. But it was
Mendis who had the real impact once the top order fell to the
medium pacers. In his 9 overs, he bowled as many as 4 maidens,
gave away 21 runs and took the wickets of Yuvraj and Dhoni!
Sri Lanka are indeed very lucky to have discovered this deadly
bowler who can strike with a wicket with any of his
deliveries.
Sri Lanka were always going to get to the
147-run target. It was just about making them work hard for
the runs as far as the Indians were concerned. Their first
mission was to see the back of Sanath Jayasuriya otherwise he
would take the homeside to a victory inside the 20th over! The
Indian new ball pair of Munaf Patel and Zaheer Khan held their
dignity by sticking to short of length deliveries that moved
in both ways. And soon, Jayasuriya plotted his own downfall by
trying to go for a big hit which of course was never required
when chasing such a small target. Jayasuriya was gone for 10
(from 14 balls with a four) in the 7th over. A few overs
later, Munaf Patel took his second wicket when Sangakkara (19
from 41 balls with 2 fours) gave him a sharp return catch
after playing a bit too early in his backfoot flick. Sri Lanka
were at 45 for 2 now and the Indian Captain erred by bringing
on Irfan Pathan and also by taking the second and the third
powerplays. Pathan with his ordinary pace and the occasional
bad delivery was never going to be a threat nor has he been
good in producing the wicket taking deliveries of late. Mahela
Jayawardene and Chamara Kapugedera were let off the hook by
these captaincy blunders from Dhoni and it left hardly any
runs for Harbhajan Singh and Pragyan Ojha to bowl at! It was
only in the 23rd over that Harbhajan got introduced and the
target had already come to 58 and when Ojha was brought in the
26th over, it came further down to 44! Pragyan in particular
looked good because of getting some nice flight and turn that
he could get.
But it was too late for the match to turn on
its head and once again Mahela kept his head down to play a
Captain's knock under pressure. It was a repeat of the run
chase in the 3rd Test at the P Sara Stadium where Mahela's
solid technique prevented India from making further inroads.
This time too, it was an 8-wicket win for the Lankans. Victory
came in the 35th over with 91 balls to spare. Mahela helped
himself to 61 from 82 with 7 fours while Chamara Kapugedera
was unlucky to be stranded on 45 (from 72 balls with 4 fours).
Ajantha Mendis was the Man of the Match. This same venue will
be hosting the second ODI which is on the 20th and it is
doubtful that Sehwag can be fit by then.
|
