Dambulla: India continued with their winning run from the Test series as they thrashed the Sri Lankans by nine wickets with 127 balls to spare in the first ODI in Dambulla on Sunday.
After Rohit Sharma was run out early in the chase of 217, Shikhar Dhawan and skipper Virat Kohli guided the run chase with an emphatic 197-run partnership that was all about dominance and carnage.
The duo wasn’t troubled by any Sri Lankan bowler as hit boundaries at will and rotated the strike beautifully to help India take a 1-0 lead in the series. Of the two, Dhawan was the one who ripped apart the bowling single-handedly as he carried on from where he had left in the Test series bludgeoning his way to an unbeaten 132 of just 90 balls, hitting 20 fours and three sixes in the stylish yet aggressive knock. Courtesy Virat and Shikhar, India have notched up their biggest win in terms of balls spared in a chase of 200-plus runs.
Kohli was quite happy to play second fiddle but came up with an unbeaten 82 of 70 deliveries to add to the misery of the Sri Lankans.
Earlier, the Indian skipper won the toss and put the hosts to bat. Openers Niroshan Dicwella and Danushka Gunathilaka (35) got Sri Lanka off to a flying start as they raced to a 74-run opening partnership and for the first time, it looked that the Sri Lankans would put up a huge score on the board and might topple the Indians in the match. Yuzvendra Chahal, playing his fourth ODI broke the opening partnership after he sent back Gunathilaka.
Kusal Mendis had then joined a well-set Dickwella and the both of them continued to put the pressure on the Indians before Kedar Jadhav proved to be the man with the golden arm once again as he dismissed Dickwella for 64, who was slowly looking like a threat to the visitors
From being at 139/1 at one stage, a dramatic collapse saw them get bundled out for 216 runs in 43.2 overs. Angelo Mathews fought with an unbeaten 36 but wickets kept on tumbling at the other end. Axar Patel was the best bowler for the Indians with figures of 3/34, followed by Jasprit Bumrah, who got 2 wickets conceding 22 runs.
Brief scores-
Sri Lanka 216 all out in 43.2 overs (Niroshan Dickwella 64, Angelo Mathews 36*; Axar Patel 3/34) lost to India 220/1 in 28.5 overs (Shikhar Dhawan 132*, Virat Kohli 82*; Angelo Mathews 0/9) by nine wickets