Kingston, Jamaica: Brilliant centuries from Upul Tharanga and Mahela Jayawardene helped Sri Lanka rout India by 161 runs in the Tri-nation series match, which was played at Kingston Oval on Tuesday.
It was a dismal performance from India in all the three departments, as the men-in-blue failed to do justice to their No. 1 rankings in world cricket.
First, it was the opening wicket partnership of 213 runs between Tharanga and Jayawardene which helped Sri Lanka post a humongous total of 348 for 1 in their 50 overs and later some brilliant bowling from Angelo Mathews and Rangana Herath handed over a 161 runs defeat to India at Kingston Oval. Ravindra Jadeja and Suresh Raina did try to steady the ship, but it was just too late to save the Indian team from a humiliating defeat.
Chasing a total close to 350 was not at all an easy task and too make it worse, India started off badly as Rohit Sharma departed after scoring just five runs. Murli Vijay, who was playing his first ODI this year, was taking too long to settle down but Shikhar Dhawan did manage to ease off some pressure by hitting odd boundaries. The Southpaw lost his wicket while he was trying to accelerate the score and was followed by Indian captain Virat Kohli who added just two runs to the team’s total.
Lasith Malinga bowled a perfect yorker to disturb the timber of Vijay, who was looking rusty throughout his innings of 30 runs. Dinesh Karthik and Suresh Raina did try to do the repair work and were looking good as they added 53 runs for the fifth wicket. But Herath got Karthik out which was followed by Raina’s run-out and India were reduced to 6/142 in 33.5 overs.
Jadeja did showed signs of some fight back with his knock of 49 runs but Sachithra Senanayake wrapped up the tail to bundle out India for 187 in 44.5 overs.
Earlier, it was some very strong performance from the opening pair of Sri Lanka which dismantled the Indian pace attack into the pieces. Shami Ahmed did have a good first spell but it was the only thing that India could take away from their first innings.
Jayawardene and Tharanga kept getting the odd boundaries and after first 15 overs, they started coming down the track to take on the mediocre bowling attack of India.
Ishant Sharma was the biggest disappointment as he kept bowling short. Following his footsteps Umesh Yadav did the same mistake and got hammered every now and then. The opening Lankan duo added 213 runs for the first wicket in just 38.4 overs before Ashwin sent back Jayawardene, who scored a classy century.
Tharanga and Mathews continued their assault and didn’t mind thrashing the Indian bowling including the spin twins in Jadeja and Ashwin. Kohli, who made some bad bowling changes in the first 20 overs, paid quite a heavy price as Indian bowlers gave away 348 runs in their 50 overs. Tharanga remained unbeaten at 174 during which he smashed 19 fours and three sixes and was very well complimented by Mathews who played a brilliant cameo of 44 runs to spoil the chances of India of winning this match.
