This was Jayawardene's first ODI century in two years and 50 innings,
but it was Tharanga who claimed an illustrious record en route his
highest ODI score. This was the seventh time he was involved in a
double-century partnership, joint-highest along with Ricky Ponting.
Tharanga's was the third-highest individual score against India; four
out of the best five individual efforts against India have come from Sri
Lanka. Both, though, benefitted from some generous Indian fielding and
bowling: Jayawardene was dropped on 25, Tharanga was missed on 2 and 91.
Generally, too, India - missing the injured MS Dhoni - lacked the edge
both with the ball and in the field. Apart from not being able to take
wickets, India were pretty loose with the ball. At the death, they kept
bowling length, went for at least one boundary in every over since the
Powerplay was taken in the 35th over, and conceded 180 in the last 16
overs. Tharanga's acceleration was stark: from 72 off 105 to the
eventual 174 off 159.
Captaining India for the first time, Virat Kohli brought in Shami Ahmed
ahead of Buvneshwar Kumar, a move that will be debated. Bhuvneshwar gave
India breakthroughs with the new ball in most of the matches he played,
but Shami didn't pose any threat. Another man coming in, M Vijay,
dropped Jayawardene.
The Sri Lanka openers gave the pitch the respect the first two
low-scoring matches have accorded it, but it was obvious that either the
track was much drier or it was the West Indies fast bowlers who
exploited the moisture much better. Of the three quicks, only Umesh
Yadav extracted some help from the pitch, but he too strayed with his
length, allowing Tharanga to play his favourite cut shot often. The
innings' first boundary came through that cut. Ishant Sharma, at third
man, made an equal contribution by letting the ball through. By then,
Rohit Sharma had missed a half chance when he failed to hit the only
stump visible from point. Tharanga was only 2 then.
The first five overs brought only 16 runs, but soon the batsmen shed
caution. Yadav's pace was used well when lofted over the infield. And
Ishant drew no respect. Jayawardene walked down the wicket to loft him
over long-on, and in the same over Yadav misfielded at fine leg to
return the favour to the bowler.
It was perplexing that India introduced R Ashwin in the 20th over, and
by then Sri Lanka had reached 90 without much trouble. Jayawardene was
49 off 58 then, and Tharanga 36 off 56. The same trend continued as
Jayawardene kept hitting the odd boundary in the middle overs and almost
on auto-pilot they had strolled to 168 in 34 overs.
Sri Lanka now asked for the field to come up, and Tharanga opened up. He
went after both Ashwin and Ishant, and by the time Jayawardene fell for
107 he was ready to take control. Just before that, he had been dropped
by Yadav at third man, again off Ishant. Almost without taking a risk,
Tharanga kept getting inside the line and carting the Indian bowlers.
The 49th over, bowled by Yadav, was a complete bowling meltdown. Yadav
began with a low full toss, which was sliced for a flat six over point.
Then he saw Mathews back away, and bowled five wides. Two fours later,
he had conceded 22 to finish with the worst economy rate of the innings.
Tharanga was not done yet, and hit another six over extra cover, this
time off Shami. Tharanga was so dominant that Mathews scored only 44 off
the 135-run stand between them.
Mathews was in his element in the field. He surprised India by taking
one of the new balls, and began with the first maiden of the match.
Rohit was soon caught at short midwicket, and Mathews didn't allow India
any pace to work with. Both the spinners were introduced within the
mandatory Powerplay, by the end of which India had only 28 runs. Shikhar
Dhawan and Virat Kohli fell to that pressure, and M Vijay followed
soon. The rest was merely an official stamp on India's biggest defeat
after putting a side in.
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