Up in the hills, India touch new lows

Gaurav Kanthwal

Tribune News Service

Dharamsala, December 10

It was a day when the Indian ODI team plumbed new depths after a long, long time. 

India posted their third-lowest total in ODIs at home, and their lowest at home batting first. The top five batsmen were dismissed for India’s lowest score ever (16/5), none of them getting to double digits. The last time such a disaster fell on them was five years back in Chennai in 2012, against Pakistan. India posted their lowest score (11/3) in the Powerplay (first 10 overs) since 2012. Four Indian batsmen were out for a duck — India’s joint-most in an ODI, the other occasion being the 2011 World Cup match against South Africa. 

With so many dubious distinctions and a paltry total of 112 runs against Sri Lanka, the No. 2 ranked side was expected to lose, and it did so by seven wickets in the series-opener. 

India’s hope of becoming the world’s No. 1 ODI side lies in tatters as only a 3-0 series win would have made that possible. And with the team scheduled to play a large number of matches away from home in 2018, the top rank is not likely to be achieved anytime soon.

Rohit Sharma, making his ODI captaincy debut, presided over the proceedings but what was supposed to be a memorable day for him eventually turned out to be a forgettable day.

Top-class bowling

After the match, the stand-in skipper was struggling for words and credited Sri Lanka for exceptional bowling, saying that “any team would have struggled against such a bowling performance”.

Thisara Perera, also making his ODI captaincy debut, made it memorable by breaking Sri Lanka’s 12-match losing streak and setting his team for a rare ODI series win this year.

“Our bowlers were disciplined, and bowled the right length and the right areas. This was an unplayable wicket. We didn’t expect that. We expected 250-260 but Suranga Lakmal and Angelo Mathews bowled very well,” he said.

Perera’s Man Friday was Suranga Lakmal, who virtually finished off the match well before the halfway mark of the Indian innings. Making full use of the helpful conditions, Lakmal swung and seamed the ball to return with a career-best haul of 4/13, bowling his 10 overs in one spell. Nuwan Pradeep chipped in with 2/37. 

Dhoni’s fightback

With the top order gone and Bhuvneshwar Kumar too falling, India at 29/7 had their lowest-ever score after the fall of seven wickets. At the other end, Mahendra Singh Dhoni (65 off 87 balls) was guarded in his approach but chose to go all out with the last two wickets remaining. Dhoni’s 10 fours and two sixes were largely a manifestation of a one-man show while shielding the tailenders. That explains the unusually high number of maiden overs (4) he played, out of the 13 maidens played by India’s batsmen.

A target of 113 was never going to pose any problems even to this struggling Sri Lankan side. The visitors lost two early wickets but Upul Tharanga’s 49, with 10 fours, helped Angelo Mathews (25*) and Niroshan Dickwella (26*) complete the formalities in just 20.4 overs.

“If we had 70-80 more runs, it could have been different, but we lost the match with the bat today,” Rohit summed up the story of his first day as India’s captain. “We want to thrive in these type of conditions and come out good. We won’t always get to play on flat pitches. Today was not the ideal day for all our batters. It was an eye-opener.”