Revitalized India overpower Sri Lanka

A stupendous all-round performance from Ashwin helped India beat Sri Lanka by four wickets at WACA.

Sri Lanka won the toss, elected to bat first on a good batting track but got off to a bad start as they lost Upul Tharanga in just the third over. Zaheer Khan scalped his wicket and bowled a good opening spell along with Vinay Kumar to restrict the Lankans to 46/1 in the Quick Start Overs. 

Skipper Tillakaratne Dilshan then led the resurrection with some beautiful drives and powerful cuts. He added 62 runs for the second wicket with Kumar Sangakkara. Zaheer continued from where he left off in the first spell and removed Sangakkara with a beautiful delivery in his second spell. The Indians gave away just 11 runs and picked up one wicket in the Bowling Powerplay. This bogged the skipper down and he departed two runs short of his half-century following a brief struggling period. 

Dinesh Chandimal took over the reins and stitched a crucial 52-run partnership with skipper Mahela Jayawardena but Ravichandran Ashwin pegged them back with two wickets in the Batting Powerplay Overs. The Lions could manage just 23 runs in that period for the loss of skipper Jayawardena and Thisara Perere. Dinesh Chandimal, who was playing a mature innings, then reached his fourth ODI half-century off 64 balls but departed at a crucial stage in the 44th over and Sri Lanka were struggling at 189/6. 

Angelo Mathews then stepped up the momentum and played a crucial knock of 33 off 28 deliveries to power Sri Lanka to a challenging 233/8. Sri Lanka scored 61 runs for the loss of three wickets in the Extreme Performance Overs. Dinesh Chandimal achieved a highest Batting Momentum of 76 for his important innings of 64, while Ravichandran Ashwin with three wickets in the innings, achieved a highest Bowling Efficiency of 260.

Chasing a tricky target of 234, India too got off to a bad start as they lost Virender Sehwag in the third over. Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohli took the score to 47/1 at the end of Quick Start Overs. Tendulkar caressed some lovely cover drives and Kohli bludgeoned some cracking flicks as the pair constructed a partnership of 75 runs for the 2nd wicket. 

Just like Dilshan, Tendulkar departed at a crucial juncture, two short of his half century in the Bowling Powerplay. Sri Lanka gave away just 10 runs and picked up one wicket in that period. But that didn’t hamper Kohli’s momentum as he brought up his 19th ODI half-century. 

The match turned around from the 26th over as Rohit Sharma and Suresh Raina got starts but couldn’t carry on. Dhoni too, flopped and when Kohli ran himself out in the 36th over, the first over of the Batting Powerplay, India were in dire straits at 181/6, needing 53 more runs to win from 14 overs with just 4 wickets in hand. But Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin had cool heads on their shoulders as they played sensibly and powered India home with 20 balls to spare.

Virat Kohli had the highest Batting Momentum of 94, while Angelo Mathews, the most impressive Sri Lankan bowler picking up 2 wickets, had the highest Bowling Effeciency of 219.

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On the Index, India ended on 51 points, 7 ahead of Sri Lanka. Ashwin was named the Man of the Match for his all-round performance and he ended up with the Overall Castrol Index of 70.

Sri Lanka now face a tough Australian challenge when they meet them in Match 3 at the same venue on 10th February.