The two spinners from Sri Lanka, Ajantha Mendis and Muttiah Muralitharan took six wickets collectively which led Sri Lanka to success beating India in the first one-day international played in Dambulla yesterday.
Mendis and Muralitharan, both of them took three wickets individually for giving 21 and 37 runs respectively.
Mendis is a new sensation in the Sri Lankan team whereas Muralitharan is an experienced spinner; both put together their skill to bowl out the Indian players for a lowly score of 146.
The match was totally in the favor of Sri Lanka from the start.
Virender Sehwag, who was in-form nowadays, could not play the match due to his injury which added more to Sri Lankan favor.
That was an easy target for Sri Lankan batsmen. They easily chased their target and achieved it in the 35th over with the loss of just two wickets.
The key wickets were taken by Mendis. In his opening spell he removed two hard-hitting Indian batsmen Yuvraj Singh and Mahendra Dhoni. Yuvraj Singh was the top scorer making 23 runs; whereas Muralitharan made attack on the lower order Indian batting line.
Virat Kohli substituted Sehwag who took injury on his ankle on Sunday. It was his debut match.
The start of the game was really dreaming for Sri Lankans; when left-arm medium paced bowler Chaminda Vaas removed the Indian opener Gautam Gambhir on the very second delivery of the match. The delivery moved sharply into the wickets and hit the off-stump.
Paceman Nuwan Kulasekara was also leading bowler; he took 2 for giving 23 runs. He bowled out kohli at 12 for lbw and later got rid of Suresh Raina.
Yuvraj was given a chance when his catch was dropped by Mahela Jayawardene at slip.
But soon he was bowled off.
The innings remained one-sided and Jayawardene’s unbeaten 61 runs ended the contest with Sri Lankan success.
Scores:
Sri Lanka 147-2
India 146 for all.
Sri Lanka won it by eight wickets.
