1st ODI: Shikhar Dhawan, Axar Patel shine as India hammer Sri Lanka by 9 wickets

Dambulla, Aug 20: Opener Shikhar Dhawan smashed an unbeaten century and skipper Virat Kohli scored 82 not out as India defeated Sri Lanka by 9 wickets in the opening One-Day International of the five-match series here on Sunday (August 20).

Match scorecard

Chasing a below par total of 217, India overhauled the target in just 28.5 overs, with 127 balls to spare, and took a 1-0 lead in the series. Rohit Sharma (4) was the lone Indian wicket to fall as he was dismissed in an unlucky fashion in the 5th over.

India, thus, achieved their biggest ever win in terms of overs left while chasing a 200-plus total.

Dhawan remained not out at 132 (off 90 balls) as he became the fastest Indian to slam a ton in Sri Lanka. Skipper Kohli scored 82 off 79 deliveries as he brought up his 44th ODI fifty.

Dhawan continued his brilliant form on Sri Lanka tour and smashed 18 boundaries and three sixes.

Virat Kohli batting 2nd in winning ODIs:
100s: 16 (incl two 150+ scores!)
90s: 2
80s: 6
70s: 5
60s: 3
50s: 2
40s: 3
30s: 8
20s: 5#SLvInd

— Mohandas Menon (@mohanstatsman) August 20, 2017

He brought up his 11th ODI hundred off only 71 balls and it was the second quickest hundred against Sri Lanka by an Indian batsman after Virender Sehwag's 66-ball effort at Rajkot in 2009.

No Sri Lankan bowler managed to pose any threat to the Indian batters as they cruised easily toward the win. The duo of Kohli and Dhawan put up a partnership of 197* for the second wicket, this is their highest against this opposition. The Delhi-boys surpassed 188-run stand between MS Dhoni and Gautam Gambhir in 2009.

Earlier, Indian bowlers scripted a brilliant turnaround in the second half of their bowling as they restricted the hosts to a paltry 216.

Sri Lanka were 139/1 after 24.2 overs but lost nine wickets in a matter of 77 runs and 19 overs. The credit goes to the hosts as they came back strongly in the second half of the match and mounted pressure upon Sri Lankan batters.

Niroshan Dickwella (64) and Danushka Gunathalika (35) gave hosts a solid start and the former stitched a crucial partnership with Kusal Mendis (36) to put themselves in the driver's seat. But the middle-order, perhaps, had no clue to Kedar Jadhav and Axar Patel's spin.

Jadhav (2/26) continued his run with the golden arm and picked up two wickets to bring the visitors back into the game. Left-arm spinner Axar Patel, playing his first international match since October last year, was the stand out bowler for India with a career-best figure of three for 34 runs in 10 overs.

Jasprit Bumrah and Yuzvendra Chahal picked up two wickets apiece to ensure visitors chase down in what should be a pretty gettable total for the Indians.

You can see why Kohli wants Dhawan in his side. In this form, it seems only Dhawan can get himself out.

— Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) August 20, 2017

Sri Lankan fans turned up at the venue expecting an improved showing from the meek surrender in the preceding Test series but they were left disappointed, at least on the batting front. The home team's ordinary batting show came after Virat Kohli won a fourth-consecutive toss on this tour and opted to field.

India opted to go in with left-arm spinner Patel and leg spinner Yuzvendra Chahal as Kuldeep Yadav was surprisingly left out.

Sri Lanka openers Gunathilaka and Niroshan played out the first five overs calmly, testing out the opening pair of Bhuvneshwar Kumar (0/33) and Jasprit Bumrah (2/22).

Dickwella later played some attacking shots as Lanka reached 55/0 in the first ten overs.

Their 50-partnership had come off 53 balls, and they looked good for a long vigil at the crease as India were bereft of ideas to break their stand. Dickwella reached his 5th ODI half-century off 65 balls.

But things started happening when the spinners, particularly Kedar Jadhav (2/26), came onto bowl. In the 14th over, Dickwella survived a run-out attempt with a dive, but then in that same over, Gunathilaka perished playing a needless reverse sweep off Chahal (2/60).

Kusal Mendis (36) then played some attractive strokes and put on 65 runs with Dickwella as they looked to attack the Indian spinners. Jadhav though trapped the opener lbw in the 25th over, with the batsman not surviving the DRS review either.

The big blow came when Patel bowled Mendis against the run of play in the 28th over, with the scorecard reading 150/3 at that stage. Lanka still looked good to reach 280 at that stage, but the spinners strangled the runs and collapse came expectedly thereafter.

First, skipper Upul Tharanga (13) got off a horrendous full toss from Jadhav in the 33rd over and was caught at long on. In the next over, Kohli ran out Chamara Kapugedara (1) with a straight hit from extra cover.

In the same passage of play, Bumrah cleaned up Thisara Perera (0) with a beautiful yorker and Lanka’s hopes of a challenging total all but vanished.

Patel accounted for Waninda Hasaranga (2) and Lakshan Sandakan (5) to dismiss any fight back from the lower order. It was his best effort in ODI cricket, going past 3/39 against South Africa in Indore (2015).

Lasith Malinga (8) put on 22 runs with Angelo Mathews (36 not out) for the ninth wicket as they pushed the Lankan score past 200. But the former departed in an attacking manner, stumped off a wide delivery from Chahal as the Lankan innings crossed the 40-over mark.

They didn't last long, however, despite Mathews' best efforts, with Bumrah cleaning up Vishwa Fernando (0) in the 44th over to bring another hapless showing from the hosts to an end.