Indian batsmen in Gautam Gambhir and Virat Kohli got homelike conditions to put aside their dismal tour of Australia as they made an emphatic start in the Asia Cup with a 50run victory over Sri Lanka at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur yesterday.
Usually the focus was on master batsman Sachin Tendulkar when Mahela Jayawardene invited the defending champions to bat on the greenish, but perfect batting pitch, used for the first time, but the right-hander was far from achieving his long-awaited hundredth international century, rather it was Gambhir and Kohli who stole the show by making hundreds.
The two batsmen shared a mammoth second wicket partnership of 205 as India piled up 304 runs for three wickets in their share of 50 overs to throw a big challenge for the inform Lankans, who came here after a brilliant show in the tri-nation series in Australia.
Sri Lanka desperately needed a flying start in the mammoth chase and captain Mahela Jayawardene led from the front along with his opening partner Tillakaratne Dilshan just to give that kind of start before the latter was dismissed by Irfan Pathan, the most successful India bowler who picked up four wickets, for seven runs.
Kumar Sangakkara joined his skipper to shape the innings associating 93 runs in the second wicket stand, but Pathan got the edge of Jayawardene to wicketkeeper Mahendra Singh Dhoni to almost shatter the Sri Lankan hope. Jayawardene was fantastic in his 78-run innings that came from 59 balls with the help of ten fours and two sixes.
It was however lanky spinner Ravichandran Ashwin who served the final blow in the Lankan innings picking up the wickets of Sangakkara, who scored 65 off 87 balls that featured two fours and one six, and Lahiru Thirimanne, who added 29 runs, in the 36th over.
Pacer Vinay Kumar then did the job for India claiming three wickets while Ashwin also took three wickets to script the easy Indian win after the mastery of Gambhir and Kohli.
After the dismissal of Tendulkar, who had waited for the third umpire’s clearance on whether Jayawardene took the catch cleanly at extra-cover, new vice-captain Kohli joined Gambhir and right from the beginning he looked settled in. Both batsmen played sensibly, milking singles and punishing the bad balls only, before reaching their centuries in the 42nd over.
Both however departed in the following over, holing out in the deep. Gambhir smashed 100 off 118 balls with seven boundaries while Kohli also struck seven boundaries to make 108 runs from 120 balls.
The double-strike in the 43rd over hardly made any impact on the scoring rate of the Indians as skipper Dhoni and Suresh Raina plundered some wayward bowling towards the end. The two took full advantage of the Lankans’ indiscipline bowling as they added 78 runs off 43 balls.
Dhoni clobbered six boundaries and a six during his unbeaten 26-ball 46 while Raina contributed unbeaten 30 off 17 deliveries that contained three fours and a six.
-With The Daily Star input
