Ishan Kishan celebrated his 23rd birthday with a dazzling half-century on debut while Shikhar Dhawan, in his first match as captain. Anchored India to a walk-in-the-park seven-wicket victory over Sri Lanka in the opening ODI on Sunday.
Chasing 263 for victory, India depended on Dhawan’s 33rd ODI half-century. Fellow opener Prithvi Shaw’s 24-ball 43, and an attacking 59 by Kishan to gallop to their target in just 36.4 overs and lead the three-match series in Colombo.
Shaw was named man of the match for getting India off to a flying start. And then the left-handed Dhawan kept up the momentum with big partnerships along with Kishan, who turned 23 on Sunday. Manish Pandey, and Suryakumar Yadav, who made an unbeaten 31.
On a track that offered a slow turn, the inexperienced Sri Lankan batters splurged like millionaires. Throwing away one wicket after another but still managed to get 262 for nine, which wasn’t going to be enough against India’s batting might.
Ishan Kishan started his ODI career with a six and then hit three successive boundaries off De Silva. He scored his fifty with a boundary before a thin edge saw him falling to Lakshan Sandakan.
Sri Lanka, led by Dasun Shanaka, lost wickets regularly after electing to bat first. But number eight Chamika Karunaratne’s quickfire 43 lifted the side to 262 for nine in 50 overs.
Pace bowler Deepak Chahar, spinners Yuzvendra Chahal, and Kuldeep Yadav claimed two wickets each.
Dhawan, who very wisely dropped anchor and let the young guns express themselves. Then took over to finish off the match in a professional manner with an unbeaten 86 off 95 balls.
The Indian pacers also bowled a lot of slower deliveries at the back end as Deepak Chahar (2/37 in 7 overs) got a couple.
Hardik Pandya (1/33 in 5 overs) among the wickets and bowl a few overs across two spells.
Hardik though never looked like bowling any effort deliveries and, instead, tried to hit the hard lengths.
Shaw lost his wicket to Dhananjaya de Silva after getting hit on the helmet in the previous over.
The second ODI is on Tuesday in Colombo.
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