Toss:
The toss was won by Sri Lanka who choose to Bat First.
India Playing 11: Shikhar Dhawan (c), Prithvi Shaw, Ishan Kishan (wk), Manish Pandey, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Krunal Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Kuldeep Yadav, Deepak Chahar, Yuzvendra Chahal.
* Suryakumar Yadav and Ishan Kishan were the Debutants for India.
Sri Lanka Playing 11: Avishka Fernando, Minod Bhanuka (wk), Bhanuka Rajapaksa, Dhananjaya de Silva, Charith Asalanka, Dasun Shanaka (c), Wanindu Hasaranga, Chamika Karunaratne, Isuru Udana, Dushmantha Chameera, Lakshan Sandakan.
* Bhanuka Rajapaksa made his Debut for Sri Lanka.
Sri Lankan Innings:
Sri Lankan Openers Avishka Fernando and Minod Bhanuka gave a decent start to the team with their scoring rate hovering around 5.5 an over before Yuzvendra Chahal broke the partnership on his very first ball of the spell scalping Fernando and keeping them a run short of what could have been a 50 run opening partnership.
But that did not affect their innings much until Kuldeep’s double-wicket 17th 0ver which made things difficult for them as both the set batsmen were dismissed.
Charith Asalanka and Dasun Shanaka, their latest captain, formed yet another 49 runs partnership to ensure they didn’t crumble, but both were dismissed tamely before making any huge impact on the innings.
The actual impetus to the innings was provided by Chamika Karunaratne, who despite the fall of wickets at the other end, entertained with his timely and stroke-full innings of 43* (35). The highlight was the final over of Bhuveshwar Kumar where he picked 19 Runs on his way to achieve the career best score until now along with being the highest scorer from the Sri Lankan camp for the day.
Indian Innings:
Indian Opener Prithvi Shaw gave a flying start taking the score to 57 in mere 5 overs, the highest for India in the first five overs in ODI. Shaw who smashed 9 boundaries scoring 43(24) eventually lost his wicket to a surprise spin move from the Lankans as early as in the 6th over of the innings.
Joining Dhawan at the other end, Ishan Kishan wasted no time as he started his ODI Career with a Six off the very first ball he faced. While Dhawan kept anchoring the innings, Ishan was way too brutal. The young wicket keeper from Jharkhand took just 33 deliveries to complete his half-century on debut. By the end of 15 overs, India had raced to 127 runs.
Things started slowing down for India as Ishan departed and Manish Pandey joined the skipper. But all it took was 2 consecutive boundaries from Dhawan off Karunaratne to shift gears again as Manish too accompanied his captain. Dhawan reached his Half-Century in 61 Balls during the course of this partnership. By the Time Manish departed, the match was a mere formality as India required only 48 more runs in almost 20 overs with 7 wickets in hand.
Unlike the other debutant, Suryakumar Yadav started slowly and took his time to settle. But once set, he smashed 3 Boundaries in a row to W Hasaranga. Losing no further wicket, this partnership comfortably took India to the Target, giving them a 1-0 Lead.
Fun Facts:
Ishan Kishan, who was celebrating his 23rd Birthday, became the first batsmen to smash a SIX on his first ball on ODI Debut.
Dhawan’s Score of 86* on his Captaincy Debut is the 2nd highest by an Indian after Sachin Tendulkar’s 110.
Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal played together for the first time after two years. The last time they played together was in World Cup 2019 against England.
If India had scored 2 more Runs, this could have been a rare instance of all 4 Partnership being over 50 and Dhawan being part of all of them.
Stats:
Shikhar Dhawan completed 1000 runs against SL, 6000 ODI runs in total and 10,000 international runs during his unbeaten innings of 86 runs.
