India started the Sri Lanka series with a comprehensive victory by seven wickets in the first One-Day International in Colombo. Indian batsmen starred in the chase as they raced to the target with 80 balls to spare and took a 1-0 lead in the three-match series.
Sri Lanka won the toss and opted to bat first. They handed one debut cap to Bhanuka Rajapaksa while India named two debutants in Suryakumar Yadav and Ishan Kishan.
Sri Lankan openers Avishka Fernando and M Bhanuka played cautiously and scored 49 runs for the opening wicket before Yuzvendra Chahal dismissed the former with his first ball. Kuldeep Yadav, then, removed Rajapaksa and Bhanuka in a span of four balls.
Watch: Shikhar Dhawan grabs diving catch to give Kuldeep Yadav his first wicket
Regular wickets kept Sri Lanka in check and couldn’t kick on their innings at any point. They managed 262 for 9 in fifty overs where no batsmen managed to cross the fifty-run mark. Chamika Karunaratne top-scored with 43 runs batting at number eight.
Deepak Chahar, Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal grabbed two wickets each while the Pandya brothers managed one wicket each. Bhuvneshwar Kumar went wicketless and leaked 63 runs in his nine overs.
In response, Team India got off to a flying start thanks to Prithvi Shaw, who sent Sri Lankan bowlers to all corners of the park. He scored 43 runs in just 24 balls, where he hit nine fours. Debutant Ishan Kishan was in no mood to waste time and sent his first ball in ODI cricket for a huge six before following it up with a four.
Also Read: Sanju Samson might get ruled out of the Sri Lanka series
Kishan scored fifty on debut and got out soon after. Shikhar Dhawan played sensibly and remained unbeaten at 86 and took India home with seven wickets and 80 balls to spare. Suryakumar Yadav scored 31 runs on his debut and gave good company to Dhawan to cruise India’s chase.
Shaw was adjudged man of the match for his dazzling knock at the top of the order.
See how Twitter reacted to this dominant win by India;
India B.
B for Brilliant.#INDvsSL Ruthless win, great to watch. pic.twitter.com/3j1MsVWBxE— Venkatesh Prasad (@venkateshprasad) July 18, 2021
A thoroughly convincing win for Team India. A calm , composed captain's Innings from @SDhawan25 . Prithvi Shaw , Ishan Kishan were brilliant with their strokeplay, and so was Surya Kumar Yadav at the end. Fantastic win #INDvsSL pic.twitter.com/o9OWj1RuMU
— VVS Laxman (@VVSLaxman281) July 18, 2021
India go 1-0 up 👊
Skipper Shikhar Dhawan scores an unbeaten 86 as the visitors win with 80 deliveries remaining. #SLvIND | https://t.co/trHbMrCpo8 pic.twitter.com/3rNnhBzMwt
— ICC (@ICC) July 18, 2021
Congratulations #TeamIndia for the comprehensive victory. Responsible knock from the skipper @SDhawan25. Great start to the series @BCCI #INDvSL
— Vinay Kumar R (@Vinay_Kumar_R) July 18, 2021
Manish another opportunity missed. #INDvsSL
— Boria Majumdar (@BoriaMajumdar) July 18, 2021
Boom Boom Pow 💥 This was fun #INDvSL and, hey, Happy Birthday dinomite @ishankishan51 .. What more could’ve one asked for.
— Jatin Sapru (@jatinsapru) July 18, 2021
Well played India and the New captain! Deserved a ton! #SLvIND #INDvsSL #l pic.twitter.com/Qpe30Nf39u
— R P Singh रुद्र प्रताप सिंह (@rpsingh) July 18, 2021
Victory by 80 balls to spare!
This equals India's biggest ODI win against any opponent while chasing a target over 250.
Equals the 80 balls to spare win at Hobart on 28 Feb 2012 also against Sri Lanka (320/4, India 321/3 in 36.4 overs).#SLvInd #SLvsInd #IndvSL— Mohandas Menon (@mohanstatsman) July 18, 2021
Shikhar Dhawan becomes the 6th Indian to make a fifty-plus score in his debut innings as ODI captain.
Only Sachin Tendulkar among Indian captains has made a century on debut innings (110 also against SL at Colombo RPS on 28 Aug 1996).#SLvInd#IndvSL— Mohandas Menon (@mohanstatsman) July 18, 2021
The Prithvi Shaws and Ishan Kishans have the right template for T20: fearless with an array of strokes. Pity, they may not play in the Indian XI this T-20 World Cup @PrithviShaw @ishankishan51 #INDvsSL
— Vikrant Gupta (@vikrantgupta73) July 18, 2021
