Mumbai: India recorded their first 350-plus score in this World Cup on their skipper’s favourite ground without, however, a contribution from Rohit Sharma. The action started when Team India’s “if not you then us” bedrock mantra came into play for the match against Sri Lanka at the majestic Wankhede Stadium after skipper Kusal Mendis won the toss to put India to bat and took away Indian skipper just two minutes into the game.
A 189-run partnership between Shubman Gill and Virat Kohli laid out the edifice of a solid defence under trying circumstances. On the final count, India scored 357 runs for eight wickets in 50 overs. The gritty flamboyance of Shreyas Iyer’s 82 runs in 56 minutes decked with six sixes and three fours, was a highlight after Shubman Gill top-scored with 92. A gritty 88 by Kohli and a quiet 35 by Jadeja came in handy, too.
There were other highs to the game, which had an India edge most of the time. Lankan seamer Dilsan Madhushanka recorded his five-wicket haul, taking down the legends of the game Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Shubman Gill, Surya Kumar Yadav and Shreyas Iyer, who had hit six sixes in his 82-run show.
The story was also about Gill missing his first World Cup century by eight runs and feeling the pain all the way back to the pavilion. Kohli, too, came tantalisingly close to No 49, but for the 12 runs, he missed a dolly catch.
Iyer took care of the middle order with a quickfire 50 decked with four sixes and two boundaries and rose to 82 before spooning up a short one from Madhushanka. Three partnerships, one of Kohli-Gill for 189 runs and the other between KL Rahul and Iyer and then Iyer and Jadeja marked the India fightback post Sharma.
Earlier though Rohit Sharma’s favourite ground was left stunned and breathless as the home boy, looking for his second ton of the World Cup, was clean bowled by seamer Dilsan Madhushanka after facing two balls, hitting a four on the previous one and walking dejectedly at four, leaving India at 4-1.
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It was a beauty of an off-cutter bowled by Madhushanka that took Sharma’s unprepared edge to derange his wickets and usher silence into the fast-filling Wankhede Stadium. Sharma had recorded a duck in India's tournament opener against Australia, and this is the first time after the game, that he was dismissed on a single-digit score. Part of the strategy of this team has been pivoted on Sharma giving fiery starts with his lazy but surefooted elegance so that the others coming after him can build campaigns and runs without the pressure of preservation.
This time, however, it was left to Virat Kohli to build without the prop of a good start and look for his Tendulkar 49th under difficult circumstances, not chasing. The Kohli and Shubman Gill show that followed over the next 23 and more overs, spoke of a dogged comeback after the opening scare when India was 4/1 in the first over. That, and the disarray that the Lankan fielders are in with two dropped catches allowed Kohli and Gill to bloom as the wicket eased out while the sun was planning to go down on the middle.
Chameera dropped a caught and bowled chance when Kohli was just 10 runs young in the sixth over and the two batters carried on with their assigned jobs of not losing their wicket and building on the scoreboard. India made 25 runs in five overs without losing any further wickets and the Kohli-Gill 50-run partnership came in 49 balls, 45 minutes and the sixth over, of course, patched up over two drop catches by the Lankans.
The India 100 came in 16.1 overs 83 minutes, followed by Kohli’s well-earned 50 in 50 balls half a ton, in 82 minutes with eight fours. Soon after, Gill took 55 balls to make his well-paced 50, a much-awaited effort with eight boundaries, two overs after Kohli upped the ante. India’s 150 came in the 27th over with the Lankans struggling for a breakthrough after a fiery start with Madhushanka.
Gill’s return among the runs was the story of the first innings of this match. It was his second fifty after he returned to the middle missing the first two ODIs against Australia and Afghanistan. His show against Pakistan, New Zealand and England was mediocre and listless, considering his young and passionate love affair with his bat.
The first six of the match came off Gill’s blade when he packed off a short ball from Chameera, racing it over mid-wicket. He followed that up soon after with a half volley lofted one over the head of the bowler Hemantha this time. He was now rubbing shoulders with Kohli at 86 and the match was racing to a big score for Lanka to defend.
Just then, Gill passed on the ball to the wicket-keeper and Madhushanka rejoiced. This was the first dismissal of Gill in the nineties (92) and his dejected walk back to the pavilion spoke volumes of how desperate he was to cross the 100 Rubicon in his first World Cup. His effort to aid the ball to reach the boundary over the wicket-keeper’s head found the gloves instead of the intended elevation. With six hundreds, 11 fifties and a 92 in his short career, this was a heartbreak for the young gun who had, along with Kohli, steered India ably to 193-2 after a worrisome disaster of 4-1 in the first over.
The partnership that formed the backbone of the India innings was broken only after 189 runs in 179 balls and 140 minutes to bring in Shreyas Iyer, another young gun on notice to prove his place in the number four spot. The impending return of Hardik Pandya would put him in a contest with Surya Kumar Yadav as Mohammed Shami is going nowhere out of the team with nine wickets in two matches.
Gill’s departure did not bode well for his partner Kohli who dollied a slow ball from Madhushanka to an unexpected catch to Dissanka at short cover. The possibility of a grand score and two possible centuries by Indian batters went to the pavilion unfulfilled. Kohli’s soft dismissal came when he was 88, which he made in 94 balls over a span of 148 minutes with 11 fours.
It also meant Madhushanka taking home a three-wicket haul for sure, all three big heads rolled to his arm, two in one over of his third spell. With India at 196-3, it was up to another doughty campaigner on the rolls, KL Rahul, to steer the score briskly upwards with Iyer. India’s 200 32.5 overs came on the bat of Rahul, who pulled a ball to four at deep.
The fourth wicket 50-run partnership came in 26 balls signalling that the rapid-fire round was in progress by the time the 38th over was in progress. Iyer’s net practice of tackling the short ball paid dividends as he raced to 36 in just 28 balls. However, Rahul replicated the Virat dolly off Chameera’s slower one, which went straight to Hemantha at short extra cover. He walked for 21 and Lanka celebrated their work on getting a middle over wicket. India at 256-4, brought in Surya Kumar Yadav and a side contest between the two batters to score points for a personal cause too.
SKY signed in with two gorgeous straight drives always a delight to witness. Iyer, not to be left on the sideway, complemented it with a high-end six over the bowler Theekshana’s head with the gentry waiting for the ball to descend outside the boundary 89 meters from the middle. SKY blinked first in a bid to hook Madhushanka but the ball caught his glove visible only to ultra-edge. He walked cheaply being caught behind for 12 runs in 9 balls as Madhushanka celebrated his fourth big one – in the 41st over, bringing India to 276-5.
For Surya to continue in the playing 11, he needs to convert his shooting star status to a shining one by scoring big and staying longer in the middle. Meanwhile, the warrior in Iyer tucked in 50 runs in 36 balls and 60 minutes, decking the half-ton up with two boundaries and four sixes. That was one statement that would have been noted by the skipper and the coach. Over now to the Shami-Bumrah-Yadav show for India to score its seventh win on a rounded performance, albeit over a team in disarray.
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