Mumbai: Brilliantly unplayable Jasprit Bumrah, master destroyer Mohammed Siraj and later the five-for specialist Mohammed Shami unfurled a tsunami of wickets at the Wankhede stadium against a floundering Sri Lanka as the gentle waves of the Arabian sea next door watched in shock and awe. The swinging sensation unleashed by the three in their opening overs wiped away the Lankans who handed the Indians a 302-run victory and a top position on the points tally when they packed up for 55 runs in 19.4 overs.
The 117 minutes the Indian pace battery took to annihilate the Lankans and give Sharma his second biggest win in the tournament after Australia downed The Netherlands with a 309-run gap, sets up the stage beautifully for the upcoming biggie in Kolkata where the mighty South Africans are waiting and watching.
Bumrah with a final analysis on 5 overs, one wicket, eight runs started the Lankan collapse with Siraj (7-2-16-3) with two runs for three wickets and then three for four even before the over No 3 of the innings was done. Shami took over from there with his own brand of attack and recorded his second five-for with an amazing scoreline of one maiden and just 18 runs in five overs.
The action was fast and furious. Three referrals by the Lankans, two futile, and one by India to no result, showed how passions, speed and swingers were dictating terms to floundering Lankan batters. Two first-ball wickets, one of Pathum Nissanka for a golden duck by Bumrah and the other Dimuth Karunaratne against for a duck by Siraj, both trapping the batsmen before the wicket, Sri Lanka losing two referrals in the process – it was a happening start under the lights.
The third wicket, with Siraj on a hattrick, this time for a caught behind for Sadeera Samarawickrama, also went for a referral but was adjudged not out! Undeterred, Siraj struck in ball No 5 and the escaper was caught at first slip by Shreyas Iyer. World class bowling at its best, Siraj making a point about the subtly changed hierarchy among the quicks after Shami came into the system.
Also read: World Cup 2023 | IND vs SL LIVE: India outplays Sri Lanka by 302 runs
Kusal Mendis was the next to go at a personal one in Siraj’s second over, clean bowled by an in-swinger, this time hitting the off stump while Mendis tried to put the bat in line. A beauty of a ball that angled in after angling up. Lanka three runs with four gone in 3.1 overs made their most desperate plea for the administrators to huddle up and give some direction to Sri Lankan cricket.
Four overs, two maidens, five runs and three wickets for Siraj in his first spell. Is that even real? Shami would tell you otherwise. Replacing Siraj, Mohammed Shami worked out a near hattrick taking two in a row, sending off Charith Asalanka for showing dissent and being nabbed by an ever alert and seldom sloppy Jadeja at backward point for 1 and Dushan Hemantha ducking out after being caught by Rahul.
He followed it up by snacking on Dushmantha Chameera in his third over by sending him back on a referral pushed by K L Rahul on a ball adjudged wide. He ball had caught his glove and was caught behind for yet another Lankan duck. Shami got his third and Lanka headed towards the lowest ever World Cup total in the history of the Cup at 22-7 in 11.3 overs. Shami’s second four-wicket haul in this World Cup and his seventh four plus in all World Cups came soon after, when he bowled Angelo Matthews who had been brought back into the squad to plug collapses.
He was clean bowled by Shami for 12 runs in 25 balls and 63 minutes, recording one boundary. Lanka at 29-8 in 13.1 overs started to outshine Canada’s 36 all out in a World Cup lowest of lows.
Shami, meanwhile, took his second five-for in the tournament in the 18th over as Prasun Rajitha edged a good length ball outside off-stump to Shubman Gill at second slip after making 14 runs in 17 balls with two fours, bringing Lanka to 49-9. The show carried on with Lanka showing up five ducks at 22 runs for seven wickets in 11.3 overs even as report writers worked furiously to match the speed of the Indian bowling in annihilation mode and make sense of the situation unfolding at a venue where 12 years ago a much more sorted Lankan team had gone down fighting for the Cup that went to Dhoni’s India.
More on the plight of Sri Lankan Cricket later. For now, it must be all about the coming of age of the Indian bowlers who have M-sealed all loopholes to emerge as the most fearsome bowling unit in the world, especially in Indian conditions. Such have been the ploys of these dismantling agents, that the chirp around the Aussie, English, Pakistani and South African quicks has become interested in conversations around the Indian seamers and spinners.
India now has the speed, the seam and the spin in top gear. The opening, middle and death overs have become mealtime for bowlers, all in a competition to outdo each other’s brilliance in a happy and positive bonhomie. They have consistently delivered on low totals and against big teams like New Zealand and England.
The fact that Lanka was living in fear was evident in the statistics around Asalanka who made just one run after facing 44 balls. The fear element that the Indian quicks and a wristy sensation like Kuldeep Yadav have been creating has given currency to their cricketing accounts. The fear factor was most evident in Lucknow when England batters quite overtly pleaded for a way back to the pavilion instead of facing them at the crease. Shami ate up the Kiwi fightback with a five-for despite the stand-out Ravindran-Mitchell partnership and a ton by the latter.
A 357 score by the Indian batters earlier in the day after skipper Mendis put them to bat and sent back Rohit Sharma from his favourite ground at just four runs, helped the bowling unit to exhibit their weaponry and variety without a hitch. This was their first 350-plus score in this World Cup on their skipper’s favourite ground but without a contribution from 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 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 Dilshan Madushanka 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 to 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 Madushanka. Three partnerships, one of Kohli-Gill for 189 runs and the other between K L Rahul and Iyer and then Iyer and Jadeja marked the India fightback post Sharma.
Difficult to remember all that for an average cricket fan, thanks to the blitzkrieg unleashed by the Bumrah-Shami-Shiraj troika later in the night. South Africa will be watching and waiting to give India its real tough test at Eden Gardens after the Wankhede party at the expense of a team in constant decline.
