At the R. Premadasa Stadium in this city on Friday, Pathum Nissanka maintained his excellent form by hitting 56 off 75 balls, and Dunith Wellalage made a magnificent 67 not out at the tail end as the two led Sri Lanka to a tough 230/8 against India in the ODI series opener.
At 101/5, it appeared that Sri Lanka would have another batting collapse on a pitch that favoured spinners. However, as batting against the old ball became easier, Wellalage took the opportunity to combine cunning with reliable smashes to score an undefeated 67 off 65 balls, hitting seven fours and two sixes. In order to provide Sri Lanka with a fighting total, he also shared three vital partnerships with Janith Liyanage, Wanindu Hasaranga, and Akila Dananjaya, scoring 41, 36, and 46 respectively.
Axar Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Mohammed Siraj, Kuldeep Yadav, Shivam Dube, and Washington Sundar all bagged two wickets apiece for India.
When Avishka Fernando attempted to flick but erred, and the third man caught the leading edge, Siraj gave India their first breakthrough. Nissanka continued where he left off in the Twenty20 Internationals, flipping and driving Arshdeep for boundaries before slicing off Siraj’s leg to grab an additional four. In the eighth over, Nissanka was dropped by Siraj, but she bounced back to hit a boundary with Axar. However, as soon as Dube pitched a length ball that straightened in after being trapped for LBW, Kusal Mendis started losing partners from the other end.
Mendis called for a review, but the ball was shown to have struck off the middle stump in the replay, giving Dube his first wicket in an ODI since 2019. Never looking at ease, Sadeera Samawickrama chipped a drive straight to short cover off Axar, and Charith Asalanka, with a scratchy look, made a routine catch to slip off Kuldeep.
Nissanka reached his fifty in 67 balls during the wobble, but Washington quickly trapped him leg before wicket on 56 as a length ball turned sharply and beat his inside edge. Nissanka requested a review, but subsequent footage revealed the ball would have clipped the leg stump, upholding the initial ruling.
Liyanage and Wellalage shared a useful 41-run sixth-wicket partnership during which the latter attempted a massive hoick off a turning away delivery from Axar but got his outside edge caught by slip. Wellalage hit five boundaries between them. Replays, interestingly enough, revealed no outside edge, suggesting that Liyanage had stepped off in error.
After dominating two sixes and a four in a knock of 24, Hasaranga amused himself by slicing straight to backward point off Arshdeep. Wellalage maintained his consistency by glancing, striking, and heaving his way to his first ODI fifty in 59 balls.
Supported by two boundaries from Dananjaya, Wellalage rampaged and pulled Siraj for four and six in the 49th over. In the final over, he moved leg-side to guide a yorker from Arshdeep in the space between short third man and backward point for four more runs, taking Sri Lanka to exactly 230.
Brief scores:
Sri Lanka 230/8 in 50 overs (Dunith Wellalage 67 not out, Pathum Nissanka 56; Axar Patel 2-33, Arshdeep Singh 2-46) against India