Sri Lanka hopes to stop Indian domination

Kandy: Buoyant India aim to extend dominance into the second ODI at the Pallekele International Cricket Stadium on Thursday.

The hope is that Sri Lanka, under Upul Tharanga’s captaincy, will bounce back and level the five-match series. But recent records make it considerably difficult to entertain the possibility. It becomes especially hard when its latest track record is a 0-3 Test series loss to India, before which it lost 2-3 to Zimbabwe in an ODI series.

Sri Lanka offered glimpses of bucking the trend with the fight it put on for nearly two hours of the first game, courtesy Niroshan Dickwella, Danushka Gunathilaka and Kusal Mendis. That gives Pothas something to motivate his men with, but the tougher task now is to ignore how they fared thereon.

Sri Lanka went from 139 for 1 to 216 all out in the span of 117 deliveries. This, on a day when India’s bowlers were not at their best.

India gave away ten wides and was wayward in the first half of the Sri Lankan innings, often bowling short and wide or down leg. Bharat Arun, the bowling coach, implied that India did not assess the conditions well, but was looking at it as a lesson learned.

Should the bowling unit deliver as per the coach’s demands, Sri Lanka has a tougher ride lined up. With this batting line-up, Sri Lanka will need a better effort to handle that sort of heat.

A majority of its batsmen arrive at the crease looking confident. The technique is on point and Sri Lankan flair never out of question, but playing across the line is not what the batting manual recommends, and that is with good reason.

Indian romped to a nine-wicket win with Shikhar Dhawan smashing his fastest ODI century (132*, off 90 balls) and Virat Kohli coasting to an unbeaten 82.

Teams from

Sri Lanka: Niroshan Dickwella (wk), Danushka Gunathilaka, Kusal Mendis, Upul Tharanga (Capt.), Angelo Mathews, Chamara Kapugedera, Wanidu Hasaranga, Thisara Perera, Lakshan Sandakan, Lasith Malinga, Vishwa Fernando, Milinda Siriwardana, Malinda Pushpakumara, Akila Dananjaya, Dushmantha Chameera

India: Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli (Capt.), Lokesh Rahul, MS Dhoni (wk), Kedar Jadhav, Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Yuzvendra Chahal, Manish Pandey, Ajinkya Rahane, Shardul Thakur, Kuldeep Yadav

Stats and trivia

• The match will be Sri Lanka's 800th ODI.
• India have now won 15 of the last 19 ODIs between these two sides. For the year, they have won nine games and lost four.
• In 10 ODIs against Sri Lanka, Shikhar Dhawan has hit 757 runs at an average of 84.11 and a strike rate of 96.67.

Match facts
Thursday August 24, 2017 (d/n)
Start time 1430 local (0900 GMT)