India 112 (Dhoni 65, Lakmal 4-13) v Sri Lanka
Lesser-skilled teams’ best chances of competing are in conditions that skew the balance towards the bowlers – spin or seam. In 26 ODIs in 2017, most of which were played on flat surfaces, Sri Lanka managed to win just four.
But just like in Kolkata in the first Test, Sri Lanka’s seamers, led by Suranga Lakmal, used swinging and seaming conditions in Dharamsala to rip through a tentative India batting line-up for 112. MS Dhoni shepherded the tail with a calculated 65 to prevent India the ignominy of falling to the lowest ODI total. Lakmal bowled his 10 overs on the trot, finishing with figures of 10-4-13-4.
In the fresh mountain air of Dharamsala, Sri Lanka’s opening bowlers – Lakmal and Angelo Mathews – repeatedly hit the perfect length: just fuller than good. On a surface with sufficient, but not exaggerated, lateral movement, that length becomes even harder to negate. Batsmen are indecisive with their footwork and therefore shot selection.
Shikhar Dhawan prefers to dominate bowlers from the outset, particularly with cross-batted strokes. He hung back to Mathews, who angled full deliveries away from his leaden-footed drives. Then, Mathews swerved one back into Dhawan to beat his inside edge, striking him in front of middle. Sri Lanka had umpire Simon Fry’s not-out decision overturned on review to complete the perfect one-two play.
In the next over, Lakmal hit that ideal length again but with a quicker pace. Rohit Sharma played the line but enough away seam movement kissed the outside edge. This time, Sri Lanka had umpire Anil Chaudhary’s decision overturned.
Most of India’s shots thereafter were borne by an intent to weather that testing period. That resulted in two runs in the first five overs and 11 in the first 10, the lowest in a match involving two Full Members in the last five years.
That also ensured Sri Lanka didn’t need to alter their own approach, as they jagged and nipped the ball both ways. All of Sri Lanka’s first seven wickets were a result of beating the batsmen on the inside or outside edge. Manish Pandey, Hardik Pandya and Bhuvneshwar Kumar were caught behind the wicket off outside edges. Dinesh Karthik fell over a flick and Shreyas Iyer chopped on via the inside edge. India slumped to 29 for 7, in danger of slumping to their lowest ODI total.
Dhoni often consumes too many balls while starting his innings, but India’s dire situation played right into his template. He charged down off his first ball, displaying an intent and a clear plan to negate the swing that no other batsman had. It worked, as Sri Lanka’s bowlers shortened their length to him.
One of Dhoni’s biggest assets is his productivity with the tail, not least because of his reputation. In Kuldeep Yadav’s company, he chose only the errant deliveries to score. But when Kuldeep was stumped, failing to drag his back foot back into the crease off the bowling of Akila Dananjaya, Dhoni’s hand was forced.
He used his typical bottom-hand power to place the ball, particularly in gaps through cover, midwicket and backward square leg. He eventually sliced a lofted drive off Thisara Perera, not before making close to 60% of India’s runs from No. 6.
Source: ESPN Crickinfo