Sri Lanka take early lead

Jayawardene leads from the front in comfortable win

By Joe Drabble   Last updated: 18th August 2008

Mahela_Jayawardene

Jayawardene: Unbeaten 61

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First One Day International
Dambulla
India 146 v Sri Lanka 147-2 (D P M D Jayawardene 61 no)
Sri Lanka beat India by 8 wkts

A captain's innings from Mahela Jayawardene saw Sri Lanka heap more misery on India as the hosts eased to an eight-wicket win in the first one-day international at Dambulla.

Jayawardene crafted an unbeaten 61 and put on 102 for the third wicket with Chamara Kapugedera (45 not out) to steer his team to a 1-0 lead in the five-match series.

Star Sri Lankan duo Muttiah Muralitharan and Ajantha Mendis had earlier helped restrict India to 146 all out - both took three wickets apiece as the tourists' innings failed to gather any momentum.

After winning the toss and electing to bat, India got off to the worst possible start as dangerous opener Gautam Gambhir was clean bowled by Chaminda Vaas two balls into the match.

The left-hander's dismissal set the tone for the remainder of the innings as Virender Sehwag's replacement Virat Kohli departed for 12 on his debut soon after.

Nuwan Kulasekara followed up his dismissal of Kohli by luring Suresh Raina (17) into an uppish drive - Chamara Silva taking a sharp catch at short cover.

Out-spun

At 36-3, Yuvraj Singh and Rohit Sharma attempted to steady the rapidly sinking India ship, and when Yuvraj was dropped by Jayawardene on five, the tourists' luck appeared to be changing.

However, after adding another 36 for the fourth wicket, India's hopes of amassing a daunting first-innings total faded when Mendis struck in his first over to dismiss Yuvraj for 23.

India's score of 73-4 then turned into 87-7 as their middle-order were out-spun and out-done by Murali and Mendis in a nine-over spell following Thilan Thushara's dismissal of Sharma for 31.

Only a stubborn 10th wicket partnership from Pragyan Ojha (16) and Munaf Patel (15) gave some slight respectability to the scoreline as Mendis (3-21) and Muralitharan (3-37) again stole the show.

Sri Lanka lost openers Sanath Jayasuriya (10) and Kumar Sangakkara (19) early, but Jayawardene paced his innings nicely as the hosts overhauled the target in 31 overs.

Jayasuriya stepped down the track in an attempt to hoist Patel over the in-field, but only managed a top-edge which went straight to Irfan Pathan at mid-on.

Patel also got rid of Sangakkara, taking a neat return catch to send back the left-handed batsman, but his efforts proved in vain.