India cruises to victory over Lanka

Ishan Kishan celebrated his 23rd birthday with a dazzling half-century on debut while Shikhar Dhawan, in his first match as captain, anchored India to a walk-in-the-park seven-wicket victory over Sri Lanka in the opening ODI here on Sunday.

On a track that offered slow turn, the inexperienced Sri Lankan batters splurged like millionaires, throwing away one wicket after another but still managed to get 262 for nine, which wasn’t going to be enough against India’s batting might.

And it certainly didn’t, with the target being achieved in just 36.4 overs.

Prithvi Shaw, with his new found swagger in 50-over cricket, butchered the Sri Lankan pacers during his brief stay by hammering nine boundaries in a 24-ball 43.

That set the pace for Kishan to come in and hit a six off the very first delivery he faced an followed it up with a square driven boundary. The short Mumbai Indians man then decided to use his bat like a sledgehammer, scoring the second fastest ODI fifty on debut — off 33 balls — to kill the contest inside the first 20 overs.

He did live dangerously getting reprieve twice but his 59 off 42 balls with eight fours and two sixes certainly makes him a strong contender to make it to the final list of 20 for the ICC T20 World Cup.

Veteran Dhawan, who very wisely dropped anchor and let the young guns express themselves, then took over to finish off the match in a professional manner with an unbeaten 86 off 95 balls.

All those years of experience did come in handy as he played second fiddle to Shaw in an opening stand of 58 in 5.3 overs and during a second-wicket partnership of 85 with Kishan in only 12.2 overs.

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