|
India's forlorn batting, depleted further by the absence of Virender Sehwag, against fiery Sri Lankan bowling handed the visitors an eight-wicket thrashing in their first one-day international cricket match.
India were skittled out for 146 in 46 overs as none of its batsmen could fire up, Yuvraj Singh being the top-scorer at 23, against spinners Ajantha Mendis (3-21) and Muttiah Muralitharan (3-37), who shared the spoils after Mahendra Singh Dhoni elected to bat.
Sri Lanka comfortably chased the win in 34.5 overs as skipper Mahela Jayawardene (61 not out) hit a breezy half century while Chamara Kapugedera contributed 45 to take the side home.
The Indian team, playing without Sachin Tendulkar who is ruled out of the series owing to his left elbow injury, also missed the services of Sehwag as the opener injured his ankle during practice session on the match eve.
Indians never looked like settling down as they were tottering at 36 for 3 after losing both openers -- Gautam Gambhir and debutant Virat Kohli -- cheaply and slumped further to 75 for 5 in the 21st over before the last three batsmen contributed 59 runs.
Earlier, Veteran paceman Chaminda Vaas and young gritty medium pacer Nuwan Kulasekara kept the Indian batsmen on tight leash with the visitors scoring just 29 runs in the first 10 overs.
| 
