India plunder 357 for 8 despite Madushanka’s five-wicket haul

Left-arm seamer Dilshan Madushanka registered his best bowling figures, 5-80, but the hosts asserted their dominance over Sri Lanka to pile up a formidable 357-8 runs in their seventh ICC Men’s World Cup game here at the Wankhede Cricket Stadium.

India’s imposing total came on the back of three half-centuries from Shubman Gill (92), Virat Kohli (88) and Shreyas Iyer (82) but Madushanka certainly had a memorable game to become the tournament’s highest wicket taker with 18-wickets in seven games.

The 23-year-old seamer stunned the Wankhede crowd into silence with a terrific delivery to remove Indian skipper Rohit Sharma in the second ball of the innings but a strong second wicket stand between Gill and Kohli set the tone for India’s mammoth total, after being put into bat first by Kusal Mendis.

Sharma had clipped the first ball to the fine-leg boundary and was looking for the inswinger but an off-cutter nipped away with the angle, crashing to the off-stump to give marching orders to the Indian skipper.

Both Madushanka and Dushmantha Chameera generated plenty of movement off the deck to keep both Gill and Kohli in check as the hosts managed only 25 runs in the first five overs for the loss of Sharma’s wicket. India would have been two down, had Charith Asalanka at cover point grabbed a flying catch off Gill in the penultimate ball of Madushanka’s third over, but the ball burst through the hand to offer another life to Gill.

Two balls later, Chameera nearly caught Kohli off his own bowling when the batsman got a leading edge, but the ball popped out of Chameera’s hand. Chameera operated with a perfect line and length and his first two overs conceded no run.

But once the pitch settled, scoring looked easy as Gill and Kohli capitalised on those opportunities to stitch a massive second wicket stand and put hosts, who are eyeing their third World Cup title, in control. The partnership grew in stature at a steady pace and was threatening to take the game completely away from the Sri Lankans when Madushanka struck twice with his third spell.

With both players in sight of their centuries, Madushanka sent Gill and Kohli back to the dressing room as Sri Lanka shed a sigh of relief. The two had scored 189 runs for the second wicket when Madushanka with a slow off-cutter in his third spell deceived Gill.

Gill, who was just eight runs short of the century, attempted to guide the ball to deep-third-man area but the extra bounce saw him managing to channel it to the wicket-keeper.  Gill’s run-a-ball innings included 11 boundaries and two sixes—one over mid-wicket and the other over long-on.

The 23-year-old seamer then deceived the big fish, Kolhi, with another slower ball sending the vociferous Wankhede crowd into silence. Kohli was early into the drive and offered a simple catch to Pathum Nissanka at short-cover as Madushanka finished his third spell of two overs with two wickets for 12 runs. Kohli hit 88 off 94 balls with 11 boundaries.

KL Rahul and Shreyas Iyer then added a quick 60 runs off 47 balls between them before Chameera removed KL Rahul, caught by Dushan Hemantha, at short extra-cover. Madushanka, who is enjoying a remarkable success with the ball in the World Cup, then removed Suryakumar Yadav to grab his fourth wicket. Yadav looked to hook a short ball from Madushanka but did not make a connection as it passed to the wicket-keeper. The umpire was unmoved but Mendis reviewed to find a slight spike on ultra edge.

Despite losing Rahul and Yadav quickly, Iyre continued the onslaught, hitting his 16th ODI half century.  The left-hander hit 82 off 56 balls with six sixes and three boundaries before Madushanka claimed his first five-wicket haul. Irye was running riot, hitting Madushanka for two consecutive sixes when a slow ball did the trick as Iyre sliced it straight up in the air for Maheesh Theekshana to grab a straight forward chance.

Ravindra Jadeja made a brisk 35 off 23 balls before he ran himself out in the last ball of their innings. Sri Lanka made one change to the playing XI with Dushan Hemantha coming in for misfiring Dhananjaya de Silva.

(Champika Fernando at Wankhede)