India vs Sri Lanka 2017, 1st ODI: Five things that went wrong for the hosts
Sri Lanka dismantled the hosts at Dharamshala
Rohit Sharma, India's stand-in captain in the absence of Virat Kohli, was handed an excruciating 7-wicket defeat by Sri Lanka in his first outing as a skipper at Dharamshala.
Opting to field first, Thisara Perera's men broke India's back as the hosts were reduced to 28/6, their lowest ODI score after the fall of six wickets.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni fought a lone battle to score 65 off 87 deliveries, guiding India from 29/7 to 112 in 38.2 overs.
Now that the hosts are trailing 1-0 in the three-match ODI series, let's have a look at what went wrong for the Men in Blue.
#1 India losing the toss
Thisara Perera won a crucial toss and made the most of it by inviting India to bat first on a wicket that had enough purchase for the pacers bowling with the new ball.
After losing the toss, Rohit had said that it was a good toss to lose as he would have batted anyway. He was under the impression that his batsmen would play out the initial overs with the sun shining brightly.
However, Man of the Match Suranga Lakmal had different plans. Right from the outset, Lakmal meant business as he ended up recording his career-best figures of 4-13 as India were cleaned up for 112 in 38.2 overs.
#2 Spinners were not used by Rohit Sharma
Kuldeep Yadav should have been brought into the attack early
Although Sri Lanka are not the same team they were a few years ago, they put up a spirited show and defeated the number two team on the ICC ODI Rankings.
However, as far as the hosts are concerned, they appeared to be a dysfunctional unit in all the aspects of the game.
It was Rohit Sharma's first game as a skipper but he failed on more than one count. He did not make use of his bowlers effectively as he kept persisting with Hardik Pandya and did not try out spinners Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal.
Although Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jasprit Bumrah got early breakthroughs in the form of Danushka Gunathilaka and Lahiru Thirimanne, they could not match up to the show put up by Thisara Perera's pacers earlier in the day.
Sri Lanka spinners Akila Dhanajaya and Sachith Pathirana were used by Perera after Lakmal's 10 overs were exhausted and claimed a wicket each to add to India's woes.
#3 Jasprit 'no-ball' Bumrah
Bumrah needs to fix his no-ball woes soon
Jasprit Bumrah's special ability to bowl yorkers consistently is an asset for Team India, however, he also has this habit of bowling no-balls at crucial junctures of a game.
Chasing 113 to win, Sri Lanka were briefly on the backfoot at 19/2 in the 7th over. On the fifth delivery of the sixth over, Bumrah overstepped and gave Upul Tharanga, who was playing on 11 at that time, a new lease of life.
From there on Tharanga went on to top-score for his team with a 46-ball 49.
The master of no-balls found a new way to bowl illegitimate deliveries as well. On the first ball of the 10th over, Bumrah's back leg hit the bails and the umpire called it a no-ball. He gave away two 'free hits' to Sri Lanka in an innings of 20.4 overs and to add insult to injury, was hit for four on both occasions.
#4 No support for MS Dhoni
Dhoni waged a lone battle
Mahendra Singh Dhoni came out to bat when India were struggling at 16/4. Suranga Lakmal was consistently pitching the ball in the good length area. Riding on his experience of 300-plus ODIs, Dhoni was able to disrupt the Sri Lankan pacer's rhythm and explored the opportunities of scoring on the backfoot.
Dhoni held the fort for India at one end and needed some assistance to bring the hosts' derailed innings back on track but he ended up fighting a lone battle.
Kuldeep Yadav (19) showed some resistance before perishing but no other batsman came out to help Dhoni's cause as India were eventually bowled out for 112 in 38.2 overs.
With chinks in India's batting armour exposed, we can just hope that today's loss serves as an eye-opener for Team India and they re-group to take stock of their resources before the second ODI in Mohali on Thursday.
#5 Batting collapse
No fireworks from the two
India went into the match with six batsmen and an all-rounder, yet only three players on their batting list managed to get to double figures.
Suranga Lakmal and Angelo Mathews were too hot to handle for openers Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan.
Manish Pandey, debutant Shreyas Iyer and Dinesh Karthik, who faced a record 18 balls before being dismissed for a duck, looked completely out of sync.
The only silver lining for India in their worst batting collapse of recent times was Mahendra Singh Dhoni's superhuman knock of 65.
Dhoni, with some help from the tailenders, anchored India's innings from an embarrassing 29/7 to 112 in 38.2 overs but Sri Lanka registered an easy seven-wicket win, their first against the Men in Blue since the ICC Champions Trophy in June 2017.
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