INDIA DO IT IN STYLE

Ride on Shaw-Ishan Blitz, Dhawan’s Calm To Chase Down 262 With Ease

- Gaurav Gupta

The way Ishan Kishan danced down the track to loft Dhananjaya de Silva down the ground for a six off the first ball he faced in ODIs, before cutting the spinner for a four off the next delivery, reflected the mindset of India’s IPL-fuelled generation-next, which believes in an ‘attack first’ policy.’

Powered by a captain’s knock by Shikhar Shawan, who slammed his 33rd ODI 50(86 not out, 95b, 6x4, 1x6), a 33-ball explosive half-century by ‘birthday boy’ ‘keeper-bat Kishan (59 off 42 balls) on debut and a 23ball 43 blitzkrieg by opener Prithvi Shaw, India scored a comprehensive seven-wicket win over Sri Lanka in the opening ODI at the Premadasa Stadium in Colombo on Sunday night, taking a 1-0 lead in the three-match series.

After Kishan and Shaw’s fireworks, Dhawan finished the job with Manish Pandey (26, 40b, 1x4, 1x6) and Suryakumar Yadav (31 not out, 20b, 5x4), another debutant for India on the day, chipping in. Dhawan, who went past 6,000 ODI runs, deserves praise for the way he shed his normally aggressive approach to drop anchor at one end, enabling Kishan and Shaw to score at a fast pace.

Arriving at Shaw’s fall, Kishan carted eight fours and two sixes, to smash the second-fastest fifty by a batsman in his first One-Dayer, keeping the momentum of India’s chase going in fifth gear. Using his feet and dancing down the track repeatedly, Kishan, who celebrated his 23rd birthday in style, was murderous against the spinners.