Captain Angelo Mathews, who has been on the forefront Sri Lanka’s recent major honours, steering the ship and elevating himself to scale new heights as player added another feather to his cap by bringing up his maiden hundred in the fifth ODI at Ranchi.
After a rather difficult start, which saw the Sri Lankans lose quick wickets in the first hour of the innings, Mathews calmed the tide with the help of able support from Lahiru Thirmanne to take Sri Lanka to a fighting total of 286.
Sri Lankans stuttered after opting to bat first as Niroshan Dickwell fell early while Tillakaratne Dilshan blazed away to a cracking start but a beautiful delivery from Stuart Binny, one that came back into the batsman, cramping him for room, breached his defence and ended his stay at the crease.
Dinesh Chandimal’s long and painstaking stay at the crease ended with him losing his nerve and going for the long hop off Axar Patel and and Rohit took a safe catch in the deep.
Mahela Jayawardene started well and was his elegant self early on but failed to make it count as R Ashwin snared his wicket to reduce Sri Lanka to 85 for four.
Mathews and Thirimmane started patiently and India were culpable of putting down a couple of easy chances to reduce the hosts into further trouble. Robin Uthappa missed a regulation chance behind the stumps while Ajinkya Rahane missed a sharp chance at first slip.
Indians got complacent in the middle overs and Virat Kohli turned to part-timers in the middle overs and the Sri Lankans capitalised during this passage of play.
Mathews launched a brutal assault on the bowlers. He was severe on the spinners and was muscling sixes for fun towards the end of the innings. Indians wore a deserted look on their faces as Mathews launched one skyscraper after another.
In the process, he completed 10 sixes in total; a Sri Lankan record beating Sanath Jayasuriya’s nine and also brought up the highest individual score by a Lankan batsman in this series.
While Rohit displayed finese in the previous match, Mathews was all power and put his team in position where they have a fighting chance to avoid a whitewash.
