Winning rhythm and the Blues | Cricket

India’s batters scored their first 350-plus total of the 2023 World Cup on Thursday. But we aren’t going to talk about them because by the time the game against Sri Lanka at the Wankhede Stadium ended, the only thing the capacity crowd could even think about was the bowling. As Mohammed Shami later said, “Not rocket science. Just a matter of rhythm.” But it surely wasn’t any ordinary rhythm.

After India made 357/8 batting first, Sri Lanka were bowled out for 55. The sheer brilliance of Mohammed Siraj, Mohammed Shami and Jasprit Bumrah was just too much to take for a Sri Lankan team that was clearly short of experience and class.

Bumrah set the tone by taking a wicket off the very first ball of the innings. He went wide, angled it in and then made it move away from to trap Pathum Nissanka leg before. From that point, the attack was merciless. Siraj made the most of the helpful conditions with a three-wicket burst in seven balls to destroy the top order.

Then Shami stepped up. By this point, the fields were straight out of a Test — slips, gully, point, close-in fielders. As India moved in for the kill, there was no escape. Another burst of wickets for the pacer saw the visitors being reduced to 29/8 after 13.1 overs; the innings was in danger of getting over inside 15 overs.

When India had batted, the pitch had looked full of runs. The Lankan batters, however, appeared to be batting on an entirely different surface with Bumrah making the ball snake around in the very first over. At four down for three runs in 3.1 overs, the game was over as a contest. It only took that much.

Shami came on to bowl in the 10th over and struck a double blow. He scythed through the lower order to finish with figures of 5-1-18-5. In three matches this tournament he has bowled 132 balls and taken 14 wickets at an average of 6.71 and a strike-rate of 9.42.

When Sri Lanka were finally bowled out in 19.4 overs, the 302-run victory margin was India’s biggest in a World Cup. It also made them the first team to qualify for the semi-finals.

Of course, we have seen this happen before. Recently too. In the Asia Cup, Sri Lanka were bowled out for 50. But this repeat performance was proof of a gulf that is currently too wide to bridge.

Of Gill, Kohli and Iyer

In batting, there was no individual glory but India will be quite pleased with how things panned out. Runs from Shubman Gill and Shreyas Iyer were on India’s wishlist and the two came good with innings of 92 and 82 respectively.

There was excitement in the air as Virat Kohli got closer to what would have been a record-equalling century but he eventually fell for 88. His tally of tons remains at 48 — one short of Sachin Tendulkar’s tally. But the batting line-up fired as a unit to get India past 350 for the first time in the tournament.

Compared to some of the other teams that are well paced to get into top four, India hadn’t quite matched up in the power-hitting stakes. On Thursday, they added 93 runs in the last 10 overs to tick that box too. Iyer was the key. He hit six sixes to score 82 runs at a strike rate of 146.43.

The biggest positive from the game was Gill finding his best form again. Along with Rohit Sharma and Kohli, he is the impact player for the team. In 2023, before the World Cup, he had hit five centuries, including a double hundred. Dengue seemed to shut him down for a bit but his knock showed that he is ready to take things up a gear or two.

Sri Lanka, too, had their chances early on but failed to hold on to chances from Kohli and Gill. First, Gill was dropped at cover by Charith Asalanka off left-arm pacer Dilshan Madushanka. In the next over, pacer Chameera failed to hold on to a tough caught-and-bowled chance after inducing a leading edge off Kohli on 10 runs.

The second-wicket pair didn’t look back. For the capacity crowd at Wankhede, they put on a batting show during their second wicket partnership of 189 runs.

During the course of the innings, Kohli completed 1000 runs in ODIs this year. It’s the eighth time he has done so, going past Tendulkar’s record of seven. As the ball grew older, Kohli’s touch seemed to get even better. His on-driving was a treat to watch — he hit them past the bowler, to the right as well as the left of the fielder at mid-on. There were some delectable off-drives and flicks as well.

Overall, the waywardness of the Lankan bowlers made it an easy ride for the Indian batters. Madushanka waged a lone battle to pick up a five-wicket haul, but lacked support from the other end to build pressure. But by the end of the match, they had a template to copy thanks to the show put on by Shami and Co.