Asalanka bowls Sri Lanka to a tie against India in ODI series opener

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lanka captain Charith Asalanka took two wickets with successive balls to hold India to a tie in their one-day international series opener on Friday.

Batting first after winning the toss, Sri Lanka made 230-8. India reached 230-8 in the 48th over when Asalanka trapped the last specialist batter Shivam Dube (25) and tailender Arshdeep Singh (0) to force a tie with 13 balls remaining.

It was the second tied ODI between them; the other was in 2012 in Australia.

Dunith Wellalage’s maiden ODI half-century, an unbeaten 67 off 65 deliveries including seven boundaries and two sixes, was crucial in rescuing Sri Lanka from 101-5. The home side looked set to suffer another batting collapse which occurred in all three preceding Twenty20s that India swept.

Wellalage also shone with the ball, taking 2-39, providing the first two breakthroughs after India openers Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill put on 75 runs for the first wicket, laying a good platform for their chase.

Gill (16) was first to fall trying to slog Wellalage and skying a catch to wicketkeeper Kusal Mendis. Rohit was out for 58 in 47 deliveries including seven boundaries and three sixes trapped lbw. With Rohit’s dismissal, India was 80-2.

Virat Kohli made 24 before falling lbw to leg-spinner Wanindu Hasaranga.

Fast bowler Asitha Fernando’s inswinger bowled Shreyas Iyer for 23 to hold India to 132-5, then Lokesh Rahul and Axar Patel shared 57 runs for the sixth wicket to bring India back into the game.

But Rahul (31) and Patel (33) were dismissed eight runs apart to raise the tension.

Dube led India to within one run of victory but Asalanka’s double strikes ended the game. He took 3-30.

“The scores are gettable it’s just that you have to bat well to get that score,” India captain Rohit said.

“We batted well in patches but there was no consistent momentum through the match for us.”

Asalanka had similar thoughts.

“We did well,” he said, “but we should have done a lot more to restrict them to under 230.”

Earlier, Sri Lanka’s batting started cautiously on a pitch that helped spin bowling very early.

Fast bowler Mohammed Siraj dismissed opener Avishka Fernando for 1, and Dube trapped Mendis for 14.

When Sadeera Samarawickrama (8) and Asalanka (14) were out cheaply, Sri Lanka was in deep trouble.

Wellalage added 41 runs for the sixth wicket with Janith Liyanage (20), who surprisingly walked off thinking he edged a ball to captain Rohit at slip. Video replays showed the bat hit the ground just before the ball passed the outside edge, and deflected off the wicketkeeper’s gloves to Rohit.

Wellalage added another 36 runs for the seventh wicket with Hasaranga, who scored 24.

Wellalage and Akila Dananjaya added 46 runs for the eighth to give Sri Lanka a sub-par total.

Left-arm spinner Patel impressed for India with 2-33. Fast bowler Arshdeep also took two wickets.

The second match is on Sunday.

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AP cricket: https://apnews.com/hub/cricket