Till the time that Kumar Sangakkara stayed at the crease,there were tense faces in the Indian side. Captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni had gone in with five full-time bowlers for the match,but Umesh Yadav was proving expensive and Pragyan Ojha did not give him the control that was expected of him. With the Lankan southpaw in full flow at one end he had gotten past his century and looked good for more - India's total of 314 was begining to look attainable. At that stage,Sri Lanka required 107 off the last nine overs,but with Thisara Perera swinging from the other end too,the target had drastically reduced to 46 off 18 balls. However,when Sangakkara's attempted paddle off Yadav made no contact and the ball crashed on to the stumps he was out for 133 the tension that had been accumulating dissipated almost instantly. That India struggled to defend a big score despite playing five bowlers apart from Irfan Pathan at the start and Ravichandran Ashwin in the middle overs,the others struggled - must be something that needs to be addressed. India eventually prevailed by 21 runs in the first ODI at the Mahinda Rajapaksa International stadium. But for that,the credit must go almost entirely to Dhoni's batsmen. Especially Virender Sehwag and Virat Kohli. Kohli has been in the form of his life in the last few months,and his 12th ODI hundred was a commanding knock that did not give the fielding side too many chances,unlike his partner for most of the innings Sehwag. With the hundred,Kohli became the fastest to reach 12 ODI hundreds. India had lost opener Gautam Gambhir early when the left hander was bowled around his legs by Nuwan Kulasekara in third over,but the Sehwag-Kohli partnership ensured there were no more early jolts. Kohli constructed his inning by rotating the strike well and striking the occasional boundary. He moved from 32 to 64 without finding the fence,but still ensured that the 173-run association with Sehwag came at close to six an over. Though Sehwag and Rohit Sharma fell in quick succession,India did not panic,as first Kohli,and then the Raina-Dhoni combination kept the big hits coming. Raina was out at the fag end of the innings,as was Dhoni,but the two had blitzed 79 runs at close to nine runs an over,ensuring the side posted a healthy total. With the ball,India got off to a decent start as Pathan got Tillakaratne Dilshan leg before early in the innings,and despite Zaheer Khan and Yadav struggling for control - they sent down a lot of wides - the bowlers managed to keep the home side quiet. With Pathan bowling a longish spell at the start,exploiting the swing and the movement,and Ashwin keeping things tight as well,the pressure began to tell as Sri Lanka lost wickets at regular intervals. And the task proved too much for just one man. The Indian fielding looked ragged,as overthrows and misfields abounded and the bowling lacked discipline - 16 wides were sent down in total. But there's something more to Kohli's super hot streak than just his own numbers. On Saturday,he struck his fourth hundred in five innings and India didn't lose one of them.
