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Result  Sri Lanka defeated India by eight wickets in the first one day international cricket match of the series of five one-dayers played in Dambula in Sri Lanka on August 18. India missed its in-form opener batsmen Virendra Sehwag a lot who could not play because of an injury. New young members of the Indian team could not handle the spin bowling or Muralitharan and Mendis well and all the team was all out for a very small score of 146 runs. They both took three wickets each by giving 37 and 21 runs respectively.

Indian Batting India had won the toss and had decided to bat first but they could not take the advantage of the toss. Chaminda Vaas gave first blow to India by bowling  out Gautam Gambhir for a duck in the very first over of the match. India was reduced to three for 36 as the next two batmen Virat Kohli (12)and  Suresh Raina fell to Nuwan Kulasekera. Third Sri Lankan seamer Thilan Thushara  took the wicket of Rohit Sharma who had made 19 runs and had shown some signs of recovery. He was caught at slip. Rest of the six wickets were taken by both of the Sri Lankan spinners. Yuvraz Singh was the highest run getter for his side as he made 23 runs. He fell to the bowling of Ajantha Mendis. Skipper Dhoni and Munaf (15) Patel were the other two victims of the bowling of Mendis. Dhoni was caught at slip by Mahela Jayawardene while Munaf Patel was bowled out.. Zaheer Khan (12), Harbhajan Singh (12) and Irfan Pathan (7) fell to Muralitharan. Zaheer Khan was caught by THushara on the bowling of Muralitharan. Harbhajan Singh was caught by Sangakara while Pathan was adjudged leg before wicked. P. Ojha remained not out for 16 runs. India missed some of its seniors who did not play because of injuries.

Sri Lanka Responding to the small victory target of 147 runs, Lankan openers, too, could not give a good start to their side. Munaf Patel struck twice and the Sri Lanka was reduced to 45 runs at the loss of two important wickets of Sanath Jayasuriya  and Kumar Sangakkara.  Sanath Jayasuriya was caught at mid-on by Irfan Pathan when he had made just 10 runs while Sangakkara was caught and bowled by Munaf on his own bowling. Mahela Jayawardene (61 not out) and Chamara Kapugedera(45) guided their side to an easy win as they achieved the target just in 34.5 overs and with eight wickets in hand. Ajantha Mendis was declared man of the match.