IND VS SL - 1st ODI, Sri Lanka tour of India, 2017

It's been a wake up call, a rude one, that you aren't allowed to snooze. Such has been the scheduling with these three-match ODI series. All it required was coming out of the smog for the Sri Lankans to an altitude of nearly 1500 meters over their beaches. But this alarm was just what this series needed, what this season needed. Wednesday, Mohali, we can't wait. It's time for us to wrap it up. This is Vineet Anantharaman signing off on behalf of Pradeep Krishnamurthy, Pratyush Sinha, Kumar Abhisekh Das and our scorer Venkatesh. Ta ta!!

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Deepu bids Buhbye with his daily dose of numbers. Munch upon them.

Wins against India in India with most balls to spare:
176 SL, Dharamsala, 2017 *
145 Aus, Vadodara, 2007
103 SL, Margao, 1990

Wins against India with most balls to spare:
209 SL, Dambulla, 2010
181 SL, Hambantota, 2012
176 SL, Dharamsala, 2017 *
174 Aus, SCG, 1981

Lowest ODI totals for India at home:
78 v SL, Kanpur, 1986
100 v WI, Ahmedabad, 1993
112 v SL, Dharamsala, 2017 *

Lowest all-out total to contain an individual 50:
101 SA v Pak, Sharjah, 2000 (Gibbs 59*)
112 IND v SL, Dharamsala (Dhoni 65)
115 NED v WI, Delhi, 2011 (T Cooper 55*)

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Suranga Lakmal, Player of the Match: The last two years have been filled with hard work. The coaching staff too has worked on me and I am very happy with my performance today. My fitness and health have been really good over the last few days and that showed in the results today.

Thisara Perera, winning skipper: Firstly we need to give 200 percent credit to our bowlers; they did everything right for us, bowling in the right lines and length. Their discipline was excellent and that was the reason for our success. This is an unplayable wicket, we did not expect this. We thought around 250-260 but when we were bowling itself we realized that we had to keep them under 220. I thought Lakmal did perfectly for us in the Test series and now is carrying it forward in the ODIs. He's the number one fast bowler for us at the moment. I have to mention Upul, he gave the best start and he is one of the best openers. Our batsmen have been doing well over the last couple of months but without success. All in all, everything worked for us today.

Rohit Sharma, losing skipper: Two games to go, but having said that we weren't up to the mark today. Just not enough runs on the board but the bowlers came out there and did whatever they could. Had we had 70-80 runs more we could have had a game on our hands. It is important that we as a team thrive on conditions such as these and come out good. Not everyday will we get flat tracks and today was a good learning curve. You need to understand your game and come out of such situations. Today was an eye-opener and we need to regroup and do well. He's (Dhoni) done it for so many years and he knows what exactly needs to be done in such conditions. Someone with him could have made the difference and I am not at all surprised by the way he played. He was the only one battling it out. There was something in the pitch even when we were bowling but 113 was just not going to be enough. Not such a great experience of losing the first match as a captain - nobody likes losing games and we need to focus on the next two games and come out hard.

So what that means is that India cannot go past South Africa in the ODI rankings, at least till the end of this year.

Angelo Mathews: This is a special win, we haven't had things go our way in the past few months, so this is a special day. I would like to thank the support staff for all the help. I am glad to have finished the chase, when you have the foot on the opponent's throat, you need to finish it off. Lakmal was outstanding and he was well supported by the rest of the bowlers. We were surprised at the amount of movement in the morning and I thought that our bowlers put the ball at the right place. India is a quality team and I am sure they will fight back in the next game. So, we need to be at the top of our game for the rest of the series. I have always bowled in the shorter format; just in the Tests, it's a part of workload management. The selectors have been very understanding, but I would like to bowl in all matches.

So what that means is that India now cannot go past South Africa in the ODI rankings, at least till the end of this year. As we wait for the presentations, here's a read in to what the man who triggered and closed it all had to say..

17.08 local: There are ways to reverse a 12-match losing streak, and then there is this. Hand India an absolute drubbing, with 176 balls and an entire sunset session going waste. Smiles, hugs, high fives in the Lankan dressing room..oh you've been missed. 113 was never going to be threatening, they did give the Indians a sniff, but Tharanga, his luck, and his edges sealed it. And Dickwella came in to have some fun. But that's only the icing. The real choclate in the cake came in the form of Lakmal's 10-4-13-4. Also India's desperation to seek practice sessions out of international games with batsmen of dodgy techniques.

Bhuvneshwar to Mathews, FOUR, there it is. All style. Mathews started it with the ball, finishes it with the bat. It's in the form of a spanking straight drive. Mid-off doesn't even bother, instead walks over to shake hands

Bhuvneshwar to Mathews, wide, so India helping them get close. By spraying a few down leg

Bhuvneshwar to Mathews, no run, premeditates a dance down. The swing gets the better of the slice, going over it

Bhuvneshwar to Mathews, no run, full bat faced. And he's showing what his side should have done better in the Tests..defend

Baiju Sekharan: "It was luck Sri Lanka won the toss and they could win it from there. But full credit for MS for trying. Indian batsmen should be patient if pitch has movement and learn to perfect it." -- Apt summary for the day's proceedings.

Bhuvneshwar to Mathews, no run, 135kph, floated up on the half volley outside off. Asking for some sort of a drive, gets a sighter