One of cricket’s classical, old-fashioned theories manifested itself on Wednesday as one grand effort from Sri Lanka was upstaged by three little efforts from Team India. The visitors did well to ease the pain of their huffing-and-puffing journey to win the first one-day international by six wickets, with 11 balls to spare. And Sanath Jayasuriya had to remain content with only the Man-of-the-Match trophy for his record-breaking century.

Welcome 2009, where the cricket calendar is as congested as ever, and where India started the season by organising what looked like a contributory party. The bowlers chipped in with wickets, the batsmen got starts, the tempo was kept throughout the innings, and skipper Mahendra Singh showcased his determination by remaining unbeaten on 61 from 65 balls — with just five boundaries — to make everything resemble a candy-floss 2008.

Things had taken a wrong turn initially as the severe seam movement expected at the Ranagiri Dambulla Stadium went missing after Dhoni asked the Lankans to bat first. But Dilshan ran himself out early, and Jayasuriya was more subdued than usual as the Lanka’s score reached a sense of respectability, but no more.

With the middle-order struggling, the total of 246 was plastered around Jayasuriya’s patience as the opener’s 108-ball century, with 10 fours and a six, took him past 13,000 runs in one-day cricket, and made him the the oldest man, at 39 years and 212 days, to score a century in this format of the game. His knock ended in a tame dismissal though, to a full toss from left-arm seamer Zaheer Khan.

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