Victory was made possible by aggressive batting, as promised by captain Angelo Mathews. The personnel who did that were Kusal Mendis (89) and Danushka Gunathilaka (76), who wasn’t even in the squad until an injury to Chamara Kapugedera on the eve of the game.

But it all changed quickly when when Gunathilaka pulled Umesh into the stands at the beginning of the eighth, signalling a shift in fortunes. Gunathilaka took charge with some glorious drives, particularly down the ground, while Mendis too started confidently, shifting the pressure on to India gradually.

But a good beginning is not even a job half done, as Sri Lanka found out the hard way against South Africa. The middle-overs batting was the most crucial phase of the chase, and how Sri Lanka handled Ravindra Jadeja was in particular important, given that it had crumbled against ’s leg-spin.

Mendis took that task upon himself and dismantled the left-arm spinner’s threat with smart batting. With only four fielders allowed inside the ring, Mendis targeted the mid-wicket boundary to perfection, getting past fifty with one such massive swipe into the crowd.

Jadeja conceded 36 from four overs, the partnership crossed 150, and India’s shoulders began to drop. It didn’t help that Rohit Sharma could not hold on to a very tough chance in the deep when Gunathilaka was on 70.

India’s desperation was evident when Kedhar Jadhav and Virat Kohli came on to bowl, but the breakthroughs came via run outs.

Despite Rohit’s poor form in the Tests, he has the confidence of captain Virat Kohli, who feels that the ODI specialist should be given a longer run to prove himself in the Test format.

The star Mumbai batsman, who holds the world record for the highest score in ODIs, could never settle down in the longest format during his delayed 18-Test career that began with a bang — with back-to-back tons against the West Indies in 2013 in India.

Considered to be a batsman with a wide range of strokes, Rohit has been in and out of the playing XI since then with consistency not his forte in Tests.

In the recent series against the West Indies in the Caribbean, he got a chance to play in two out of four games, one of which was washed out, and he mustered 9 and 41 in the two innings in the third Test at Gros Islet.

How much patience will the selectors continue to have on the talented but under-performing 29-year-old batsman at the Test level is a matter of conjecture.

Rohit also did not do well in the first innings of the ongoing Duleep Trophy final in Greater Noida after being specifically included in one of the teams — India Blue — following his return from the West Indies and the USA.

He made just 30 runs yesterday before throwing his wicket away.

With quite a few talented youngsters like Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey and Karun Nair waiting in the wings, the selectors will have a tough task at hands.

Another top-order batsman who has come under the scanner is Cheteshwar Pujara. He was dropped for the final Test against the West Indies, along with successful opener in past Test rubbers — Murali Vijay –, by the tour management.

Pujara grafted his way to 62 runs from two innings, but has since then answered the selectors’ queries with back-to-back hundreds in the Duleep Trophy and is likely to be included in the squad which, more or less, should be the same that toured the West Indies and won the series 2-0.

Ravindra Jadeja is another player who has been asked to play in the Duleep Trophy after getting just one game in the West Indies, in which he scored 22 runs and picked up three wickets at Gros Islet. He was dropped for the fourth and final Port of Spain game, which got washed out.

It could be a toss-up between him, Chinaman bowler Kuldeep Yadav, who has grabbed 13 wickets in two games for India Red in the ongoing Duleep Trophy, and orthodox leggie Amit Mishra.

Mishra played in two out of four Tests in the West Indies, for grabbing two out of three spinners’ slots in the squad to support premier slow bowler Ravichandran

Mohammed Shami, the only Indian bowler to take more than 10 wickets against the Windies other than Ashwin, looks a certainty to spearhead the pace attack along with Ishant Sharma — the most experienced bowler in this lot.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umesh Yadav and Shardul Thakur were the others who completed the pace quintet in the West Indies. But with the series being held in sub continent conditions, it looks unlikely that all of them will be a part of the squad.

As India have a lengthy spell of Test cricket, 13 games in all till the visit by the Australians in February-March, 2017, the selectors may also decide to go in for rotating the fast bowling resources.

A call-up for someone like Varun Aaron, now touring Australia with the India ‘A’ squad, does not appear far-fetched at some stage of the season.

Ishant Sharma and Ravichandran Ashwin claimed one scalp each as West Indies advanced to 2-62 in 22 overs at Queen’s Park Oval in Port of Spain.

India assumed the top Test spot on the International Cricket Council’s official rankings when Australia lost the third Test in their series against Sri Lanka on Wednesday.

Quick Single: Aussies dethroned as No.1 Test team

But the stay at the top could be short lived, as India need to beat the West Indies in the fourth Test to stop Pakistan from taking over top position.

West Indies skipper Jason Holder won the toss and batted, hoping to capitalise on a slow wicket after a wet outfield delayed the start of play by half an hour.

Pace bowler Sharma did not open the attack, but after biding his time in the field for 11 overs struck with his first ball, a rising delivery that Leon Johnson, on nine, could only fend into the diving hands of Rohit Sharma at short leg.

The Windies had already survived a scare earlier after Bhuvneshwar Kumar – who took five wickets in the first innings of the third Test – struck the outside edge of Kraigg Brathwaite’s bat four times, without getting his man.

Quick Single: Kohli’s eyes on the bigger prize

Off-spinner Ashwin dismissed Darren Bravo in the 15th over with a beautiful delivery that pitched on leg stump and turned to take the number three’s off stump.

Brathwaite was unbeaten on 32 when rain stopped play, with Marlon Samuels on four.

Quick Single: Ashwin finds all-round balance

Umpires subsequently suspended play for the day as the rain continued and the outfield become increasingly waterlogged.

India made two changes from the third test, bringing in opener Murali Vijay for Shikhar Dhawan and Cheteshwar Pujara as an extra batsman in place of spinner Ravindra Jadeja.

Quick Single: Herath, Starc climb in ICC rankings

West Indies brought in leg-spinner Devendra Bishoo for pace bowler Alzarri Joseph.

India lead the series 2-0.

After Indian opener Rohit Sharma scored an unbeaten 171 to lead his country to an imposing 309-3, Australia got away to a rocky start when left arm seamer Barinder Sran removed both openers in his first three overs.

Playing on a lifeless pitch which offered nothing for the bowlers, Bailey and Smith played brilliantly to frustrate the Indian attack.

They rotated the strike throughout the innings to keep the score moving, taking quick singles and hitting boundaries when they needed to increase the pace.

Bailey was the more aggressive early and reached his century before his captain, taking just 106 balls with six boundaries and two sixes.

Smith began to accelerate and followed Bailey to three figures soon after, off only 97 balls including six fours and a towering six.

Bailey eventually fell when he tried to smash another six off Ravi Ashwin and was caught on the boundary by Bhuvneshwar Kumar but Smith continued his incredible vein of form.

He smashed his way to 149 but with only two runs needed for victory he chipped Sran to cover where Virat Kohli claimed an easy catch, leaving James Faulkner to hit the winning run.

“I thought we did well in the field to restrict them to 309,” Smith said.

“They looked like they were going to get 350 at one stage.”

India must have been confident of defending their total after Sran’s impressive start.

He brilliantly caught and bowled Finch (8) in his second over, then had the dangerous Warner (5) caught at midwicket by Kohli in his third.

But the ease with which Australia chased the score down showed that India had not scored quickly enough in the middle of their innings and were at least 20 runs short of a competitive total.

“I think it’s important that after you score 300 runs you bowl well and I think in the middle overs when the spinners were bowling they gave up too many runs,” Dhoni said.

“I was quite happy with the fast bowling performance — I thought they bowled well and hit the right spots.”

Earlier Sharma and Kohli (91) shared a 207-run partnership for the second wicket against a toothless Australian attack.

India lost opener Shikhar Dhawan (9) in the sixth over when he top-edged an attempted pull from Josh Hazlewood straight to Mitchell Marsh at deep backward square leg.

However, that brought Kohli to the crease and signalled a long period of complete dominance over the Australian attack as he raced to the highest individual ODI score against Australia on Australian soil, eclipsing Viv Richards’ 153 not out for the West Indies in 1979.

Sharma smashed 13 fours and cleared the boundary seven times to the delight of the large contingent of Indian fans at the ground. He built his innings steadily, bringing up his 50 from 63 balls, his century from 122 and his 150 from 155, mixing quick singles with some powerful boundary hitting.

It was the fourth time Sharma had scored 150 in ODIs, a record only surpassed by countryman Sachin Tendulkar.

Sharma lost Kohli with the score on 243 and was joined at the crease by Dhoni, who joined in with 18 rapid runs before he was caught brilliantly at mid-on by Boland.

However, despite the late flourish the Indians fell short and Australia were able to draw first blood in the five-match series.

AFP