With the bulk of their batting order all too comfortable with the low and slow pitches experienced across their recent three-Test series against Sri Lanka, the tourists were found severly wanting on a Dambulla deck which offered the faster bowlers plenty of swing, seam and bounce.[break]
Chasing a formidable target of 289 in the wake of Ross Taylor and Scott Styris´ rearguard 190-run partnership earlier in the day, India fell from 39 without loss to 67 for seven after 19 overs and then 88 all out in 29.3 overs as Daryl Tuffey and company made hay.
Virender Sehwag and Dinesh Karthik, playing in the abscence of the crocked Gautam Gambhir, kicked off the Indian reply with gay abandon, throwing the bat at anything and everything before parting to successive deliveries.
Sehwag, in typical fashion, was intent on swiping the cover off the ball at every turn, and was unfortunate to glove a poor delivery from Tuffey, which begged to be clubbed over midwicket, down the leg-side to wicketkeeper Gareth Hopkins.
Karthik, unlucky to be stuck lbw by umpire Taufel for 14 when television replays showed Kyle Mills´ errant line to be ballooning over and well wide of leg-stump, had barely made it back to the pavilion when the middle order steadily began to lay to waste the work done by the openers.
One would´ve been forgiven for mistaking Rohit Sharma (four), Suresh Raina (five), Yuvraj Singh (six) and later Praveen Kumar (one) as New Zealand´s fielding coach, as the quartet proceeded to methodically offer easy catching practice to the Black Caps´ slip cordon. While Sharma, Raina and Kumar were flummoxed by the considerable lift generated outside the off-stump by Tuffey, who bowled unchanged for eight overs on the trot, in particular, Yuvraj needs a long, hard look at his severe lack of footwork after doing himself a dirty despite an ugly, wide, half-volley from Andy McKay.
The bowling Powerplay, from over 10 to 15, brought India a mere six runs at the loss of two wickets.
Mahendra Dhoni had earlier run himself out for two to break the string of catches to the cordon, but Abhimanyu Mithun (four) soon picked up on the trend again to oblige captain Taylor his fourth catch of the match - all of them in the slips - and see the score limp to 82 for eight.
With the writing all but entirley on the wall, debutant all-rounder Kane Williamson took the opportunity to make up for his duck five or so hours earlier. Jadeja´s dance down the track in a quest to go big over long-off didn´t see him meet the turn at its pitch, and Styris - yes, in the slips - did the rest.
Asish Nehra (four), at least, didn´t oblige the slip cordon, plugging Mills´ return loosener to mid-off to finalise a quite humilating defeat for India.
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