Unseasonal showers played spoilsport as the opening one-dayer between Indiaand Sri Lanka was abandoned at the Eden Garden, the first international tie tobe hosted here in more than two years, today.
The 86,000-odd Kolkata crowd was seemingly set for some thrilling cricket asthe visitors got off to a roaring start after being put in to bat before theweather gods literally poured cold water on such hopes.
Sri Lanka were 102 for three in 18.2 overs with veteran opener SanathJayasuriya, probably on his last tour of India, going great guns on 63 when theskies opened up.
The showers, which began at 4 pm, lasted for 45 minutes before relenting.
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The super-sopper was immediately pressed into service and the mopping upoperations began.
But the intense efforts of the groundsmen came to a naught as the rainsreturned soon, dashing all hopes of a restart.
The umpires declared the game abandoned at 8.30 pm.
The second tie of the four-match series will be played at Rajkot on Feb 11, aday before India's squad for the World Cup in the West Indies in March-April isto be selected.
The match, originally scheduled to be held in Pune, was moved to Kolkataafter the CAB elections which saw city police commissioner Prasun Mukherjeesucceed Jagmohan Dalmiya as president.
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But it turned out to be the first ever limited-overs game at the Eden Gardento be washed out.
Earlier, Jayasuriya played a typically belligerent knock, plundering 13boundaries from 61-balls.
The Matara Marauder's innings offset the twin strikes of pacer Munaf Patel,who put the brakes on the initial flourish of the islanders by picking up openerUpul Tharanga (14) and skipper Mahela Jayawardene (0) in successive overs.
The visitors were 44 for two in 7.4 overs, but Jayasuriya and KumarSangakkara staged the recovery act with a 52-run stand for the third wicketbefore the Sri Lankan vice-captain was devoured by Sreesanth.
Tharanga, who cracked two hundreds in the Champions Trophy late last year,began on an aggressive note, picking up a boundary through mid-on off the veryfirst ball of the match delivered by Zaheer Khan. Three balls later, the batsmandisdainfully dispatched the left arm bowler to the long off fence as Zaheerended up conceding 13 runs in the over.
Jayasuriya also got cracking at the other end, hitting Patel for two fours inthe sixth over.
But the Gujarat bowler salvaged his reputation by sending back Tharanga withthe last ball of the over.
Tharanga inside edged on to his off-stump, while the big wicket ofJayawardene fell in the eighth over as he failed to check a drive and offered astraight catch to his Indian counterpart Rahul Dravid at mid on.
Among the Indian bowlers, Zaheer and Sreesanth proved wayward on a strip thatwas a batting paradise.
Jayasuriya completed his half century with a square driven boundary ofSreesanth, moving from 48 to 52.
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Sangakkara's end came in the 17th over as he tried to slash into the coverregion, and the thick edge was taken behind the stumps.
For the locals, the only consolation came when Bengal's young all-roundnerManoj Tiwari, who was the 12th man as three of the Indian players - YuvrajSingh, Irfan Pathan and Ajit Agarkar were unfit - came on to the field after thefirst drinks break in place of Patel.
PTI
