Kolkata: Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s gritty half-century coupled with a cool and solid 45* from former skipper Mahendra Singh guided India to one of it’s most memorable ODI wins in recent times after they had lost seven wickets mid-way into the chase.
After restricting Sri Lanka to 236/8 in their 50 overs, the Indian openers-Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan came out all guns blazing and looked to win the game in quick time chasing a revised target of 231, in a match that had been reduced to 47 overs due to rain.
The Indian duo put on a solid 109 opening partnership before Rohit Sharma, who was run-out in the first match was trapped in front of the wicket by off-spinner Akila Dananjaya for a well-made 54. Shikhar Dhawan too fell shortly to Milinda Siriwardana, missing out a fifty by just one run and little did anyone expect that it would be the beginning of a batting collapse for the visitors.
Kedar Jadhav (1) and KL Rahul (4) were both dismissed by Dananjaya. Skipper Virat Kohli too fell to the 24-year old as the Sri Lankans were slowly clawing their way back into the contest.
Dananjaya was also given the Man of
At one stage, the visitors were reeling at 131/7 courtesy a fine spell from Dananjaya, whose six-wicket haul destroyed the mighty Indian batting line up as the hosts were closing in on a remarkable victory.
But Dhoni combined with Kumar to put on a 100* run unbeaten stand, which is also the highest partnership for the eighth wicket for India in ODI’s. While Dhoni was happy knocking the ball around for singles and twos, Bhubaneswar, who had began slowly started to accelerate as they nearing the total and struck a magnificent 53 from 80 balls that included four fours and one huge six.
Dananjaya was named the, ‘Man of the Match’ despite ending up on the losing side.
The duo absorbed the pressure as Dhoni remained unbeaten on 45 runs from 68 balls. The former skipper, having faced a lot of similar situations before guided the chase beautifully and in the end, it turned out to be easy for the Indians who won with 2.4 overs to spare. India thus lead the series 2-0 with this win.
Earlier, Siriwardana was the only batsman from the Sri Lankan camp to get to a fifty-plus score as all the others around him couldn’t do much with the bat. Jasprit Bumrah broke the back of the Sri Lankan batting with figures of 4/43 from 10 overs. Leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal too bowled beautifully to take two wickets giving the same number of runs.
Wicketkeeper batsman Niroshan Dickwella played a fine knock of 31 runs. Chamara Kapugedara also fought with 40 runs before he was sent back with a vicious Bumrah yorker which uprooted his leg-stump. With the continuous fall of wickets, Sri Lanka could only muster 236 from their 50 overs.
Brief scores-
Sri Lanka-236/8 ( Milinda Siriwardana 58, Chamara Kapugedara 40; Jasprit Bumrah 4/43) lost to India 231/7 in 44.2 overs (Rohit Sharma 54, Bhuvneshwar Kumar 53*; Akila Dananjaya 6/54) by 3 wickets (DLS method)
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