Watch cricket video highlights of India tour of Sri Lanka 2024 second one day international between Sri Lanka vs India. Venue of the match will be Colombo.
After winning the toss, Sri Lanka elected to bat first on a surface that allowed the spinners to stop, grip, and turn the ball savagely at points. Amazingly, they rallied from six down for less than 150 runs. Down the order, Dunith Wellalage had a significant impact by scoring at a run per ball while defying the circumstances at the R Premadasa Stadium. At the beginning of India’s chase, Rohit Sharma defied the circumstances to an even more remarkable degree, putting the team far ahead of the asking rate with a blistering half-century.
Subsequently, India crumbled in the face of Sri Lanka’s spinners, and before they reached 140, half of their team had returned to the dressing room. All of these incidents occurred during Friday’s first ODI and again two days later as Sri Lanka attempted to win this Indian white-ball tour. In the third and final Twenty20 International, they had drawn, but India had won the Super Over. Also, they had tied the opening ODI.
When Sri Lanka eventually managed to surpass their previous performance, their hero wasn’t even a member of their starting lineup. Wanindu Hasaranga’s hamstring injuries prevented legspinner Jeffrey Vandersay, who had made his debut in December 2015 but had only played 22 ODIs prior to this one, from being selected into the team until the eve of the match. And in only 29 balls, Vandersay eliminated Virat Kohli, Rohit, Shubman Gill, Shivam Dube, Shreyas Iyer, and KL Rahul, turning 97 for no loss into 147 for 6.
Vandersay then tore through the core of India’s batting order. India was unable to rebound from a similar collapse on Friday, but they were unable to do so this time either. With Vandersay mainly out of the attack, Axar Patel and Washington Sundar put them within 56 runs of their target with a 38-run partnership for the seventh wicket. However, there was another flashback to Friday right as India appeared to be gaining ground.
With his occasional off-spin, Charith Asalanka had claimed three wickets at that point. Now, he returned and removed Axar and Washington in consecutive overs, and that was pretty much it. For the first time since July 2021, Sri Lanka defeated India in an ODI by 32 runs. Prior to Friday’s draw, they had lost six of their previous seven encounters. With his 6 for 33, Vandersay carried on a great tradition by becoming the sixth bowler from Sri Lanka to get a six-for or better in an ODI against India, following Muthiah Muralidaran, Ajantha Mendis, Angelo Mathews, and Akila Dananjaya.
Given the circumstances, Sri Lanka prepared a five-man spin assault for the match, including the ambidextrous Kamindu Mendis, who replaced the seamer Mohamed Shiraz. After India reduced Sri Lanka to 136 for 6, Kamindu made a significant contribution with his main ability, batting 40 and adding 72 with Wellalage for the seventh wicket, off just 68 balls. With Rohit exploiting the first-powerplay field constraints and Wellalage, Dananjaya, and Kamindu displaying a marked lack of control early on.
The abundance of spin didn’t seem like such a smart idea as India’s chase got off. In the first 10 overs, India reached 76 for no loss thanks to the combined efforts of these three spinners, who bowled six overs without giving up a wicket. Of those runs, 51 were scored by Rohit, who reached his half-century in just 29 balls in the 10th over when Kamindu sliced a six over cover. When he experienced the opposite of the aggressiveness that had led to all of his runs, he had progressed to 64 off of 43.
At that point, the diving Pathum Nissanka caught the switch-sweep after Vandersay extracted a little additional bounce. Once Vandersay had that opening, he seized over. Vandersay demonstrated the advantages of targeting the stumps, with Rahul bottom-edging one against his stumps and Gill top-edging a cover drive. The inherent variance off the surface let him to try both edges relentlessly. The left-handed Dube was leg before wicket (LBW) to a ball that ripped in while staying low, while Iyer and Kohli were both out of position as the ball raced on with the angle.
India was in the muck before they even realized it. Washington and Axar held out for sixty balls, composedly albeit not without lucky breaks, until Asalanka caught the former and bowled him with a ball that lodged in the pitch. Then Washington fell leg before wicket (lbw) to an Asalanka delivery that went with the arm from round the wicket; his wicket was the fourth of five leg before wickets in India’s innings, to go with one bowled. Washington had just escaped a Dananjaya legbreak that burst past his inside edge and bounced over the stumps.
When Kuldeep Yadav and Washington, India’s most successful bowlers, produced consecutive wicket maidens in the 34th and 35th overs of Sri Lanka’s innings, leaving them at 136 for 6, it had looked doubtful that India would be chasing 241. Sri Lanka was not progressing. Mohammed Siraj had opened the proceedings by sending Nissanka back with a superbly pitched outswinger, but Sri Lanka lost 5 for 62 after Avishka Fernando and Kusal Mendis put on 74 for the second wicket.
Axar’s straighter pitch posed a serious threat on this kind of pitch since he was often getting the ball to go over the right-hander’s outside edge. Though he didn’t have the luck to match his skill, Washington was picking up wickets at the other end. First, he had Avishka caught off the leading edge, and then he had Kusal lbw after missing a sweep off a full ball. After then, the runs started to trickle in. Sri Lanka had lost Janith Liyanage and Asalanka and scored seven runs in their previous 4.5 overs when Kamindu, batting unusually low at No. 8, joined Wellalage.
However, Wellalage played freely and got the lucky break that every big knock in these circumstances needs. He and Sri Lanka’s first six came off a mishit that barely cleared long-on, and the following ball’s mishit found itself in no-man’s land beyond midwicket going back. Then, he blasted the longest ball of the innings, clearing the wide long-off boundary with a good-length delivery from Siraj.
While Kamindu demonstrated his intelligence and the uncommon ability to read Kuldeep off his hand by producing his maiden boundary with a flawless reverse-sweep, he was undoubtedly the supporting player in the seventh-wicket partnership, scoring 26 off 35 to Wellalage’s 39 off 33. However, as the quick bowlers came back in the final overs, Kamindu was able to open up and, with Dananjaya and him putting on 31 off 22 balls, India’s tempers slightly loosened.
Upon sending Siraj hurtling into the air for four runs in the 49th over, Dananjaya responded with a bouncer laced with verbals. Ultimately, the combined numbers of India’s spinners, which included Rohit for two overs, were 6 for 112 in thirty-one overs. Their three seamers finished with 1 for 111 from 19, including Dube who bowled two overs. With five spinners compared to India’s three and a bit, Sri Lanka had a significant impact on the outcome.
Copyright – Third Party Reference Inline Linking Embedded Video from Youtube
