Sri Lanka vs India’s 2nd ODI was something else. Sri Lanka won the toss and opted to bat and just like the previous match had a great start. It was almost identical to Chahal coming and picking the 1st wicket and putting breaks in Sri Lanka’s onslaught. Bhanuka Rajapaksha came and gone off the first ball and Chahal had 2 in 2. Avishka Fernando made 50 but departed just after that.
Dhananjay Silva too left soon and once again Sri Lanka looked like will make a mediocre target on a flatbed. The captain Shanaka took his time but lost his wicket after making a 24 ball 16. It was Chamika Karunaratne who came to the party and started scoring from one end and made 44 off 33 to give Sri Lanka’s total some respectability. Chahal and Yuzi picked 3 wickets each and Deepak Chahar took 2. Krunal and Kuldeep went wicketless but it was the extras and some sloppy fielding that India will need to address in the final ODI. They bowled 13 wides and 2 no balls which are high from modern-day standards.
Indian chase started well as Prithvi Shaw played his natural game but got out on 13. Ishan Kishan got out on 1 and Dhawan also struggled to get going and finally got out on 29. Manish Pandey was looking good and Surya Kumar started making runs faster. In the process, Manish Pandey got out and Surya completed his 50 but got out in a situation from where the match looked tough. Deepak Chahar and Krunal Pandya had a bit of partnership before Krunal was bowled by Hasaranga.
There was no way, India could have won the match from that situation but India being the new India and Sri Lanka who have forgotten how to close games had a new fairy tale to be written. If India, wanted to search for a bowler at number 8 who can bat then they have one in form of Chahar who scripted this famous victory for India by remaining not out on 69 of 82. Bhuvi played his part as he supported Chahar from one end and remained unbeaten on 19.
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The match was won with 5 balls to spare and BCCI shared a video of the Indian team from Durham. They all were ecstatic and started jumping in joy. India might try some new players as Manish Pandey hasn’t been able to do justice to the number he bats at and since Sanju Samson is available it will be a good idea to try him out at number 4.
From bowling front Deepak Chahar or Bhuvneshawar Kumar, one of them can be rested as they can be replaced with the likes of Prasidh Krishna and Navdeep Saini. It won’t be a bad idea either to rest Kuldeep and hand Gowtham his maiden ODI cap. Sri Lanka on the other hand will have to come with a better plan and most importantly will have to execute those plans on the field.
