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ToggleHardly anyone thought of Sri Lanka going 1-0 up after two One-day internationals in the three-match series against the Indian team, which is decorated with a fair balance of youth and their senior most players. The third and final SL vs Ind 50-over clash will now take place on August 06, 2024, at the R. Premadasa Stadium in Colombo.
Looking at the 97-run opening partnership of the blue brigade in their 241-run chase, it was hard to believe that the tourists could bottle this chase, but once their captain, Rohit Sharma, got out, the rest of the batting line-up fell like a pack of cards.
The moment Sri Lanka captain, Charith Asalanka, won the toss in the second SL vs Ind encounter, one could see the frustration and a sense of fear in the Indian captain. Without any hesitation, the host opted to bat first on a track that was going to be terrible in the second innings.
The home side lost their opener, Pathum Nissanka, on the very first ball of the innings, as Mohammad Siraj found the outside edge to send a sense of nightmare in the opponent’s camp. However, the 74-run second wicket stand between Avishka Fernando and wicket-keeper batter Kusal Mendis stabled them.
The issue for Sri Lanka in the SL vs Ind ODI series has been their batting in the middle overs thanks to their poor middle order who were getting starts but weren’t able to convert them into big scores. Both of them in the stand could mark 30 runs or more but failed to reach their half-centuries. The same trend followed in the next three to four batters.
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From being at a strong position of 74/1, they found themselves struggling at 136/6. Now, there is where the home side has done well in the two games. Having partnerships at the lower order always allows a team to keep its dominance intact. The 72-run stand for the seventh wicket between Dunith Wellalage and Kamindu Mendis pushed them to 208/7, while another 15 runs in 13 balls from Akila Dhananjaya carried them to 240/9 in their allotted 50 overs.
India began the chase for the second SL vs Ind game aggressively and impressively, as Rohit Sharma kept on nailing the boundaries from the beginning. He used his feet and showed his power to smack the big shots all around the park to celebrate another half-century before ending as the 44-ball 64-run knock, shouldering on five boundaries and four over boundaries at a strike rate of 145.45.
Shubman Gill again got a start to reach 35 runs in 44 balls, and the same problem for them continued just like the first ODI game of the series. Virat Kohli wasn’t able to extend his score beyond 14, while Shivam Dube had no idea of Jeffrey Vandersay’s four balls before he was dismissed on a duck.
Axar Patel smacked run-a-ball 44 runs with the help of four boundaries and a couple of sixes, but none of the batters could help him in forming a vital partnership. From the stage of being 116/1, they fell terribly to 147/6. Later, they were 185/7 and lost their last three wickets for a mere 23 runs, as they went 1-0 with 32 runs defeat in the SL vs Ind ODI series.
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The Last Five Matches For SL vs IND
In the last five SL vs Ind encounters, Sri Lanka has only one win besides their name, as India leads the chart with 3-1.
SL vs IND Teams:
Sri Lanka’s Probable XI: Pathum Nissanka, Avishka Fernando, Kusal Mendis (wk.), Sadeera Samarawickrama, Charith Asalanka (c), Dunith Wellalage, Kamindu Mendis, Jeffrey Vandersay, Akila Dhananjaya, Asitha Fernando.
India’s Probable XI: Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant (wk.), Washington Sundar, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammad Siraj, Arshdeep Singh.