Lankan Spinners break Indian batting backbone
So Sri Lanka managed a win against India in 11th attempt on their home soil. Thanks to Left arm spinner Jayawickrama and Akila Dananjaya who completely bamboozled skillful Indian Batsmen.
Sent India packing from 156/3 to 225 all down in 43.1 overs. India for a change won the toss, typical unique Shikhar Dhawan celebration followed, happily chose to bat. But the joy didn't last longer as the captain chased outgoing delivery and returned to pavilion in 3rd over on 13 - 28/1.Dashers Prithvi Shaw as effortless as ever joined by debutant Sanju Samson and flurry of boundaries continued up to 16th over. Prithvi again missed half century by 1 run.102/2. Samson too got out on 46.
Manish Pandey and Suryakumar Yadav continued. But at 147/3- 23 overs rain stopped play for a while. And then it was a different ball game altogether. It was spin web of Jayawickrama and Akila Dananjaya show. Pandey 11,Pandya 19,Surya 40.Debutants Nitish Rana 7 , Gowtham 2 were sent back one after another - 195/8 - 32.5 overs of 47 max. Rahul Chahar 13 with Navdeep Saini 15 took it to 225 - 43.1 overs.
Lankans started aggressively, K Gowtham was lucky to get break at 35/1-5.3 over. But after that Rajapaksa and Avishka defied all plans by Shikhar. Who tried to unsettle the pair with continuous bowling changes. Few missed half chances in the field didn't help either. Duo effortlessly kept scoring freely against inexperienced Indian bowlers. Chetan Sakariya got some success only after 109 partnership -144/2. With one more immediate strike took his wickets tally to 2. Rahul Chahar one thought was brought bit too late for his second spell. Displayed some classic leg spin bowling. Troubled every batsman at the crease. Removed opener Avisha on 76. Got 3 wickets in the process. Showed lot of promise. But it was too little too late for India. Sri Lanka chased down 226 with still 8 overs to go and 7 wickets down.
Thus making it 1-2. Much needed win for Sri Lanka as these points are being considered for 2023 World Cup Qualification. Hosts were too down on the chart even as below as Ireland, Afghanistan and even Netherlands. Such a sorry state of present Sri Lankan cricket. Winner of few ICC World Cups.
Main Team India being on the England Test Matches tour, limited overs bench strength got fully tested. Fringe players do got a chance to showcase their skills and talent. With series already in pocket Dravid and company gave India cap to 5 debutants in this match. To compensate a bit for 2 weeks of quarantine. (Here bit unlike Rahul Dravid actually, who always believed to break the selectors door rather than just knock on it, in his playing days, anyway ..). India made 6 changes in the winning team.
Youthful exuberant Prithvi Shaw stamped his class in couple of 40 odd scores, in the series. Ishan Kishan shined in first match. Sanju Sampson played well aggressively for his 46. All these players are eyeing for the spot in T20 World Cup squad to be played later in October. These performances are going to do no harm to their chances. Manish Pandey missed a bit to score a big. But it was Suryakumar Yadav who impressed everybody with his effortless batting display in 3 matches. Though bit susceptible against incoming spinning delivery, if he can overcome such weaknesses in his technique, he is definitely a force to reckon with in Indian middle order. SKY is definitely the find of this tour. Played as if he is playing for years in the blue for Team India. No wonder he bagged the man of the series award with 124 runs in three innings ,in his debut ODI series. As for Prithwi Shaw and Sanju Samson even Ishan Kishan would also learn to mix caution with their fearless aggression and try to build a longer innings in one dayers. Chetan Sakariya also showed some promise in his later spell. Rahul Chahar was excellent and is definitely in competition with Chahal and Kuldeep.
So now it's over to 3 matches T20 series, starting Sunday 25th July 0800 pm onwards for some zatpat tadka instant cricket.
- Vivek Ketkar
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