INDIA SURVIVES DANANJAYA HEROICS TO WIN SECOND ODI
In a tour where the home team has been a distant second to the visitors, spinner Akila Dananjaya gave Sri Lanka a sniff at victory with an extraordinary spell of bowling before they went down by three wickets to India in the Second One Day International played at the Pallekele Stadium yesterday.
Ultimately it took a measured innings from the vastly experienced Mahendra Singh Dhoni and a career best effort from Bhuvneshwar Kumar with the pair putting on exactly 100 for the eighthwicket to give India a 2-0 lead in the five-match series.
Dananjaya, who had rejoined the team on Wednesday after getting married earlier on the day, was named as the Man-of-the-match, finishing with figures of six for 54 in his 10 overs.
Dhoni was unbeaten on 45, while Kumar, whose last run had brought the teams level scored his maiden ODI half-century to finish on 53.
Rain at the end of Sri Lanka’s innings meant that India began their chase 80 minutes later than the scheduled, although only three overs were lost with the target revised to 231.
They had sailed smoothly to 100 for no loss in 15 overs with openers Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan looking untroubled before being spectacularly reduced to 131 for seven over the next 34 balls. Sharma, who had looked particularly fluent, scoring four boundaries and three sixes on his way to reaching his 32nd ODI half-century in just 43 deliveries, was also Dananjaya’s first wicket, in the 16th over, when he was trapped leg before wicket.
Angelo Mathews produced an exceptional piece of fielding to take a diving catch at short third man in the next over to dismiss Dhawan a run short of a half-century, before Dananjaya picked up three wickets in the 18th over.
The off-spinner beat Kedar Jadhav, Virat Kohli and K. L. Rahul with googlies while bowling all three batsmen with deliveries that slipped between bat and pad and sending India crashing to 119 for five.
Dananjaya then dismissed the big hitting Hardik Pandya and Patel over his next two overs as India slipped further into trouble on 131 for seven, with Sri Lanka in their best position to win their first match of this tour.
But Dhoni showed composure to quell the home team’s momentum, and found an able partner in Kumar, steadily silencing the spectators, taking India to victory in the 45th over.
Dhoni showed composure to quell the home team’s momentum, and found an able partner in Kumar, steadily silencing the spectators, taking India to victory in the 45th over
Earlier, Milinda Siriwardana scored Sri Lanka’s only half-century – the third of his career – reaching the mark in 49 balls.
Walking in with the score on 121 for five, Siriwardana put on 91 runs for the sixth-wicket with Chamara Kapugedera before holing out with five overs left in the innings.
Much of that partnership was down to finding gaps and good running between the wickets with just 14 runs coming off boundaries in their 99-ball partnership.
Kapugedera, playing his 100th ODI, scored 40 off 61 balls.
When they reached 236 for eight at the end of their 50 overs, Sri Lanka may have felt like the frantic start given by Niroshan Dickwella had been nothing but a dream.
Dickwella put Sri Lanka into gear striking three boundaries and two sixes, racing to 31 off just 16 deliveries with Sri Lanka reaching 41, one ball into the seventh over.
But after the next six deliveries he faced, Dickwella attempted to clear the in-field, only going as far as Shikhar Dhawan at midwicket who took a welljudged catch.
Kusal Mendis and Danushka Gunathilaka put on 29 runs in 39 balls, before Gunathilaka and Upul Tharanga were removed in consecutive overs as Sri Lanka slumped to 81 for three at the end of the 16th over.
18 runs later Mendis was trapped leg before wicket, attempting to sweep Yuzvendra Chahal and five overs later Mathews followed trying to do the same to Axar Patel, with Sri Lanka 121 for five at that stage.
The sixth-wicket partnership then restored some respectability but after Siriwardana was caught at cover with five overs left, Sri Lanka could manage just a further 24 runs losing two more wickets to Bumrah, who finished with four wickets for 43 runs in his ten overs.