Vandersay and Asalanka spin Sri Lanka to victory over India in 2nd ODI

Colombo: After being restricted to a tie against Sri Lanka in the first ODI, India was looking to take the lead against Sri Lanka with a victory in the second match of the 3-match ODI series. The hosts won the toss and decided to bat first at the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo.

Sri Lanka had the worst possible start ever as opener Pathum Nissanka got dismissed by Mohammed Siraj on the first ball of the match. Next batter, Kusal Mendis formed a good partnership with Avishka Fenando for the second wicket. However, after their 74-run stand was brought to an end by Washington Sundar who dismissed Fernando in the 17th over, it all started to go down for the hosts.

The next batters lost their wickets cheaply before captain Charith Asalanka went on to play a decent cameo of 25, however he too was dismissed in the 35th over as Sri Lanka lost their sixth wicket on the score of 136. It looked as if the Indian bowlers would easily dismiss the hosts for less than 200 runs, but last match’s hero, Dunith Wellalage again came to Sri Lanka’s rescue alongside Kamindu Mendis. Thanks to their 72-run stand, Sri Lanka was able to go past the 200-run mark.

Then, another 31-run partnership between Mendis and Akila Dananjaya took the hosts to a fighting total of 240/9 after 50 overs. Spinners did a great job for the visitors during the innings as both Sundar and Kuldeep Yadav took 5 wickets between them and only gave away 30 and 33 runs respectively in their quota of 10 overs.

In reply, India had a fantastic start thanks to skipper Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill’s 97-run opening stand. Rohit was clearly the dominant one in the partnership as he scored his second consecutive half-century of the ODI series. In his knock of 64, Rohit hit 5 boundaries and 4 sixes. Gill played the supporting role well and kept on giving Rohit the strike.

In the 14th over, spinner Jeffrey Vandersay dismissed Rohit to finally break the opening stand. Vandersay then went on to bowl the spell of his life as he took the wickets of both Gill and Shivam Dube in the 17th over before taking Virat Kohli’s wicket in his next over. He then dismissed Shreyas Iyer in the 22nd over to complete his 5-wicket haul before cleaning up KL Rahul on a duck in his next over to get his and India’s 6th wicket.

It looked as if the partnership between Sundar and Axar Patel would take India through. However, Asalanka came to his side’s rescue and went on to dismiss both of them to reduce India to 190/8 after 35.3 overs. Asalanka also went on to take Siraj’s wicket before India’s final batter, Arshdeep Singh lost his wicket due to a run out by Kamindu Mendis as the visitors got bowled out for 208 runs in only 42.2 overs. The hosts went on to win the match by 32 runs and took the lead in the 3-match series. Now even if the Men in Blue go on to win the final match, they will only be able to draw the series.

Vandersay was deservedly awarded with the player of the match award for his amazing spell of 6/33 in 10 overs. This win may turn out to be a huge confidence booster for the Sri Lankan team and they may ride on this confidence to even come out victorious in the final match of the series that is set to take place on August 7 at the same venue.

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