Suryakumar Yadav and Deepak Chahar scored fine half centuries as India pulled off an incredible win against Sri Lanka in the second one day international in Colombo on Tuesday.
After winning the toss and electing to bat first, the Sri Lankan opening pair of Avishka Fernando and Minod Bhanuka got their team off to a brilliant start. The duo added 77 runs for the opening wicket. However, Yuzvendra Chahal turned the game in India’s favour with wickets of Minod and Bhanuka Rajapaksa off successive deliveries.
Avishka along with Dhananjaya de Silva added 47 runs for the third wicket before the former was dismissed by Bhuvneshwar Kumar for a well made 50.
The visitors kept taking wickets at regular intervals leaving Sri Lanka in a spot of bother at 194/6. Charith Asalanka scored a brilliant 65 before holding out to deep mid wicket. Chamika Karunaratne in the end scored a valuable 45 to take his side to a competitive total of 275/9 after 50 overs.
For India Chahal and Kumar claimed 3 wickets each, while Chahar bagged 2 wickets.
Chasing 276, India didn’t have the best of starts as they lost Prithvi Shaw and Ishan Kishan cheaply for 13 & 1 respectively.
Skipper Shikhar Dhawan looked solid in his knock before being trapped leg before wicket by Hasaranga. The pair of Manish Pandey and Surya Kumar Yadav stitched together a 50 run stand for the fourth wicket before the former was run out for 37. Meanwhile, Hardik Pandya then fell for a duck as the visitors were left reeling at 116/5.
Yadav completed his maiden ODI half-century but was trapped leg before wicket by Lakshan Sandakan. Krunal Pandya’s wicket almost cemented Sri Lanka’s victory, but Deepak Chahar and Bhuvneshwar Kumar shared an unbroken 84 run partnership for the seventh wicket to take India to an outstanding win.
The 28 year old Chahar was declared the Man of the Match.
The third and the final one dayer will be played on July 23, Friday.