The third ODI match scheduled on August 27th Sunday at Pallekele International Cricket Stadium, Balagolla. Once they needed 100 runs, we tried everything. So what was going on there? It would not be wrong to state Dananjaya might have instilled a fear in the Indian dressing room.
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Bhuvneshwar scored 53* and Dhoni hit 45*.
The brutality of that 96-ball knock drew a comparison from India batting great Sunil Gavaskar with an Australian player whose suitability for test cricket was also questioned early in his career.
I knew there is nothing to lose in this situation as we were already seven down. Irrespective of the team changes, Sri Lanka have to come up with solid cricket and deliver the goods against in-form India.
In case you didn’t know.
Tharanga has recently served a two-match suspension during the Champions Trophy in June after Sri Lanka were found guilty of slow over-rate during their opener against South Africa.
Chasing 231 from 47 overs after a rain intervention, India were cruising at 109 for no loss but the 23-year-old Dananjaya claimed three wickets in one over to turn the match on its head. The mini-experiment failed spectacularly, but because of MS Dhoni and Bhuvneshwar Kumar, India managed to scrape through. “Credit to him (Dananjaya) for pitching the ball in the right areas”, Kohli said at the post-match presentation on Thursday.
As Sharma stated that the dressing was confident about Bhuvi’s ability to score runs and save the team, Bhuvi said that it was easier to bat on the pitch than it was to bowl.
Among the bowlers, Dananjaya will look to continue his fine form.
Rahul was absent from the whole edition of Indian Premier League (IPL) 2017 as he underwent the surgery in London. However, he was in no mood to repeat the act.
The ongoing series between the two sides will finish with the sole Twenty20 clash at Colombo on September 6. An excellent partnership between Chamara Kapugedara and Milinda Siriwardena got Sri Lanka to 236 in 50 overs.
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Then, just like that, Dananjaya booked it to Kandy with his new bride, and by 9.30pm on Thursday, was deceiving Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, turning in his best-ever performance for Sri Lanka, and very almost winning the match single-handedly, with an eight-over spell that yielded six wickets for the cost of 39 runs. The all-rounder had left the field limping without completing his over in the last match, but had returned to bat. That is something that has been addressed and we’ll look into it more and more as we go forward.
