The pitch was dry. Dunith Wellalage, the all-rounder, could not put a foot wrong. Charith Asalanka, a part-time off-spinner, also came to the party; so did India’s more accomplished tweakers. But in a low-scoring affair, it was India’s opening combination with the bat and ball that turned out to be the difference between the two sides.
Riding on captain Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill’s 80-run stand and a fiery spell from Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj up front, the Men in Blue broke Sri Lanka’s 13-match unbeaten streak with a convincing 41-run victory. The win put India in Sunday’s Asia Cup final with two games remaining in the Super 4s stage.
As a dry surface was offered adjacent to the one used for India’s clash against Pakistan that turned out to be a two-day affair, both teams packed their line-ups with spinners. Shardul Thakur was replaced by Axar Patel in India’s XI. Axar did help India cross the 200-run mark with some sensible batting towards the end but had it not been for Rohit’s charge in the PowerPlay, India could have struggled to get anywhere near the total it reached.
Rohit’s lazy elegance was on display time and again, be it in a crisp drive off Kasun Rajitha in the opening over or in the straight six over the pacer’s head that helped the veteran become the second-fastest to 10,000 ODI runs (241 innings) after Virat Kohli (205). He went after Dasun Shanaka, welcoming him into the attack with four boundaries, and then sent Matheesha Pathirana’s short ball over the ropes. In the 12th over, Shanaka took himself off and brought on Wellalage.
Instant impact
The left-arm spinner struck once in each of his first three overs to bring the hosts back into the game. He got rid of Shubman Gill (undone in flight), Virat Kohli (the ball stuck into the pitch and the attempted flick was caught at short midwicket) and Rohit (skidded and kept low). The visitors struggled to accumulate runs thereafter. Wellalage added two scalps to become the youngest Sri Lankan (20 years) to bag a five-wicket haul in ODIs while Asalanka ran through the lower-order as India was bowled out for 213.
Bumrah and Siraj then showed their class by striking thrice in the PowerPlay. Both were virtually unplayable, with the former claiming two wickets. Kuldeep Yadav struck twice in quick succession, including the wicket of the fluent Sadeera Samarawickrama.
When Ravindra Jadeja enticed an edge off Shanaka to Rohit at slip, Sri Lanka slid to 99 for six. But Dhananjaya de Silva found an able ally in Wellalage, the duo giving the largest turnout a glimmer of hope and a lot of energy.
But the 63-run partnership was broken, thanks to Gill’s sharp catch at mid-on to send back Dhananjaya. Kuldeep ran through the tail to hand India a comfortable win.
