Vandersay's six-wicket haul leads Sri Lanka to victory over India in 2nd ODI

Kolkata: The defeat against Sri Lanka in the second ODI has raised some concerns for India, especially in their batting against spin bowling. The middle-order once again failed to deliver, resulting in a 32-run loss. With Jeffrey Vandersay and Charith Asalanka wreaking havoc with the ball, Sri Lanka successfully defended a modest total, leaving India with a lot to ponder. Sri Lanka now holds the upper hand in the three-match ODI series, with the first match being tied. India will need to address their issues quickly to bounce back in the series.

As much as this win will inspire Sri Lanka to finally turn a corner after a depressing run in white-ball cricket, India might be looking at issues they probably never knew existed. There is something about the Premadasa pitch — all four instances of India losing the most wickets to spin in an ODI have come at this venue — but Rohit Sharma didn’t let that show with yet another fifty (64 off 44 balls) in an opening stand of 97 that ate up more than a third of the target.

But disaster struck when Pathum Nissanka ran to his right from backward point to superbly hold on to a catch from Sharma. Shubman Gill had done better than Friday, grafting his way to a 44-ball 35 but that toil went up in smoke when Kamindu Mendis flung full stretch at slip to pull off a one-handed catch. Four balls later, Vandersay had Shivam Dube struck plumb leg-before with a legbreak and he didn’t even wait to review.

Another legbreak pitching middle and sneaking past the inside edge of Virat Kohli’s bat to hit his leg and Sri Lanka were cock-a-hoop sensing a real opportunity. Shreyas Iyer was done in the same way, pressing forward in defence but not keeping his bat close enough. Baffling, though, was the way KL Rahul was dismissed without opening his account, going for an expansive cut and completely missing the line of the ball to get bowled with an inside edge. “When you lose a game, everything hurts,” said Sharma at the post-match presentation. “It’s not just about those 10 overs. You have to play consistent cricket and we failed to do that today. Little disappointed but these things happen. You have got to adapt to what’s in front of you.”

Despite the cluster of wickets, India still had a decent chance of winning with Axar Patel and Washington Sundar adding 38 runs for the seventh wicket. With Patel, the intent was clear as he charged at Asalanka in his first over. First ball, he crunched a lofted drive for a massive six over extra-cover. Out came the slog-sweep when the length was a bit fuller, fetching Patel a four through square-leg. And when he whacked Asalanka for another four through short fine-leg to get 14 runs from that over, the game seemed poised for a closer finish.

It didn’t materialise though. Once Patel and Washington were dismissed in quick succession, India ran out of steam. It underscored the late-order surge from Sri Lanka where cameos from Kamindu Mendis (40 off 44) and Dunith Wellalage (39 off 35) lifted the hosts with a 72-run stand after they were 136/6. Washington (3/30), Kuldeep Yadav (2/33) and Patel (1/38) kept pegging back Sri Lanka at regular intervals but letting them off to salvage par totals in both matches will be a sore point with India’s bowling attack. Right now though, there are bigger issues to address with India’s batting middle-order.

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