Suranga Lakmal finished with career-best figures of 4/13 off his 10 overs
Image courtesy of: ESPNcricinfo
Sri Lanka’s 12-game losing streak in ODIs came to an end on Sunday when Suranga Lakmal took a magnificent four-wicket haul to lead his side to a seven-wicket win over India in Dharamsala.
Opting to bowl first, Sri Lanka got their first breakthrough in the second over of the match when Shikhar Dhawan was trapped lbw off the bowling of Angelo Mathews for a duck.
Dhawan was not given out initially, but Sri Lanka reviewed and it worked out in their favour as replays showed that the ball was pitching in line and going on to hit the top of middle stump.
Suranga Lakmal then proceeded to take out stand-in captain Rohit Sharma for two runs, Dinesh Karthik for a duck and Manish Pandey for two runs to leave India in all sorts of trouble at 16/4.
Things went from bad to worse for India as the over after Pandey fell, Shreyas Iyer was walking back to the pavilion as he was clean bowled by Nuwan Pradeep for nine runs.
Hardik Pandya only made 10 before becoming Pradeep’s second victim, while Bhuvneshwar Kumar was caught behind off the bowling of Lakmal as India slumped to 29/7.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Kuldeep Yadav stemmed the bleeding with a 41-run partnership before Kuldeep was stumped by Niroshan Dickwella off the bowling of Akila Dananjaya for 19.
Even though Jasprit Bumrah failed to trouble the scorers, Dhoni continued to take the attack to Sri Lanka until he was dismissed by stand-in captain Thisara Perera for 65, which came off 87 balls and included 10 boundaries and two sixes.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s 67th ODI fifty went in vain
Image courtesy of: ESPNcricinfo
India were bowled out for 112, which was their lowest total at home when batting first.
Lakmal was the pick of the bowlers with four wickets, while Pradeep snapped up two and Mathews, Thisara, Dananjaya and Sachith Pathirana chipped in with one wicket apiece.
Chasing 113 to win, Sri Lanka got off to a poor start as opener Danushka Gunathilaka was caught behind off the bowling of Bumrah for one run.
Lahiru Thirimanne fared no better as he was clean bowled by Kumar for a duck.
Upul Tharanga and Mathews steadied the innings with a 46-run partnership before Tharanga was removed by Pandya for 49.
However that was to be India’s last taste of success as Mathews and Dickwella finished things off with an unbeaten 49-run partnership.
Mathews ended up scoring 25 off 42 balls, which included five boundaries, while Dickwella struck the same number of boundaries during his 24-ball 26.
Bumrah, Kumar and Pandya claimed one wicket each.
Rohit was less than impressed with his team’s performance, and said: “Two games to go, but having said that, we were not up to the mark today with the bat. Not enough runs on the board. The bowlers came out and did what they could. If we had 70-80 more runs, it could have been different, but we lost the match with the bat today.
“We want to thrive in these type of conditions and come out good. We won’t always get to play on flat pitches. Today was not the ideal day for all our batters. It was an eye-opener. Hopefully we can regroup and come back in the next two matches.
“[Dhoni] has done it for so many years and he knows exactly how to bat in these situations. Someone else with him could have made the difference but he was battling alone. Not such a great experience [to lead for the first time], because we lost, but we’ve got to forget what happened, and come back in the next two games.”
Thisara was thrilled to have won, and said: “First of all we have to give 200% credit to our bowlers. They were disciplined and bowled the right length and in the right areas. This is an unplayable wicket. We didn’t expect that. We expected 250-260, but after that Suranga and Angelo bowled very well.
“At the moment, [Lakmal] is our first fast bowler. He’s done very well in the Test series as well. I have to mention that Upul gave a good start and he’s one of our best openers.”
Lakmal was named Man of the Match, and said: “Last few years have been very good. Credit to the coaching staff who have done a lot of hard work with me. My fitness, my hard work, my health, everything has come together.”