India and Sri Lanka met again in the R. Premadasa Stadium for the 2nd one-day international of the ongoing three-match ODI series. India and Sri Lanka came to this match with mixed emotions after a tie in the 1st ODI. India came to this match to give a statement, after a lackluster performance in the first one-day match; on the other hand, Sri Lanka entered the field intending to complete the task that they could not do in the previous game.
In between such situations and thoughts, Charith Asalanka and Rohit came for the toss, where the coin landed in favor of Sri Lanka. After winning the toss, Aslanka elected to bat first on a surface where chasing targets is not everyone’s cup of tea. Because of the pitch, that is almost a graveyard for batters considering the extremely slow nature of the wicket and the amount of turn spinners get here.
After choosing to bat first, the hosts got off to a bumpy start as they lost their first wicket on the first ball. But Kusal Mendis (30 off 42 balls) and Avishka Fernando (40 off 62 balls) combined for 74 runs to save their innings. But after the separation of this pair, they started to lose wickets again at regular intervals and were six down for under 150 at one point.
However, despite losing wickets frequently, they were still able to muster a valiant 240 runs, all because of Dunith Wellalage Kamindu Mendis. Wellalage and Kamindu Mendis formed a 72-run partnership for the seventh wicket and took Sri Lanka to a respectable total.
For India, Washington Sundar was the standout bowler, taking three wickets in his ten-over spell. With two wickets, Kuldeep Yadav played a great supportive role. Axar Patel and Mohammed Siraj also got one wicket each.
As they came to chase a 241 target, Indian captain Rohit Sharma gave his team a flying start. On a pitch where other Indian batsmen struggled to score, Indian skipper Rohit Sharma smashed the Lankan spinners all over the park. He helped India score 76 runs on the powerplay alone.
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He hit 64 runs off 44 balls, and following his dismissal, Indian batting collapsed once more, and the entire team was bundled out for just 208 runs in 42.2 overs. Apart from Rohit, only Axar managed to score a brave 44 off 44 deliveries. All because of Jeffrey Vandersay, a man who made his debut for Sri Lanka in 2015 but played only 22 ODIs so far.
The Sri Lankan leg spinner Jeffrey Vandersay was only summoned into the squad on the eve of the match because of Wanindu Hasaranga’s hamstring injury, and before the start of this match, even Vandersay may not have thought of storming through the Indian batting lineup.
Vandersay dismissed six Indian batters and finished the match with a man of the match performance of 6-33 in 10 overs. He dismissed Rohit, Shubman Gill, Shivam Dube, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, and KL Rahul to break the backbone of the star-studded Indian batting lineup.
With this incredible performance, Jeffrey Vandersay registered many new records to his name, such as becoming the first spinner to dismiss the first six batsmen of the opposing side in the 50-over format. In the ODI format, he also became the second wrist spinner after Saqlain Mushtaq to take five wickets against India.
Captain Asalanka, who once again made a wonderful cameo with the ball, gave Vandersay great support. He took a three-fer again. With this, Sri Lanka has taken a 1-0 lead in the series by defeating India by 32 runs in the 2nd ODI of the ongoing SL vs IND 2024 ODI series. This win was their first ODI victory over India in three years. Sri Lanka has not won against the Indian team since July 2021 in ODIs; Sri Lanka waited 1108 days to beat India in one-day internationals.
SL vs Ind 2nd ODI Scorecard
Sri Lanka 240 for 9, 50 Overs
(Avishka 40, Kamindu 40, Washington 3-30, Kuldeep 2-33)
India 208, 42.2 Overs
(Rohit 64, Axar 44, Vandersay 6-33, Asalanka 3-20)
