Sri Lanka made 3 changes to the team after they were defeated in Dambulla by 9 wickets, but they could not change their fortune that came their way at Pallekelle.
India played with the same unchanged XI that played in Dambulla. The toss once again fell in Kohli's favour and he opted to chase under the lights at Kandy.
Niroshan Dickwella gave a promising start to the innings but failed to convert his start to a big score when he fell for a quick fire 31.
Niroshan Dickwella gave a promising start to the innings but failed to convert his start to a big score when he fell for a quick fire 31.
Sri Lanka was looking comfortable at 70/1 when Yuzvendra Chahal got Gunathilaka out. Sri Lanka went from 70/1 to 121/5 as the middle order failed to capitalize once again. Siriwardena and Kapugedera took charge after the middle order collapse and added 91 runs to the board together which helped Sri Lanka reach 236/8
Rain intervened the the innings break as India got a revised total of 231 to chase down in 47 overs. Both the openers, Rohit and Dhawan added 102 runs for the first wicket when Rohit fell to Akila Dananjaya, which was followed by Dhawan's wicket who top edged one from Siriwardena and was out for 49.
Kohli decided to experiment the untested batting order - KL Rahul was sent out at number 3 and Kedar Jadhav at number 4. Dananjaya came into the attack and cleaned up Jadhav, Rahul and Kohli all in just one over.
Hardik Pandya survived the next over, but
Dananjaya returned to send him and Axar Patel back to the pavilion. With the former skipper - M.S Dhoni at the crease with Bhuvneshwar Kumar, India still required 100 runs to win the game, which was looking quite close to impossible for a few overs.
Dananjaya returned to send him and Axar Patel back to the pavilion. With the former skipper - M.S Dhoni at the crease with Bhuvneshwar Kumar, India still required 100 runs to win the game, which was looking quite close to impossible for a few overs.
Dhoni, being Dhoni, took care of the situation, played out a few overs, slowed the pace of the game and guided Bhuvneshwar Kumar at the other end. Later in the innings, Kumar stepped out and took the attack to the Lankans.
Bhuvneshwar struck his maiden ODI half century while Dhoni remained unbeaten on 45 as India without any further damage defeated Lanka with 10 balls to spare.
Cheers,
Sparsh
Sparsh
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