India captain Shikhar Dhawan heaped praise on Deepak Chahar and Bhuvneshwar Kumar after the duo guided the tourists to a stunning three-wicket win over Sri Lanka in the second ODI of the three-match ODI series in Colombo on Tuesday (July 20). India took a 2-0 lead in the series with the victory.
Dhawan was most impressed by Chahar and Kumar’s calculative approach during the chase. He also said the second ODI was a good learning curve for the youngsters that every day isn't the same.
Chahar played a match-winning knock of unbeaten 69 off 82 balls, as well as, stitched an undefeated 84-run stand with Bhuvneshwar (19*) for the eighth wicket to take India over the line with 5 deliveries to spare in the second ODI on Tuesday in Colombo.
Dhawan said, “We knew that Chahar has worked hard in the nets on his batting. His presence of mind and calculations against the leg-spinner were amazing. Both Bhuvi and him calculated it really well.”
He added, “It felt that the wicket today was much better and we restricted them to a good score. The spinner fought back and the bowlers adjusted their lines and lengths when their batsmen were in. We didn't start well and it is a good learning lesson for the youngsters that every day is not the same.
They will understand how to handle these situations and how to bring in new strategies. Every game is a learning lesson and we hope to analyze and get better. We want to put up a good show all the time.”
The skipper also mentioned that Suryakumar Yadav (53) and Manish Pandey (37) were batting well in the middle after the top-order collapse, but the unfortunate run-out of the latter saw India going from 115 for 3 to 160-6. He also lauded Krunal Pandya (35) for his fight against Sri Lanka’s bouncer barrage.
Dhawan further said, “The way Manish Pandey and Suryakumar were batting, we thought they would take us home. Hard luck to Pandey for the way he got out. The way Krunal fought in the middle was amazing. Everyone showed character.”
He also hailed the Islanders for a brilliant show in the second ODI and said, “I felt the way Sri Lanka planned their innings in both their batting and bowling was amazing. The way they batted and fielded was good to watch. They worked hard, but glad that we are on the winning side.”
While the Sri Lankan skipper Dasun Shanaka hailed his team's efforts and said he's proud of them. He said, “I am really proud of the ways the boys played today. It was a really tough game. Credit to the Indians and especially Deepak, who took the game away from us.”
Shanaka signed off by saying, “We started well again but lost several wickets in the middle overs. We shouldn't give them easy wickets and we need to bat better till the batting powerplay. Actually, I didn't bowl for a while because there were enough bowlers, but I took a chance then after that.”
(With Sportscafe Inputs)
