India vs Sri Lanka | How and where India won second ODI in Mohali

India vs Sri Lanka | How and where India won second ODI in Mohali

no photo

|

BCCI

Rohit Sharma stole the show with a thunderous double century and showed the world that what happened in the first match was just an aberration. Although Angelo Mathews waged a lone battle for the Lankans with the bat, it was the visitors' lack of situational awareness that cost them dearly.

Shikhar Dhawan lays the foundation for big total

Unlike a lot of left-handers, Shikhar Dhawan is known for his propensity to score more runs on the off side through his longish front-foot stride and the ability to drive through the covers. The mid-off region helps him score more against the pacers and today, the Lankan bowlers didn’t realize that and committed the grave error of putting most of the balls on the channel outside off and indirectly, ended up bowling to his strengths. 

Another important detail to be noted was that Dhawan, like most left-handers, has always been a handy batsman on the leg side as well, just that he is better in the off-side. If the ball is moving in the air and there is movement off the seam, then Dhawan has had his struggles on the leg side, but that did not happen today. After negotiating the early passage of play – basically the moisture that was available on the surface – Dhawan knew that there was almost zero lateral movement of the ball, and instantly brought his attacking style to the fore and his 115-run opening partnership laid the foundation for the bigger things to come. And his 43:57 of off-side to leg-side ratio just signified how much he has developed himself as an ODI opener. And today, though, Rohit Sharma and Shreyas Iyer scored the bulk of the runs, it was Dhawan’s innings that was vital as per the context of the total. 

All bowlers to Shikhar Dhawan in India innings (Wagon Wheel) © Cricinfo

Containing Rohit Sharma once he gets going - 404 Error not found

Of late, the Indian openers have been following a particular template in limited-overs cricket, and especially in the 50-over format – not going for big shots in the first 10 overs – which basically helps them build a solid platform and put up an above average total by the end of the innings. And if Rohit builds on the start and can bat for 50 overs, you know that you are in for an assault and who better than Sri Lanka to remember it for that fact that they had conceded 264 to him alone in Kolkata three years ago. So, putting pressure on him from the word go was the best option available for the visitors, but instead, they resorted to bowl harmless full deliveries and failed to extract any amount of swing from the wicket. Rohit is exceptional in either leaving or allowing the ball to come close to him whenever the ball is full and he goes hard with his hands only to deliveries that are short and wide. And boy did he punish the visitors for that!

Once he completed his century, he was unstoppable hitting fours and sixes at will and in the 44th over of the innings, he even stroked Suranga Lakmal for four sixes. Sri Lanka's death-overs specialists, Suranga Lakmal and Nuwan Pradeep, then tried firing in wide yorkers and that didn't work either. They tried bowling straight yorkers as well but ended up bowling a low full-tosses that resulted in sixes over midwicket and square leg. The damage was already done and India almost threw Sri Lanka out of the match even before they came out to bat. 

All bowlers to Rohit Sharma in India innings (Beehive) © Cricinfo

Sri Lanka strangled by India’s straight-line plan

Although the island nation held no chance after the half-way mark in the match, there were plenty of key moments that India still managed to win. Knowing that the wicket was not offering a lot for the swing bowlers, the pacers created straight-line shackles and that was something that the Lankan batsmen couldn't break free from. They were relentlessly accurate in bowling a fuller length, combined with a much straighter line compared to the previous game. Despite the wicket being worn out by the end, the ball was still stopping on the batsmen and so bowling stump-to-stump became a threat in itself. Only the elder statesman Angelo Mathews understood the dynamics and adopted a back-foot approach to counter the straight balls. Lahiru Thirimane, for some weird reasons that would be best known to him, decided to paddle sweep a Washington Sundar arm ball and got castled. All Sri Lanka needed, to avoid a total humiliation, was a fair approach of playing with a straight bat. After an inspiring display in the first match, much was expected of Sri Lanka, but today's game showcased that their Dharamsala heroics was nothing but a fluke.    

Seam bowlers to all batsmen in Sri Lanka innings (Beehive) © Cricinfo

Get updates! Follow us on

Open all