Nic Pothas singles out Jasprit Bumrah's no-ball as turning point

12/11/2017

Sri Lanka coach Nic Pothas has stated that the toss and Jasprit Bumrah’s no-ball that gave Upul Tharanga a life turned the game in Sri Lanka’s favour. Pothas has also paid rich tribute to Suranga Lakmal, who had India’s batsmen dancing to his tunes, and called him a “class performer”.

While defending a paltry score of 112 runs in the first ODI in Dharamsala, the Indian pacers made early inroads by dismissing Danushka Gunathilaka (1) and Lahiru Thirimanne cheaply (0) and in the sixth over, Bumrah had also got Tharanga caught by Dinesh Karthik at gully, but the Indian pacer had overstepped to give a new lease of life to the former Lankan skipper and Pothas identified that as the match-turning moment.

“I firmly believe that there were two massive moments in the game. Toss was one and the no-ball to Upul Tharanga (was the other). If you lose another one, we are suddenly 15 for 3 and that is a hugely different situation. We have looked at two situations where for me they sort of defined the day,” Pothas said, reported Hindustan Times.

“I don’t think it was rocket science reading that pitch. It had to be said that the toss was massive in the game. Thisara Perera is my Man of the Match for calling it right.”

Rohit Sharma, however, played down the incident and stated that India's batting cost them the game.

"We lost the game with the bat and not with the ball. It will be unfair to single out one individual especially a bowler. I think we as a batting group failed to tackle the situation. I wouldn't say it cost us dearly because there was not enough runs on the board. If we would have posted 180 or 190 it would have been different, but defending 110, you can hardly do anything except with the new ball to get three or four wickets and bounce back."

Yesterday, Suranga Lakmal had his time under the sun as he single-handedly dismantled the Indian batting order to end Sri Lanka's 12-match ODI losing streak. He completely relied on swing and to his credit, he didn’t deviate from the line at all. That seemed to have impressed Pothas who called him a class performer and a gutsy individual.

“Suranga is a world class bowler. If you give him the conditions that suit him, it doesn’t matter to whom he bowls, he is always going to make life difficult. In his career so far, he has had to bowl on flat, dry wickets. You give him some greenery, he will be brilliant.

“In South Africa at the start of this year, he was superb again. He is a class performer and a gutsy individual and a great guy to have in the team.

“Angelo looked great again. He has got his workload in. The physio has done some great work with him. He is not to full capacity yet. Angelo is a world-class performer and the way he handled that situation with the bat (after Tharanga got out) showed how important he is for us.”

Nic Pothas singles out Jasprit Bumrah's no-ball as turning point

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