Sri Lankan skipper Charith Asalanka lauded Jeffrey Vandersay after they registered a convincing 32-run win against India at the R. Premadasa Stadium, Colombo on Sunday. Vandersay returned with career-best bowling figures of 6-33 in his quota of 10 overs to stun the Indian team.
Chasing 241 runs, India was comfortably placed at 116-1 after 17 overs. Indian skipper Rohit Sharma continued his rich form and scored 64 runs off only 44 balls to once again give a blistering start to his team. Rohit was dismissed while trying to play a reverse sweep as he was caught by Pathum Nissanka.
Subsequently, none of the Indian batters, barring Axar Patel (who scored run-a-ball 44) could show any resistance in the middle. Vandersay accounted for India’s top six batters to leave the visitors’ run chase in disarray.
The leg-spinner dismissed Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Shivam Dube, and KL Rahul. Thus, India was skittled out for only 208 runs.
Furthermore, Asalanka provided great support as he returned with impressive figures of 3-20, accounting for Axar Patel, Mohammed Siraj, and Washington Sundar.
Charith Asalanka said in the post-match presentation, “I was pretty happy with the score. 240 was good enough. As a captain, these kinds of problems (plenty of spin options) I need to have. It was an unbelievable spell by him (Vandersay). There were more than 90 runs when he came in to bowl. I am mainly a batter, I have to score runs. After that, I can bowl a few overs.”
Sri Lankan spinners came up with a fine performance while Indian batting crumbled for the second time in the series. The third ODI between India and Sri Lanka will be played at R.Premadasa Stadium, Colombo on Wednesday.
