Who would have actually thought that Sri Lanka’s arrival was coming to haunt the Indians at their fortress? It’s just the kind of performance that the Lankans wanted to execute to keep the Indians in check. Twelve losses in a row across all the formats and now finally, Sri Lanka beat India by 7 wickets at the HPCA Stadium, Dharamsala.
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India
#1. Rohit Sharma (c) – 4/10
Having been at the helm of captaincy duties for the first time in international career, he missed out on scoring the runs that his team required from him.
#2. Shikhar Dhawan – 2/10
Shikhar Dhawan failed miserably as he got out for a duck. He failed to play the ball in the right line and hence was trapped for an LBW off Angelo Mathews. However, on the field, he took a pretty good catch at the slips.
#3. Shreyas Iyer – 2/10
Shreyas Iyer was beaten all ends up by Nuwan Pradeep on 9 runs. There was so much to look forward to this young talent but he was overlooked.
#4. Dinesh Karthik – 0/10
Dinesh Karthik created an infamous 18-ball longest duck in ODI career. He would want to get over with it by making a rebound in the games to come.
#5. Manish Pandey – 1/10
Manish Pandey also failed to make an impact scoring just 2 runs to his name.
#6. MS Dhoni (wk) – 9/10
When India is in trouble, the entire nation pins hopes on MS Dhoni. The super special Dhoni once again batted with patience and perseverance to help India get over their lowest ever score.
At one point India never looked like they were going to cross the triple-digit mark. Thanks to MS Dhoni who played his heart out, scoring an impressive 65 to his standards.
#7. Hardik Pandya – 2/10
There is so much that Hardik Pandya needs to learn to bat for some time to tick the flow of runs. As usual, he came and scored quickfire 10 runs and was dismissed quickly.
#8. Bhuvneshwar Kumar – 6/10
With the new ball, he tried to swing the ball at a brisk pace. He managed to pick up a wicket other than that, he was decent.
#9. Kuldeep Yadav
Kuldeep Yadav deserves some part of the credit for scoring 19 runs for his side alongside MS Dhoni to add a maximum 41-run partnership. He didn’t do much with the ball as the skipper relied only on the pacers.
#10. Jasprit Bumrah
Bumrah has been equally good and bad at the same time. The dark part is that he just needs to keep practising bowling the legit deliveries as his no-ball cost things dearly for India as Upul Tharanga made use of the post chances to good effect scoring 49. Bumrah got out for a duck with the bat but picked one wicket with the ball.
#11. Yuzvendra Chahal
Yuzvendra Chahal was not much involved in any of the aspects of the game.
Sri Lanka
#1. Danushka Gunathilaka – 1/10
He just scored only a run. He failed to capitalise on the start.
#2. Upul Tharanga – 8/10
Upul Tharanga has been gifted a chance on 15 runs as he was edged to Bumrah’s no-ball only to be caught by Dinesh Karthik in the slips. Having confirmed that it is a no-ball, he added 49 runs to his name.
#3. Lahiru Thirimanne – 0/10
He got out for a duck and couldn’t make much impact with the bat.
#4. Angelo Mathews – 7/10
Sri Lanka relied on Mathews to ace the chase at any cost. The experienced man did the work right as his patience to play the innings confirmed team’s 1-0 lead in the three-match series.
#5. Niroshan Dickwella – 7/10
Dickwella played superbly well with a strike rate of over 100. He played like as he desperately wanted to finish off the match soon.
#6. Asela Gunaratne – nil
He was not involved with the bat nor with the ball.
#7. Thisara Perera – 9/10
Thisara Perera won his first match as captain and what a day to remember. His captaincy was spot on and apart from that, he picked the big wicket of MS Dhoni.
#8. Sachith Pathirana – 5/10
He picked just a wicket to his name.
#9. Suranga Lakmal – 9/10
The Superman of Sri Lanka has to be Suranga Lakmal. His fantastic bowling variation outsmarted the Indians. He picked 4 wickets to his name for 13 runs, bowled 4 maidens.
#10. Akila Dananjaya – 5/10
He too played his part. He picked one wicket to his name.
#11. Nuwan Pradeep – 7/10
Nuwan Pradeep put pressure on the batsmen. He picked two important wickets.
