India survive Dananjaya brilliance to beat Sri Lanka

Shadowy figures who you never managed to understand, but could recoil at the receiving end of their blows.

Considering the manner in which Dananjaya left the Indian batsmen clueless on Thursday, one might wonder that the player was someone who was new on the global circuit – similar to the way Ajantha Mendis wreaked havoc in his early days, most particularly against India. We knew if we played them out we would chase easily.

Dhoni celebrates after hitting the winning runs. If I had gone at No. 3, I would have still missed that ball because he (Akila Dananjaya) was bowling that well. Axar might just give Ashwin or Jadeja a run for their money if he can improve with the bat, and Chahal is a worthy leg spinner in a team dominated by offies. Sri Lanka had endured another collapse with the bat, had some kind of recovery and then blew it again to end at an underwhelming 236 for 8.

Chaos? Mystery? Wrong-‘uns? Suddenly, life was orderly and systematic again.

It has helped, of course, that India have won every toss. As much as it is important to not overdo things and overburden the players, it is equally necessary to keep the ones on the bench motivated and at par with the requirements of the team.

Though India nearly paid heavily for shuffling the batting order in the second ODI, India could still experiment by giving chance to those who are yet to play.

Openers Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan had put India off to a fine start with a stand of 109 runs and the visitors will bank them and Dhoni to continue their fine form. And yet, you have to think for a moment really if anyone else in the team would have done something similar. Hardik Pandya and Ravindra Jadeja both connected on a few occasions, but both perished trying to go for glory. Everyone tried to play a shot and was dismissed.

Rohit Sharma and Bhuvaneshwar Kumar in chat with each other.

The 3rd ODI between India and Sri Lanka will be broadcast Live on Sony Pictures Networks. “So I chose to get back to my variations”.

While the test team have been number one in the world rankings for much of the a year ago on the back of 14 wins in 18 matches, all but two of those have been played on the sub-continent. No, this was going to be the night where method and workmanship would prevail.

The skipper was in an explosive mood as he hit two massive sixes and a boundary in the penultimate over to hand India their sixth Asia Cup title.

However, MS Dhoni and Bhuvneshwar Kumar had other plans in mind.

Bhuvneshwar’s revelation after scoring his maiden ODI half-century showed the Indian dressing room had quickly woken up to the 23-year-old Dananjaya. He was playing the situation and doing the job of a senior who comes it to handle the mess left by the juniors. But Thursday night was different and the global media waited patiently till well past midnight to hear from Bhuvneshwar, the batsman.