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SL vs IND | 2nd ODI Preview: Sri Lanka seek inspiration to halt India's mighty and smooth ride

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If ever there was even a bit of doubt over the credentials and flamboyance of the Indian team on the tour of Sri Lanka, all of them were dashed out of the ground by the batting order led by Prithvi Shaw and Ishan Kishan. 

It was inevitable that the batsmen who are champions in the Indian Premier League would come hard against Sri Lanka’s bowlers, but their intensity and magnitude of aggression left all surprised. At the start of the chase, the hosts bowling attack looked so out of depth that they tried every kind of ball up their sleeves to see if Shaw would falter against one.

Then, after a short ball finally found the Mumbai lad off guard leading to his wicket, the hosts would have hoped of some respite. Another bit of surprise was thrown at them by the team management in the form of Ishan Kishan. He danced down the track on the first ball to make a bold statement about the brand of cricket India are there to play in the ODI and T20I series.

The relentless attack by Shaw, Kishan and then Suryakumar Yadav hinted at a possible change in the approach of the team management towards ODI cricket. The last time they played the format, England took on them with a completely different approach and it can be said that India are finally embracing the all-aggressive idea of ODI cricket.

Sri Lanka, on their part, did exceed the expectations by putting up a score in excess of 250 runs and it should be considered as a massive positive in the wake of their recent struggles. Batsmen got themselves in and played some delightful strokes to keep Indian bowlers in check. However, the firepower in the Indian side was too much to be defeated on a placid track in terms of movement for pacers.

Could Sri Lanka have done anything differently?

Surely yes. They would not have bowled too wide of Shaw’s off-stump or would not have bowled spinners against Ishan Kishan. They would have bowled to bring the ball back towards Shaw’s stumps and tested if he now has the answers to the questions the likes of Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc had asked in Australia.

But, if they would have had in them to challenge India at so many levels, they would not be losing so many games in the recent past.

Sri Lanka vs India: Match Details

Date – Friday, July 20, 2021

Time – 03:00 PM IST 

Venue – R Premadasa Stadium, Colombo

Broadcast: Sony LIV, Sony Sports Network

Pitch report

The surface at the R Premadasa Stadium was slow in nature and it should be no different in the second ODI. 

The new Kookaburra balls swung very little in the first half of the game but bowlers made good use of slower balls and cutters as the deliveries were getting stuck in the pitch.

However, there was little to less hindrance to batsmen while playing strokes and it only improved under lights as Shaw made perfect use of the ball coming nicely onto his bat.

Team News

Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka would not be too unhappy about their batting performance although they would be ruing throwing their starts. But, there would be the temptation of playing Lahiru Kumara, who can bowl well with the new ball in place of Isuru Udana who received hammering from Shaw.

Sri Lanka may well look to attack India with a short ball and Kumara can be a better exponent of that skill set than Udana.

The hosts would bank on their captain Dasun Shanaka and vice-captain Dhananjaya de Silva to bat more responsibly in the second ODI as they would have realised there were runs on offer in the first ODI only if they had survived.

India

Sanju Samson suffered a ligament injury in his knee to get out of contention of the first ODI and Ishan Kishan capitalised on the opportunity with a sparkling fifty on debut. He did not do anything wrong and even if Samson regain fitness, it’s unlikely that he would be able to replace Kishan from the playing XI.

India played two swing bowlers in Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Deepak Chahar in the first ODI and they can consider Navdeep Saini for his pace and bounce. Dushmantha Chameera extracted good pace and bounce in the first ODI and India would be tempted to unleash Saini to add one more dimension to their bowling attack.

Strongest XI

Sri Lanka

Avishka Fernando, Minod Bhanuka (wk), Bhanuka Rajapaksa, Dhananjaya de Silva, Charith Asalanka, Dasun Shanaka (c), Wanindu Hasaranga, Chamika Karunaratne, Dushmantha Chameera, Lakshan Sandakan, Lahiru Kumara

India

Shikhar Dhawan (c), Prithvi Shaw, Ishan Kishan (wk), Manish Pandey, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Krunal Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Navdeep Saini

Sri Lanka vs India 2nd ODI: Dream XI/fantasy XI

Ishan Kishan, Dasu Shanaka, Hardik Pandya, Wanindu Hasranga, Avishka Fernando, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Kuldeep Yadav, Navdeep Saini, Lahiru Kumara

Captain: Prithvi Shaw 

Vice-captain: Shikhar Dhawan

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Men 7-0 Women | Double standards reek as Sri Lanka women remain the only game-less WODI team post pandemic

With India playing the Sri Lanka Men’s team in the first of the three-match ODI series in R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo on Sunday, July 18, it was the seventh series in which the Sri Lankan Men’s team participated post-pandemic of 2020. And what about the Women’s team? Well, the answer is zero. The Sri Lankan team led by Chamari Athapaththu has not had a go at the cherry ever since their last World T20 match against Bangladesh in March 2020. On the other hand, WODI status earned teams that are lower in stature and experience such as Bangladesh and Ireland too have played some form of cricket or the other. Even non WODI members such as Scotland and Zimbabwe Women too have had some game time, but not Sri Lanka. What plagues the association is hard to teel as they have been going all guns blazing against the men’s team for contract signing and in the meanwhile seemed to have forgotten that a Women’s team of their also exists. The most important factor is that Sri Lanka has been scheduled to host the Women’s Cricket World Cup 2021 (2022) Qualifiers in December which has been postponed many times since July 2020. A nation that would be hosting the Qualifiers hasn’t played a single game while the rest of the teams (except Thailand) participating in the qualifiers have had some game time or the other. While West Indies have played two series, one against England Women and the other against Pakistan Women during the pandemic, Pakistan too have played two series one against Zimbabwe Women (curtailed midway due to Covid) and the other against West Indies Women. Ireland Women have played a T20I series against Scotland Women and are in the process to host Scotland and Netherlands Women ounce again for a tri-nation ODI tournament. Bangladesh’s Emerging Women’s team, which had many main team players in it also played four ODIs against South Africa Emerging Women’s team. All this shows that boards with either similar or fewer resources than Sri Lanka Cricket have at least tried to arrange games for its Women’s teams while Sri Lanka cricket has remained in neglect of their team. With hardly five months to go for the Women’s World Cup Qualifiers, it would be interesting to see how and when Sri Lanka cricket would wake up to the needs of its Women’s team.

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England punish clueless Pakistan to stretch T20I series to a finale

It was a total team effort by England led by stand-in skipper Jos Buttler as the trounced Pakistan, who gave up rather easily and timidly. The 45 runs victory by the hosts in their maiden T20I game at Headingley, Leeds would mean that they head to Old Trafford with renewed energy and a chance to win the series which stands at 1-1. Chasing a target of 200, Pakistan had a reasonably good start getting to 50 in the sixth over. However, one shot too many by Babar Azam meant that he was caught at short covers by Dawid Malan off the bowling of Saqib Mahmood on the fourth delivery of the last over of the powerplay. As soon as he was gone, Pakistan seemed to lose the lot as Sohaib Maqsood departed soon after, getting stumped off an Adil Rashid leg spinner which turned just a bit to deceive him. At 71-2 in the ninth over and with Mohammad Rizwan at the crease, the visitors still fancied a fightback, but it wasn’t to be. They lost their next four wickets in a span of 21 balls and 23 runs, slipping to 105-6 at the end of the 14th over. Imad Wasim and Shadab Khan tried to hit as many runs as possible but it was never going to be a problem for the English side as they eventually beat Pakistan by 45 runs. Rizwan top-scored with 37 while Shadab remained unbeaten at 36. For the Three Lions, Mahmood took three wickets while both Moeen and Rashid pick two each. Earlier in the day, it was a bizarre decision by Pakistan to ask England to bat first after winning the toss, given the fact that they won the last game batting first and the wicket was to assist spinners as the day passed. Nevertheless asked to bat, England couldn’t get off to a flier as Roy was removed in the very first over. Malan went out soon as well and it was then that the onslaught from Moon and Buttlerbegan as the pair added 67 in just 31 balls. While Moeen gout out for a 16 balls 36, Buttler carried on his merry ways joined by Livingstone. The former hit a fifty and got out on 59 from 39 while the latter hit enormous sixes for his 23 ball 38. Courtesy of these innings the men in Red and Blue Managed to get to 200 even after getting all out in the 20th over. Moeen was adjudged Man of the Match for his all-around efforts.