Ambati Rayudu stroked his maiden ODI hundred as India clinched a comfortable 6-wicket win over Sri Lanka in the 2nd ODI played at Ahmedabad on Thursday.
One-drop batsman, Ambati Rayudu smashed 10 fours and 4 sixes as he paced his knock superbly to steer the chase with an astonishing innings of 121 runs which took 118 deliveries as India took a 2-0 lead.
Earlier, the visiting captain, Angelo Mathews won the toss of coin and elected to bat first on a flat surface in Motera. Sri Lanka commenced on a poor note when Kusal Janith Perera, who had replaced Upul Tharanga, fell in the sixth ball of the match when he played across and was trapped leg before by Umesh Yadav before troubling the scores. TM Dilshan and Kumar Sangakkara added 53 runs in the mandatory Power Play as they batted aggressively and collectively. Dilshan was dismissed for 35 in 30 balls when he tried to cut an arm ball fired into the stumps by Akshar Patel in 11th over. R Ashwin then induced Mahela Jayawardene, to flick straight to the mid-wicket fielder Ambati Rayudu, who took a diving catch as Sri Lanka were struggling at 64/3.
The two dismissals arrested the run-rate and Sangakkara and captain Mathews eschewed risky shots and started the rebuilding process. They were content in pushing the ball into gaps and taking runs as they added 90 runs for the 4th wicket. Sangakkara used his feet effectively to put away the spinners as the 37-year-old reached his 87th half century in his 352nd game off 73 balls, according to records 2nd only to the great Sachin Tendulkar. The major breakthrough came for India when Sangakkara surprisingly hit a full toss from Yadav, straight to the deep mid-on fielder after a well-compiled 61 off 86 balls after Sri Lanka took the batting Power Play after 31 overs.
Seekuge Prasanna failed to make an impact as the floater with the bat during the Power Play while Ashan Priyanjan was run-out at the non-striker’s end as India struck thrice during this set play period while the visitors put on 30 runs. However, some wayward bowling by Jadeja, who was hit for three leg-side fours by Mathews and a straight six by Thisara Perera in the 40th over of the innings, moved Sri Lanka to 205/6 after 40 overs.
Perera was sent back by Akshar Patel for 10 when he bowled off his pads and Suraj Randiv was bowled by Ashwin for cheaply as once again Mathews lost support to up the run-rate in the final overs. With the visitors being reduced to 220/8 in the 44th over, Mathews got support from #10 batsman Dhammika Prasad and the duo stitched an invaluable 54-run unbeaten partnership to give the islanders the necessary push in the end overs. Prasad made a 28-ball 30 while Mathews struck an unbeaten 92 to push himself to the top of the ODI run-scorers in 2014. Sri Lanka finished on 274/8 in 50 overs with Umesh Yadav, Akshar Patel and Ravi Ashwin sharing 2 wickets apiece.
India in their chase of 275, lost their previous ODI centurion, Ajinkya Rahane for 8 off Dhammika Prasad when Mahela came to the rescue of Sangakkara when the wicket-keeper who has been having a poor run in India juggled an outside edge which the latter reacted quickly and grabbed the catch. Ambati Rayudu then joined Shikhar Dhawan and the pair massacred the Lankan bowling to all parts of the ground.
Dhawan nicked a Lahiru Gamage delivery which Sangakkara safely grasped inside the first 10 overs but the umpire refused the Lankan appeal which made a huge difference to the visitors. Dhawan stroked an elegant 79 runs in 80 balls as the Lankan bowlers had no answer to the Indian onslaught. He made 7 fours and 1 six in his eye-pleasing knock which ended when he top-edged a sweep shot straight Ashan Priyanjan off Seekuge Prasanna after putting up a match-winning 2nd wicket partnership of 122 with Ambati Rayudu.
Rayudu playing his 21st ODI batted with extreme confidence as he walked-down the wicket many times to challenge the bowlers. The in-experienced Lankan bowling outfit was once again put to the sword as Rayudu combined with his skipper Virat Kohli completely took the game away with their stand of 116 runs for the 3rd wicket. Kohli and Rayudu put up a master-class of stroke-making as they consumed only 97 balls.
Kohli fell to the bowling of Prasanna for 49 with the game in the bag and the Lankan leg-spinner claimed his 3rd wicket by removing Raina for 14 in his next over but Rayudu continued to play the sheet-anchor role and he completed his job by scoring the winning runs.
Skipper Angelo Mathews explained his thought during the post-match presentation, “The 300 mark, makes a lot of difference. We lost our way in the middle and couldn’t pull through. These wickets are quite good for the batsmen and you need to score runs in the top four as well. We’ll try to make it up in the next game, but it was an embarrassing performance. We need to try and get wickets because it’s never easy, with their batting line-up, to contain.”
Both teams will travel to Hyderabad for the 3rd ODI which is scheduled on 9th November. It will be a must-win encounter for the Lankan lads with already down by 2 games.
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