‘Stunning’ Sri Lanka pull off a miraculous chase to shock India

Sri Lanka registered their first ODI win against India in England after 38 years when they pulled off one of the best ever run chases in history in their ICC Champions Trophy 2017 – Group B encounter at The Oval Grounds on Thursday.

 Watch – Near Live ICC Digital Clips of the SLvIND match 

Tagged underdogs, the little island stunned its giant neighbour chasing down India’s score of 321 with 8 balls to spare to record Sri Lanka’s joint-highest successful ODI chase and the highest at this venue. This is also the 9th instance Sri Lanka chased down 300+ runs successfully away from home and also the best ever run chase in the history of Champions Trophy.

Earlier after being sent into bat, the Indian openers, Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma looked at ease in the middle as the Lankan seamers extracted nothing out of the surface. They added 48 in the first 10 overs and 59 in the second before they fell apart at 138 when Sharma helped a Malinga delivery on its way to fine-leg.

Sri Lanka’s greatest tormentor, Virat Kohli then nicked behind off Nuwan Pradeep for his first duck in 43 ICC tournament innings as Sri Lanka picked up two quick wickets within 7 deliveries to stage a mini comeback in the middle overs.

Dhawan continued to pummel the Lankan bowlers adding 40 more runs with Yuvraj Singh but the latter chopped one onto his stumps off Asela Gunarathne. Just when Sri Lanka needed some more wickets in the middle period, India was handed a real impetus in the final few overs by Dhawan and MS Dhoni as they struck over 7.6 throughout their 82-run stand for the 4th wicket.

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The specialty of that partnership was the running between the wickets between Dhawan and jet-speed, Mahendra-Singh Dhoni. Left-handed Dhawan’s elegant and masterful 128-ball 125, which is his 10th ODI ton, 2nd against Sri Lanka had 15 fours and a six before he holed out to deep long-on handing Malinga’s 2nd wicket in the 45th over.

The Sri Lankans provided at least one bad delivery in each over, full tosses and length deliveries to let Dhoni cut loose and make a stunning cameo of 63 off 52 balls with 7 fours and 2 sixes before falling in the final over.  They leaked 103 runs in the power-play as Kedhar Jadav chipped in with a 13-ball 25 including 14 runs in Thisara Perera’s final four balls in the 50th over.

Photo Album: Sri Lanka v India| ICC Champions Trophy 2017 – Match 8

Sri Lanka started slowly and lost Niroshan Dickwella in the 5th over when he slapped across the line off Bhuvneshwar Kumar but found only a leading edge to point. Danushka Gunathilaka  was not in the original squad until yesterday, and when Chamara Kapugedara injured his knee, the dashing left-hander was drafted into the playing XI straight away.

Gunathilaka and Mendis played through the line in a risk-free free mode as they punished the lackluster Indian bowling to all parts of the ground. Gunathilaka’s lofted drives were eye pleasing and his pulls were clean as whistles. Mendis depended on his exquisite timing as he flamboyantly took apart Ravindra Jadeja with 3 fours and 1 six.

Gunathilaka reached his fifty with a massive six over the deep mid-wicket region off Pandya while Mendis did the same but this time off a flick against Jadeja.

They added 159 runs before Gunathilaka was caught short when he tested Umesh Yadav’s arm. Couple of overs later, Mendis was also dismissed through a run-out when Kumar hit the stumps directly off his own bowling.

Kusal Janith Perera was promoted to number 4 and partnered up with skipper Angelo Mathews as they constructed a 75-run stand for the 4th wicket to keep Sri Lanka going. Perera pulled his hamstring and had to retire after making a crucial 44-ball 47 with 5 fours.

Mathews found an able partner in Asela Gunarathne as they smashed 51 off 34 deliveries to guide Sri Lanka. Gunarathne played a gem of an innings scoring at 161.90 while Mathews playing his first ODI after August, 2016 reached his 33th ODI half-ton and scored the winning runs.

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