SL vs IND: Three reasons why India lost second ODI to Sri Lanka in Colombo

Sri Lanka defeated India by 32 runs in the second ODI in Colombo.

India were stunned on Sunday, August 2, as they succumbed to a 32-run defeat at the hands of Sri Lanka in Colombo in the second ODI of the ongoing three-match series.

With the first ODI ending in a tie, the hosts now have a lead of 1-0 and India will need to win the third ODI to avoid a series loss. India’s last bilateral ODI series loss against Sri Lanka came in 1997.

Sri Lanka posted 240/9 after electing to bat first. In reply, India got off to a cracking start with Rohit Sharma smashing 64 runs off 44 balls. But, once the opening partnership of 97 runs was broken, Sri Lanka stormed through and bowled the visitors out for 208.

In this article, we will discuss the three key reasons for India’s loss in the 2nd SL vs IND ODI:

Batters couldn’t play spin

Jeffrey Vandersay produced a match-winning performance with a six-wicket haul. He finished with figures of 6/33 in 10 overs. He took six wickets in his first seven overs, and that spell broke the back of India’s batting. His wickets were Rohit, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul and Shivam Dube.

Indian batters looked handicapped against Vandersay, who turned the ball both ways. Kohli, Iyer and Rahul failed to read his googly while Dube and Gill were dismissed with the leg-break.

No partnerships in the middle-order

It’s been two games in a row that the Indian middle-order has disappointed. They simply haven’t been able to stitch up long partnerships which ticks off runs steadily while keeping the opposition at bay while chasing par targets of 231 and 241. In the 2nd SL vs IND ODI, India collapsed from 97/0 to 147/6 as Vandersay ran through them.

Experiment with batting order

Gautam Gambhir, the new head coach, built his reputation as the mentor of Lucknow Super Giants and Kolkata Knight Riders in the last three seasons of the Indian Premier League. While he had success in the IPL as a mentor, he seems to be tinkering unnecessarily with the batting order in ODI cricket, which is significantly different from T20s.

The decision to demote Shreyas Iyer and KL Rahul from numbers 4 and 5 respectively, in the two ODIs has been baffling, considering they sealed their positions in last year’s World Cup with emphatic performances. Gambhir has promoted Axar, Sundar and Dube to counter the leg-spinners and left-arm spinners of Sri Lanka.

However, the experimentation with the batting order and the need to employ match-ups are not required in the 50-over cricket. Where in T20 cricket, match-ups can shift the momentum of the game in an over, in ODIs, it’s about stitching partnerships and backing the players to do well in their specified roles over a longer period of time.

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