London, June 8:
Pedestrian bowling performance from defending champions India saw them slump to an unexpected seven-wicket defeat against Sri Lanka in a high-scoring ICC Champions Trophy Group B contest here today.
Riding on Shikhar Dhawan’s 125 and half-centuries from Rohit Sharma and Mahendra Singh Dhoni, India piled up a 321 for 6 only to be stunned by unfancied Lankan batting line-up that produced a splendid batting show to knock off the runs in 48.4 overs.
Danushka Gunathilaka (76 off 72 balls) and Kusal Mendis (89 off 93) added 159 runs to lay the platform before skipper Angelo Mathews (52 no off 44 balls) coolly finished off the job in company of Kusal Janith Perera (47 retired hurt) and Asela Gunaratne (34 no off 21 balls).
Arguably, the biggest upset of the tournament also threw the group wide open with all four teams – India, Pakistan, South Africa and Sri Lanka in with a chance to qualify.
India now must beat South Africa on Sunday in order to qualify for the semifinals.
For India, the 103 runs conceded by Hardik Pandya (51 off 7 overs) and Ravindra Jadeja (52 off 6 overs) in 13 overs tilted the game decisively in favour of Lankans on what was a batting belter where a target of 322 looked par for the course.
Call it complacency or unable to gauge the strength of unknown entity, the Indian bowling lacked the required discipline as Gunathilaka and Mendis rolled back the years giving a glimpse of the Lankan sides of mid and late 90’s.
They were hardly bothered by any bowler during their 159 run stand. Left-hander Gunathilaka especially was severe first up, hitting seven fours and two sixes. The first one was using Umesh yadav’s extra pace to pull it behind square while the next was another pull in-front of square when Hardik erred in length.
What hurt India during the phase was poor show from Jadeja, whose first six overs cost 52 runs including seven fours and a six.
Mendis was severe on him as he bowled short and also didn’t have any help from pitch made life tougher.
With regular bowlers failing to do the job, captain Kohli brought himself and Kedar Jadhav. But Gunathilaka was run-out more so because of Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s quicksilver reflexes.
India created further inroads when the other set batsman Mendis was run-out, courtesy brilliant pick up and throw off his own bowling by Bhuvneshwar Kumar.
But skipper Mathews and Perera added 75 runs in 10.2 overs to ensure that islanders don’t lose momentum.
However Perera had to retire suffering cramps with Gunaratne joining his skipper with 51 runs required in a little over seven overs. The youngster then chanced his arms against Bumrah and Yadav to finish the game much to delight of Sri Lankan fans. (PTI)
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