India beat Sri Lanka by three wickets in their second ODI at the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo. Apart from the fifties of Deepak Chahar and Suryakumar Yadav, key innings of Krunal Pandya and Bhuvneshwar Kumar, India have conquered Sri Lanka’s jaws. At one time Sri Lanka seemed to be winning the match and leveling the series, but Deepak stayed on the wicket and returned to the field only after Team India won. When Chahar arrived on the field, the team’s defeat was apparent, he first supported Krunal. After Krunal’s dismissal, Deepak took Bhuvi with Deepak to victory. This partnership brought back memories of another match. Mahendra Singh Dhoni, along with Bhuvneshwar Kumar, took India to victory in the 2017 tour of Sri Lanka. After the match, Bhuvi shared his memories of the match.
In a post-match presentation, he said: ‘The conditions of this match were the same. We wanted to bat until the last over. We wanted to bat as deep as we could. In 2017, Dhoni and Bhuvneshwar shared an unbeaten record of 100 for India for the 8th wicket in ODIs at Pallekel. Chasing a 231-run target, Team India’s 7 batsmen got back to the pavilion after scoring 131 in 22 overs. Bhuvi had come to support Mahendra Singh Dhoni on the field. The two progressed slowly over the innings and eventually began to play their shots. Dhoni and Bhuvi’s partnership in Sri Lanka’s hands once again turned India’s favor. Bhuvneshwar Kumar became the star by putting fifty in that match.
Four years later, against the visiting Sri Lankan team, Team India again did the same thing. This time the star is Deepak Chahar, but on the other end Bhuvneshwar Kumar has achieved this four years ago. In a post-match presentation, Bhuvi said, ‘At no particular time did we start to think we were playing to win here. We have followed the ‘one ball at a time’ policy. Our plan is to bat to the end and play according to the situation. Deepak did not allow the required run-rate to go above six and was playing his shots. The 84-run partnership between Deepak and Bhuvi is the second highest partnership for India for the 8th wicket in ODIs. Deepak scored 69 off 82 balls while Bhuvi scored 19 off 28 balls. With this win, India took a 2-0 lead in the series. The final match of the series will be held on July 23 at the ground.
