India outplayed Sri Lanka in the Test series and the first ODI, winning with ridiculous ease. There was a serious need for Sri Lanka to come up with something special to beat India in the second ODI on Thursday, and leggie Akila Dananjaya did deliver an astonishing spell of leg spin bowling, putting India in the backfoot.
However, his stunning six wicket haul did not prove to be enough as former India captain MS Dhoni and Bhuvneshwar Kumar played a patient game in the second innings to help the visitors beat Sri Lanka by three wickets.
Chasing a DL score of 231 runs, it was not expected to be tough for India, and openers Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma were in cruising control of the match. They were smashing the Sri Lanka bowlers all around the ground, but it was Dananjaya, who broke the partnership and the middle order to stun India. India's score went from 109-0 to 131-7 in no time.
Out of the seven wickets, which fell in the space of six overs, Dananjaya took six, including big fish Virat Kohli. The Indian batsmen were not able to read his variety, primarily his wrong one, which crashed onto the stumps. KL Rahul, Kedar Jadhav and Kohli were all sent back in one magical over (18th), where all the strokemakers were bowled.
Though Sri Lanka could smell victory with such a bowling performance from Dananjaya, Dhoni's cool head helped India a long way. The Jharkhand man is one of the best chasers in the game, and knows how to pace his innings, this time he did it with the help of Bhuvneshwar.
Dhoni and Bhuvneshwar saw the danger India were in after the wickets fell like a pack of cards. They were sensible, collected runs in singles and later on played their shots as they inched closer to the target.
More than Dhoni, who scored 45 runs, Bhuvneshwar should be congratulated for his fantastic batting effort with the bat, scoring a wonderful and much-needed half-century to help India reach the target in 44.2 overs.
Earlier in the day, when India were on the field, Sri Lanka had scored 236 runs. Milinda Siriwardana top-scored with 58 runs. His partnership with Chamara Kapugedera played an important role in Sri Lanka reaching a decent score of 230-odd, which did not prove to be enough despite the brilliance of Dananjaya in the second innings.
Hoever, Dananjaya's bowling effort, irrespective of the result, will be remembered for a long time.
