It took a while to happen again, but it did: this time at the ACA VDCA Stadium in Visakhapatnam on Sunday. After our nation’s journalists had exhausted every possible creative take on the word ‘wrist’ for coming up with catchy headlines during early and mid September, it looked like the Kuldeep Yadav-Yuzvendra Chahal combine had slunk away from the limelight in the next month.
After leaving Australia in a heap during the first two ODI matches of their sojourn to India, the partnership had only one lukewarm outing to show when the Black Caps made their way to the nation, courtesy the constant chopping-and-changing the Men in Blue’s 50-over contingent went — and is still going — through, with the 2019 World Cup in mind.
They were reunited once again in Dharamsala a week ago. But, both didn’t get to mark their run-ups even once as Suranga Lakmal and his speedster companions ran amok, leaving India’s scoreboard as threadbare as it could be.
Visakhapatnam, in this context, turned out be an antipode. Plus, the stakes had been upped exponentially: a straight eighth ODI series victory awaited the Men in Blue if they happened to be the last ones standing.
It was a perfect opportunity for the two contrasting-yet-complementary spinners to once again make journalists yank their manes in exasperation. By the end of Sunday evening, that’s exactly what happened.
Despite losing Danushka Gunathilaka early on, Upul Tharanga’s urgency with the bat, coupled with support from Sadeera Samarawickrama was making the score predictor surmise that the visitors would definitely breach the 300-run mark.
Cue Kuldeep and Chahal. The two did cop a few blows from the two batsmen, but — as they have reiterated before — they didn’t shy away from reducing their pace to impart maximum revolutions on the ball. Runs came, but not as many, as both Tharanga and Samarawickrama had to contend with quite a few pearlers that came their way.
With such pressure, something was bound to give. It did, with the third ball of the 23rd over marking Sri Lanka’s downward spiral. Chahal inveigled Samarawickrama a la Glenn Maxwell during the aforementioned series, tempting the Sri Lankan to have a swipe at an way-outside-off leg break.
It was Kuldeep’s turn to bamboozle. Tharanga was claimed by a floater that dragged his foot on to the crease line. MS Dhoni’s lightning-like reflexes did the rest. If that wasn’t enough, he cut short Niroshan Dickwella’s belligerence three balls later. Their downslide also saw Thisara Perera done in by a Chahal corker, and Akila Dananjaya being bowled around his legs by a Kuldeep googly. A tweaker pair that swears by its attacking instinct had lived up to its words.
That, obviously, drew comparisons with the R Ashwin-Ravindra Jadeja combine yet again. And they were promptly played down by Chahal. “They have done so much in the last five-six years. We have played only in four-five series. It is unfair to compare. We want to give our best when we go out and play. We have played most of our games in India, one series in Sri Lanka but conditions. We have not played overseas.”
ScoreboarD
Sri Lanka: Gunathilaka c Rohit b Bumrah 13, Tharanga st Dhoni b Kuldeep 95, Samrawickrama c Dhawan b Chahal 42, Mathews b Chahal 17, Dickwella c Iyer b Kuldeep 8, Gunaratne c Dhoni b Kumar 17, Perera lbw Chahal 6, Pathirana c Chahal b Pandya 7, Dananjaya b Kuldeep 1, Lakmal lbw Pandya 1, Pradeep (not out) 0, Extras (lb4, w4) 8, Total (all out, 44.5 overs) 215.
Fall of wickets: 1-15, 2-136, 3-160, 4-168, 5-189, 6-197, 7-208, 8-210, 9-211.
Bowling: Kumar 6.5-0-35-1, Bumrah 8-1-39-1, Pandya 10-1-49-2, Kuldeep 10-0-42-3, Chahal 10-3-46-3.
India: Rohit b Dananjaya 7, Dhawan (not out) 100, Iyer c Lakmal b Perera 65, Karthik (not out) 26, Extras (b4, lb2, w15) 21, Total (2 wickets, 32.1 overs) 219. Fall of wickets: 1-14, 2-149.
Bowling: Lakmal 5-2-20-0, Dananjaya 7.1-0-53-1, Mathews 3-0-30-0, Pathirana 4-0-33-0, Pradeep 3-0-10-0, Perera 5-0-25-1, Gunaratne 4-0-30-0, Gunathilaka 1-0-12-0.
1,000
Upul Tharanga became the third batsman to score 1,000-plus ODI runs this calendar year.
55
Runs added by Sri Lanka’s last eight wickets. From 160/2 they collapsed to 215.
India this year
(H) England (2-1)
(A) West Indies (3-1)
(H) Australia (4-1)
(H) New Zealand (2-1)
(A) Sri Lanka (5-0)
(H) Sri Lanka (2-1)
Finalist in Champions Trophy
rahul.ravi@newindianexpress.com