India's batting fall like nine pins, Sri Lanka win 2nd ODI

Hambantota: With India coming out good in the first ODI against Sri Lanka at Hambantota, there were speculations that the much-famed battling line of the World Champions will leave stoned unturned in their quest for No. 1 ODI rankings. However, all the hopes of the fans back home were dashed to ground as Indian batting fell like nine pins and Dhoni and his brigade lost the second ODI to the Lankan Tigers by nine wickets at the same venue on Tuesday.

Except for Gautam Gambhir, who scored a sensible 69, no other batsman managed to make a mark as after Virender Sehwag (15) and inform Virat Kohli (1) fell cheaply, there was a queue back to the pavilion as Rohit Sharma once again flattered to deceive as he played on while going for an ambitious cut off a very wide delivery from Mathews. Suresh Raina dragged one from Perera back on to his off-stump. MS Dhoni hit a couple of fours but then went for a non-existent cut shot off a Mathews delivery and Kumar Sangakkara took the edge. Irfan Pathan too didn’t stay long while Ravichandran Ashwin, who threw his bat around a bit, was needlessly run-out.

It was always going to be a tough ask for the weak Indian bowling attack to defend such a meagre total and the Lankan Tigers aggravated India’s agony by hardly giving any chance to the visitors to come back into the match.  Openers Upul Tharanga and Tillakaratne Dilshan slammed fine fifties as Sri Lanka registered a thumping nine-wicket win over India. Chasing only 139 for the win, Tharanga and Dilshan batted well and denied India any wicket till Dilshan was removed for 50 by Ashwin. But, by then Sri Lanka were 119/1, just 19 short of the target.