The R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo hosted the second ODI of the three-match series between the Rohit Sharma-led Indian National Cricket Team and the Charith Asalanka-led Sri Lanka National Cricket Team on Sunday, August 4.
The Rohit Sharma-led team lost the match by 32 runs and remained 0-1 in the ODI series. The defeat came as a big surprise for the Indian team, which was the big favourite to defeat the home team.
After a drawn match in the first ODI, India started the second match quite well as they got a wicket on the first ball after being invited to bowl first. However, Avishka Fernando and Kusal Mendis did not let their team feel the pressure as they batted brilliantly and played confident cricket.
After the dismissal of the top-order batsmen, the middle and lower order of the team took up the responsibility and after working hard, they managed to score 240 for 9. For India, Washington Sundar got three wickets and Kuldeep Yadav got two wickets. Also, Mohammed Siraj and Axar Patel got one wicket each.
Rohit Sharma, as always, pursued the target and batted with complete aggression, demolishing the opposition bowling attack. He scored 64 runs and left his team in a strong position when he returned to the hut.
After the Indian captain was dismissed, only Axar Patel managed to play a good knock and all the other batsmen failed miserably. India were eventually bowled out for 208 and lost the match.
When you lose a match, everything hurts – Rohit Sharma
At the post-match presentation ceremony, Rohit Sharma said that he was disappointed and hurt after the defeat. He also praised Jeffrey Vandersay for his stupendous performance in the match. Rohit Sharma said:
“When you lose a match, everything hurts. It’s not just about those 10 overs. You have to play consistent cricket and we didn’t do that today. I’m a bit disappointed but these things happen. You have to adapt to what’s in front of you. With left-right, we felt it would be easier to rotate the attack. To Jeffrey’s credit, he got six wickets.”
Asked if he was not satisfied with his own batting performance, Rohit Sharma rejected that notion and said he would continue batting with the same intention.
“The reason I got 65 was because of the way I batted. When I bat like that, you take a lot of risks. If you don’t cross the line, you always feel disappointed. I don’t want to compromise my intention.”
Rohit Sharma added that they were not good enough in the match and Sri Lanka played better cricket. Rohit Sharma said:
“We understand the nature of this surface, it gets really difficult in the middle overs. You have to try and get as many players in the powerplay as possible. We weren’t good enough. I don’t want to analyse too much how we played. But our batting in the middle overs will be talked about.”
