Follow UsFor a good few minutes in Dharamshala on Saturday, it did look like the unthinkable was on the cards. First, Sri Lanka put the Indian bowlers to the sword in the second half of their innings, scoring a mammoth 112 off the final 10 overs to post a very competitive total. And then, courtesy a hostile new ball spell from the pacers, they had India staring at a potential first defeat under the leadership of Rohit Sharma.
At the halfway mark of the second innings, the match was at least 55-45 in the favor of the visitors; with the required rate over 10, a couple of immediate tight overs might very well have left the hosts in a point of no return.
Which is why Saturday’s defeat would be stinging Sri Lanka badly. Not only did they eventually go on to lose the game and subsequently the series, they were blown apart by India in the final phase of the contest, to the extent that the Men in Blue ended up chasing 183 with 17 balls to spare. The drastic turn of events in the final 43 balls of the 2nd T20I means that come Sunday, the Lankans would be playing for pride instead of the series.
Crazy as it sounds, the visitors, following their showing in the second game, have already exceeded expectations in a way. Pretty much everyone wrote Dasun Shanaka’s side off following the injuries to Hasaranga, Theekshana and their listless showing in the first game, but Sri Lanka showed admirable character in the second encounter, nearly pulling off a major upset.
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Injuries to key players have certainly exposed Sri Lanka’s paper-thin depth in white-ball cricket, but, even if it's just in patches, they continue to show that they are a side with potential. On Sunday they would be hoping to sign off with a consolation win like they did in Australia, and in the second game they showed enough to suggest that they might have it in them to pull off an unlikely win.
For India and Rohit, the third T20I will be about keeping the unbeaten run going, although, at the same time, they would be hoping for an improved showing with the ball. On Saturday India had their first ‘bad’ outing with the ball in the Rohit era, but they have a golden opportunity to respond immediately and make it clear that the second game was nothing but an anomaly.
Can Danushka Gunathilaka pick up from where he left in the second game?
Danushka Gunathilaka is a project Sri Lanka have been desperately trying to make work for years, but, to their dismay, the southpaw has never been able to replicate his domestic showings at the international level. Against Australia Gunathilaka averaged a shocking 6.75 across four games, and heading into the second T20I in Dharamshala on Saturday, he’d averaged 12.37 in 17 T20Is since October 7, 2019.
After 7 overs on Saturday, Gunathilaka’s innings had ‘trainwreck’ written all over it, the southpaw managing just 16 off his first 22 balls, but it was then that the 30-year-old ended up finding the fluency he last showed in the 2020 edition of the Lanka Premier League, a campaign in which he averaged 59.50 while striking at 144.68.
The opener got going with a confident thump off Chahal, and then tore into the left-arm spin of Jadeja, smoking the all-rounder for 16 runs off 3 balls before perishing after getting a tad too greedy. The 22 runs Gunathilaka collected off 7 balls across the eighth and ninth over injected much-needed momentum into the Sri Lankan innings, and it was also a glimpse into the potential of a batsman who has far too much talent to be the owner of appalling T20I numbers.
To date, in his 35-match T20I career, the 30-year-old has never managed to post consecutive 35+ scores. Sri Lanka would be hoping that Sunday is when this above-mentioned fact changes, and Gunathilaka’s T20I career takes off for good.
Chance for Harshal Patel to bounce back after a rare bad outing
International cricket had been all too easy for Harshal Patel - until Saturday, when he encountered Dasun Shanaka. Having entered the second game with a career T20I economy of 7.90, predominantly bowling at the death, the right-armer was handed a reality check by Sri Lanka as he was hammered for 52 runs off his 4 overs, the last six balls costing an eye-watering 23 runs.
Harshal got his execution only marginally wrong at the death, not landing the slower balls and the dipping yorkers where he wanted, but that was enough for Shanaka to pounce. In all, the Sri Lankan skipper scored a staggering 35 runs off the 9 balls he faced off the right-armer (leg-byes included).
This onslaught has now set up a rare interesting sub-plot heading into the third T20I on Sunday. Regardless of whether he comes up against Shanaka, it would be interesting to see the response of Harshal, who prior to Saturday had pretty much been flawless at the international level.
The right-armer struggled in the initial stages of IPL 2021 on flat wickets, notably in Mumbai and Ahmedabad, and Sunday is an opportunity for him to not just show that he can be effective notwithstanding the nature of the pitch, but end the series on a high and further strengthen his claim to be a starter in India’s full-strength XI.
Probable XIs
With the series in the bag, there is a good chance that India could give opportunities to Ravi Bishnoi and Avesh Khan, both of whom featured against West Indies.
India: Rohit Sharma (c), Ishan Kishan (wk), Shreyas Iyer, Sanju Samson, Ravindra Jadeja, Venkatesh Iyer, Deepak Hooda, Harshal Patel, Avesh Khan, Jasprit Bumrah, Ravi Bishnoi
Sri Lanka: Pathum Nissanka, Kamil Mishara, Charith Asalanka, Danushka Gunathilaka, Dinesh Chandimal (wk), Dasun Shanaka (c), Chamika Karunaratne, Dushmantha Chameera, Praveen Jayawickrama, Binura Fernando, Lahiru Kumara