Deepak Chahar on Tuesday made headlines with his unbeaten 69 with the bat and took the team to the finish line. against Sri Lanka in the second ODI in Colombo. While chasing 276, Shikhar Dhawan-led India were reduced to 116/5, before a half-century from Suryakumar Yadav and a steady 35 from Krunal Pandya steadied the ship.
However, after their dismissal, India still needed 83 runs with three wickets in hand, and Chahar and Bhuvneshwar Kumar added an unbeaten 84-run stand to win the game. After India’s three-wicket win, captain Shikhar Dhawan praised Chahar and Bhuvneshwar for their match-winning stand.
“We knew that Chahar has worked hard in the nets on his batting. His presence of mind and calculations against the leg-spinner was amazing. Both Bhuvi and him calculated it really well. I felt the way Sri Lanka planned their innings in both their batting and bowling was amazing,” Shikhar Dhawan said.
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He continued: “The way they batted and fielded was good to watch. They worked really hard, but glad that we are on the winning side. Every game is a learning lesson and we hope to analyse and get better. We want to put up a good show all the time.”
However, both wins show the bench strength of India. While the first one was a comfortable victory on Sunday, they had to work hard in the second on Tuesday as the batsmen couldn’t carry forward their momentum and India won by 3 wickets as well. And, Shikhar Dhawan acknowledged it and said that it’s a good learning process for the youngsters also.
“I felt that the wicket today was much better and we restricted them to a good score. The spinners fought back and the bowlers adjusted their line and lengths when their batsmen were in. We didn’t start well and it is a good learning lesson for the youngsters that everyday is not the same,” Dhawan added.
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“They will understand how to handle these situations and how to bring in new strategies. The way Manish Pandey and Suryakumar were batting, we thought they would take us home. Hard luck to Pandey for the way he got out. The way Krunal fought in the middle was amazing. Everyone showed character,” Shikhar Dhawan concluded.
