India’s stand-in skipper Rohit Sharma has brushed off the claims that the Jasprit Bumrah’s no ball to dismiss opener Upul Tharanga wasn’t the turning point in the first ODI in Dharamsala.
In the low scoring match at the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium, the men in blue were dismissed for 112 before Sri Lanka chased down the below-par target with seven wickets in hand. Contrary to Rohit, Sri Lanka coach Nic Pothas believes that Bumrah’s no-ball was a turning point in the match.
During the post-match press conference, Pothas said no-ball was one of the crucial points of the match, he said, “I firmly believe that there were two massive moments in the game. The toss was one and the no-ball to Upul Tharanga. We are suddenly 15 for three and that is a hugely different situation. We have looked at two situations where for me they sort of defined the day.”
India picked two quick wickets as Danushka Gunathilaka (1) and Lahiru Thirimanne (0) and suddenly the match seemed to be a challenging one. Tharanga was on 11 when he was caught by Dinesh Karthik in the gully region and the batsman started to walk, but he was held back by the umpires to check for the no-ball. And, certainly, Bumrah had overstepped to give Tharanga and Sri Lanka a lifeline. Tharanga went on to score 49 runs and took the game away from India’s desperate grip.
A similar incident took place during the ICC Champions Trophy final at The Oval, when Fakhar Zaman was dismissed for three but for a no-ball by Bumrah and he went on to post a crucial match-winning 114 runs.
However, Rohit had a contrary opinion to the incident, he said, “We lost the game with the bat and not with the ball. It will be unfair to single out one individual especially a bowler. I think we as a batting group failed to tackle the situation. I wouldn’t say it cost us dearly because there were not enough runs on the board. If we would have posted 180 or 190 it would have been different, but defending 110, you can hardly do anything except with the new ball to get three or four wickets and bounce back.”
India’s top order was once again rattled significantly by Suranga Lakmal’s seam bowling. He got the ball to swing and seam, which left the batsmen clueless in the middle. Praising him, Pothas said, “Look, Suranga is a world class bowler. If you give him the conditions that suit him, it doesn’t matter to whom he bowls. He is always going to make life difficult. In his career so far he has had the joy of bowling on flat, dry wickets. You give him some greenery, he will be brilliant. In South Africa at the start of this year, he was superb again. He is a class performer, gutsy individual and great guy to have in the team.”
The win helped Sri Lanka to finally rest their 12-match losing streak in ODIs which started back in July. In addition to that, it was Sri Lanka’s first win over India in India after 2009. Speaking of the same, the Lankan coach said, “Yes, it is a good place to be in the dressing room at the moment. We enjoyed the win. We haven’t had a lot of success in white-ball cricket this year. We are in a position now things are quite settled and the players understand their roles. We used a bit of strategy and very pleased with the way things worked out for us today.”
