IND vs SL 2nd ODI: India after taking a lead of 1-0 have locked horns with Dsasun Shanaka's Sri Lanka once again at the Eden Gardens, Kolkata. India were completely in control with the ball in their hands and they restricted Sri Lanka to 215/10. Sri Lanka played almost 40 overs, but their batters could not dominate the Indian pacers at any given point in the game. Mohammed Siraj in particular was the best of the lot and he did his very best to restrict the Sri Lankan batters.
Siraj registered figures of 3/30 and bowled at an economy of 5.30. The Royal Challengers Bangalore pacer dismissed the likes of Avishka Fernando, Dunith Wellalage, and Lahiru Kumara. India pace bowler Mohammed Siraj credited his success on Thursday in the second ODI against Sri Lanka to KL Rahul's accurate reading of the Eden Gardens strip and conditions during the second ODI here on Thursday. Siraj, who played a vital role in the opening ODI at Guwahati taking two wickets as Sri Lanka lost the opener by 67 runs, said during the innings break on Friday that Rahul noticed that the ball had stopped doing its bit after only the first over and that a new strategy would have to be employed against the experienced batting order.
The Indian pacer further said:
The ball wasn't coming out quick enough, and there wasn't enough swing. So the plan was to bowl stump to stump to keep the pressure from one end, hoping to get wickets and help the other bowlers," said Siraj, who had figures of 3/30 in 5.4 overs. KL (Rahul) told me it stopped swinging after one over, so I switched over to hard lengths. It is a good batting wicket but Kuldeep bowled very well to cause a middle-order collapse.
The ploy worked and it not just helped Siraj jolt Sri Lanka Avishka Fernando (20), but it created enough pressure on the visitors for Kuldeep Yadav to come later on and reap a rich harvest with his wrist spin. Siraj added that with the outfield extremely pacey, batters can flourish provided they play the ball on its merit.
India XI: Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (wk), Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Mohammed Shami, Kuldeep Yadav, Umran Malik, Mohammed Siraj
Sri Lanka XI: Nuwanidu Fernando, Avishka Fernando, Kusal Mendis (wk), Charith Asalanka, Dhananjaya de Silva, Dasun Shanaka (c), Wanindu Hasaranga, Chamika Karunaratne, Dunith Wellalage, Lahiru Kumara, Kasun Rajit
