Vandersay six-fer stuns India as Sri Lanka go 1-0 up

Jeffrey Vandersay's six-wicket haul and a batting rearguard from Dunith Wellalage and Kamindu Mendis helped Sri Lanka beat India by 32 runs in the second ODI and take a 1-0 lead in the three-match series. The defeat ends India's sequence of 11 consecutive bilateral ODI series wins (2+ matches) against Sri Lanka, their last loss going back to December 1997.

Opting to bat first, Sri Lanka were once reeling at 136/6 when Wellalage and Mendis added 72 runs for the seventh wicket and took the side to a very competitive total of 240/9 on another slow, low pitch at the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo, in what was the 150th ODI at the venue.

India weren't quite able to chase a target of 231 the other day and this time, they had another 10 runs to chase on what was a relatively slower pitch. So it wasn't a surprise that Rohit Sharma came out all guns blazing and racked up a 29-ball fifty, his fourth inside the first 10 overs of an ODI.

Along with Gill, Rohit added 97 runs for the first wicket, hitting 5 fours and 4 sixes and taking a major chunk off the target. But once the India captain fell to a reverse sweep, India slid into a massive collapse once again and lost six wickets for 50 runs. All six wickets were to Vandersay in what was the first instance of the first six wickets falling to a spinner.

Gill and Shivam Dube perished in the same over, the former to a one-handed stunner from Mendis in the slips. Dube, in turn, was trapped lbw in front by a legbreak. Ten balls later, Virat Kohli was also pinned in front by a flipper, the first time the veteran batter had fallen lbw to a spinner in back-to-back innings. Vandersay completed his maiden five-wicket haul by trapping Shreyas Iyer with a googly, becoming only the second legspinner to pick five wickets against India in ODIs. He then went on to pick his sixth when KL Rahul chopped on and finished with figures of 6 for 33.

Washington Sundar and Axar Patel then steadied India with a 38-run stand but Charith Asalanka sent both those batters back in the pavilion in consecutive overs, all but sealing the match for his side. India were bowled out for 208 in 42.2 overs, losing nine wickets to spin.

Earlier in the day, Sri Lanka lost in-form Pathum Nissanka off the first ball of the match to an outswinger from Mohammed Siraj but Avishka Fernando (40) and Kusal Mendis (30) added 74 runs for the second wicket to steady the hosts with a partnership that had to cautiously tread past Siraj's five-over opening spell.

The partnership looked far from settled even at its peak, as you would expect on a surface helping the spinners from the get-go, and took Washington Sundar nine balls into his spell to break the stand with a leading edge from Fernando that popped right back to the spinner. Sundar would follow up with Mendis's wicket in his next over, sending Sri Lanka back into recovery mode with two new batters at the crease.

Sadeera Samarawickrama and Charith Asalanka didn't have it easy against the Indian spinners and both perished to them; Samarawickrama mistimed a slog against Axar when trying to break the shackles whereas Asalanka was caught off-guard by a turning-bouncing delivery and offered a simple catch to short third man. Sandwiched between the two wickets was a strike by Kuldeep Yadav, who was introduced into the attack only in the 20th over and bowled a miserly first five overs before being rewarded with the wicket of Janith Liyanage in his sixth.

At 136/6 at the end of 35 overs, Sri Lanka looked in a bit of bother but found unlikely heroes in Dunith Wellalage (39) and Kamindu Mendis (40), the pair frustrating India towards the end and mounting the total past 200. It of course didn't help that Mendis was dropped on 11 by Shivam Dube.

Wellalage took his time but once in, he delighted with a few boundaries, including a four and six off Axar in the 44th over and six off Siraj in the next. He was caught by Dube at short third man but not before he had managed to dent India. Mendis was run out only off the penultimate ball of the innings, thanks to a sharp effort from Shreyas Iyer.

Mendis and Akila Dananjaya managed a few boundaries in the last couple of overs as 79 runs were scored in the final 10. The seamers bowled their 19 overs for 111/1, more than offsetting the brilliant effort by the spinners who combined to pick 112/6 in their 31 overs, and the extra runs hurt the visitors in the end.

Brief Scores: Sri Lanka 240/9 (Mendis 40, Fernando 40, Wellalage 39; Sundar 3-30, Kuldeep 2-33) beat India 208 all out in 42.2 overs (Rohit 64; Vandersay 6-33) by 32 runs