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Kohli doffs his hat to off-spinner Dananjaya
India captain Virat Kohli doffed his cap to Sri Lanka’s Akila Dananjaya after the 23-year-old’s mesmerising spin spell in the second one-day international.
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Barely 24 hours after he had tied the knot, the spinner left the Indians in a tangle to claim a career-best 6-54, though fell short of forcing a series-levelling victory for his team at the Pallekele International Cricket Stadium.
India, chasing 231 to go 2-0 up in the series, were cruising at 109 for no loss in the 16th over when Dananjaya struck, dismissing Rohit Sharma for 54. That was just the appetiser, however, as it was in his next over that the spinner would inject fresh drama into the game and life into the gloomy stands.
Dananjaya slipped in three googlies to dismiss Kedar Jadhav, Kohli and KL Rahul in the space of five balls, bringing his side back into the match.
“You have to give credit to a guy who bowled an outstanding spell,” Kohli said afterwards, dismissing suggestions that rejigging the batting order led to their collapse.
“If I had gone at number three, I still would have missed the ball, because he was bowling that well in that spell,” the India captain, who batted at number five, said.
“The batting order did not really matter.”
Dananjaya is another product of Sri Lanka’s seemingly endless reserves of special bowlers, an off-spinner who can also bowl leg-spin, googly, ’doosra’, and even the carrom ball. His full range of tricks was on exhibition on Thursday against a team traditionally very comfortable against spin.
The Indians did not help their own cause by staying on the back foot as Dananjaya curled googlies through their gates. “I realised my offspin was working better, I kept using all the variations in my first eight-over spell,” Dananjaya said after collecting the man-of-the-match trophy.
Kohli said his team now had a better idea about what to expect from the bowler.
“We thought he was the off-spinner bowling an odd leg-break, but he picks up four wickets on googlies,” a bemused Kohli said.
“It’s difficult when you have not seen the guy at all. He has not played us before. But now we saw how the ball was coming out of his hand,” he added.
The teams meet again on Sunday with India, who whitewashed Sri Lanka in the preceding Test series, hoping to clinch the five-match series.
I am an off-spinner: Dananjaya
Sri Lankan mystery spinner Akila Dananjaya has expressed satisfaction at his rampant six-wicket haul against India in the second ODI but said he would have been happier had his effort steered his team to victory. “We would have been happy had we won the game. I am very sad at the moment.
I would have returned a happy man had we won,” said Dananjaya after taking 6/54, his maiden five-wicket haul in ODIs, in the second one-dayer against India that Sri Lanka lost by three wickets. The spinner took six wickets for 11 runs in just 21 balls as he saw off India’s middle order. He claimed three wickets in the 18th over. Four of his dismissals came off the wrong ones, which Indian batsmen simply couldn’t pick. “I am an off-spinner.
Wicket-taking balls are leg-spin and the googly. I bowl a lot of off-spin. I work with Piyal Wijetunga (Sri Lankan spin coach) and if I need to bowl variations, Piyal tells me to do so as well,” said Dananjaya. “I realised that the off-spin was not helping much. So I decided to get back to my variations. The target we had to defend wasn’t too much either. So we had to take wickets. I bowled a lot of variations and it went really well,” he added. Despite his heroics, Sri Lanka eventually lost the game.
Tharanga suspended
Sri Lankan skipper Upul Tharanga on Friday banned for two ODIs for slow over rate in the rain-affected second one-dayer against India.
Andy Pycroft of the Emirates Elite Panel of ICC Match Referees imposed the suspension after the Sri Lanka side was ruled to be three overs short of its target when time allowances were taken into consideration even as the match was reduced to 47 overs for the Indian chase.
India won the match by three wickets with 2.4 overs to spare and took a 2-0 lead in the five-match series.
In accordance with Article 2.5.2 of the ICC Code of Conduct for Players and Player Support Personnel, which relates to serious over-rate offences, players were fined 10 per cent of their match fees for the first two overs and 20 per cent of their match fees for the third over their side failed to bowl in the allotted time, with the captain also receiving two suspension points.
As two suspension points equate to a ban from one Test or two ODIs or two T20Is, whatever comes first for the player, Tharanga has been suspended from his side’s upcoming matches against India.
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