India’s assistant coach Abhishek Nayar talked about India’s defeat against Sri Lanka in the 2nd One Day International (ODI) at the R. Premadasa Stadium in Colombo on August 4, Sunday. He tried to understand this “surprising” loss. He said it happened because of the conditions that favored spin bowling, which led to India’s unexpected defeat against Sri Lanka. India was outperformed by the host team Sri Lanka in all aspects of the game, and they won the 2nd ODI by 32 runs, giving them an unbeatable lead in the 3-match ODI series.
“Was it a shock? I would say yes, there is a surprise,” Nayar said. “But you expect and understand that in these conditions, the game can change quickly because there is so much spin in the bowling. “Even if you look at the last game, it was relatively easy to score against the new ball. As the ball got older, the conditions when batting second got slightly tougher. Sometimes, in tough conditions, especially in the 50-over format, this happens.
Sri Lanka won the coin toss once more and chose to bat first on a pitch that was difficult to play on due to its spin. They managed to bounce back from a difficult position of 136/6 to score 240 runs.
Nayar acknowledged that the team will think about what went wrong in their last two one-day international matches.
“We need to figure out and fix the reasons why this happened two times in a row. Two days ago, we were able to build partnerships. But today, we lost several wickets quickly.”
Sri Lanka’s spin bowler had an outstanding match, taking six wickets and giving away only 33 runs in his 10 overs against India. Nayar also praised the bowler for making the most of the spinning conditions.
They played really good bowling – I believe Vandersay bowled the perfect length for these conditions,” Nayar said. “In these conditions, when the ball is spinning – and the way Vandersay bowled today, using his fingers, and aiming for the stumps – you get these moments when the pitch helps the bowlers. I think today we should give more praise to Sri Lanka.”
“When you are batting first, there is less stress,” Nayar said. “When you are chasing, the stress is higher because you have to watch the run rate and the wickets. Whenever you bat first, you often have strong partnerships. Wellalage batted very well, both in the last match and this one. They scored important runs in the lower batting order.”
This loss also ended India’s streak of 11 straight series wins in the one-day internationals against Sri Lanka.
