Colombo: Coming in as a like-for-like replacement for injured Wanindu Hasaranga, leg-spinner Jeffrey Vandersay shone with a sensational six-wicket haul and powered Sri Lanka to a famous 32-run win over India and went 1-0 up in the three-match series at the R. Premadasa Stadium here on Sunday.
Electing to bat first on a dry pitch offering turn and bounce to spinners, Dunith Wellalage and Kamindu Mendis rescued Sri Lanka’s innings for the second time in as many matches with an inspiring lower-order fightback to post a competitive 240/9.
In reply, India were cruising at 97/0 before things went haywire for the visitors. But Rohit Sharma perishing to a reverse-sweep off Vandersay triggered a collapse of the visitors, as the leg-spinner picked 6-33 in his 10 overs, the seventh-best figures by a Sri Lankan bowler in ODIs. Captain Charith Asalanka took three wickets with the ball again, including the big scalp of a defiant Axar Patel, to bowl out India for 208.
Brief scores: Sri Lanka 240/9 in 50 overs (Kamindu Mendis 40, Avishka Fernando 40; Washington Sundar 3-30, Kuldeep Yadav 2-33) beat India 208 in 42.2 overs (Rohit Sharma 64, Axar Patel 44; Jeffrey Vandersay 6-33, Charith Asalanka 3-20) by 32 runs. IANS
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