From cloud No.9 to 139

This is the perfect lesson for the Indian team. After a convincing victory in the 1st ODI, the team was over-confident and the loss in 2nd ODI has definitely brought them down from Cloud 9 to a low 139. After an outstanding start by Virender Sehwag and Virat Kohli to the series where they alone made 200 odd runs in the first match, they managed a combined score of 16 runs in the second game. Other batsmen other than Gautam Gambhir continued their poor show, making things worse.When speaking about bowlers they never had anything to defend, but conceding 140 runs in 20 overs just shows how bad the bowling department actually is.

The pitch was good to bat on but the green wicket was helping the seamers; still captain cool chose to bat first, luckily having won the toss again. Indian struggled against the seamers and the Sri Lankan bowlers had the better half of the Indian batsmen. It all started with Perera causing havoc by taking quick wickets of Sehwag, Kohli and Raina, followed up by Mathews hunting down Rohit Sharma and MS Dhoni. Later on, nobody looked likely to stay on and bat. Even Gambhir lost his concentration after watching his batting partners go down in quick succession.

As a result, the team could barely even play for 35 overs and the outcome had become the obvious. To make the Sri Lankans’ task a lot more easier, the Indian bowlers bowled as if they themselves were in no mood of playing. Of the 20 overs they bowled almost 24 extras were conceded which only got the match to finish a lot more faster.

This loss also ended the hopes of Indian team regaining the No.1 ODI team spot and now they are only left with the option of winning the series and erasing all bad memories of the earlier tour where India lost both the Test and one-day series. Now the team needs to seriously sit together and redesign all its strategies of bowling as well as batting and work hard on fielding which has been a negative aspect for India almost everywhere they go.

If the Indian team seriously wants to get back to business and get rid of all its ego and keep its foot on the ground then the results, the first one dayer would be more common. The next ODI will be played on the 28th of July and lets hope India bounces back hard and win the hearts of all its well wishers.