ICC Champions Trophy 2017: 5 things that went wrong for India against Sri Lanka
ICC Champions Trophy 2017 finally received a much-needed shake-up as a tight game at the Oval saw the biggest upset of the tournament so far. Sri Lanka posted a historic seven-wicket win over the defending champions India as they chased down a mammoth total of 322 with one over remaining.
Kusal Mendis was the star of the run chase as he scored a match-winning knock of 89 and the returning Angelo Matthews who scored a brilliant 52*.
In the first innings, Shikhar Dhawan scored his third century of this event as crucial knocks from Rohit Sharma and MS Dhoni helped the Blues post 321. But with a loss tonight, India face a virtual quarterfinal against South Africa on June 11.
India committed a lot of errors today with both bat and ball as without further ado, let's delve into the five things that went wrong for India tonight:
#5 Ravindra Jadeja and Hardik Pandya's costly spells
The one thing that has made this Indian team a success in the limited overs cricket are their all-rounders who have chipped in with important wickets. Against Pakistan too, Jadeja bowled with vigour and discipline to take wickets at regular intervals. This was needed today as well when Sri Lanka were building their innings in the middle.
Virat Kohli brought on Pandya and Jadeja from both the ends but it just wasn't the day for both of them. Hardik Pandya was haywire with his line and length and was taken to the cleaners throughout his spell.
Jadeja was targeted by the match-winning duo of Gunathilaka and Mendis as soon as he arrived and went for a lot of boundaries. Pandya conceded 52 runs in 7 overs whereas Jadeja did 51 in 6 as the all-rounders failed to deliver in crunch time for the Men in Blue.