"Thala would be proud of you!" - Fans erupt as Deepak Chahar takes India home in a thriller
Deepak Chahar played a brilliant knock of 69 to give Team India an unlikely victory in the second ODI against Sri Lanka. With this, India have taken an unassailable 2-0 lead in the series and their morale will be at an incredible high. Sri Lanka, on the other hand, will ponder upon what could have been.
The 276-run target was one within India's reach, but they kept losing wickets at regular intervals. At one stage, India still needed 83 runs with just three wickets in hand. But Deepak Chahar batted extremely well with the tail and showed that he is more than just a dasher with the bat.
Twitter lauds Deepak Chahar for his sensational 69*
Fans on Twitter hailed Deepak Chahar for his valiant effort under immense pressure. Some also trolled the Sri Lankan team for not being able to take advantage after having India on the mat at one stage. Here is what they had to say:
Team India didn't have the best of starts to their chase as they lost two of their star batsmen from the last game, Prithvi Shaw and Ishan Kishan, cheaply. There were plenty of small partnerships between Shikhar Dhawan and Manish Pandey, and between Pandey and Suryakumar Yadav, but wickets still kept on tumbling.
The wicket of Yadav, who batted well for his half-century, looked like a hammerblow for India. Krunal Pandya's wicket almost cemented Sri Lanka's victory. But an incredible partnership between Deepak Chahar and Bhuvneshwar Kumar dashed all the hopes of the hosts to level the series.
Deepak Chahar was almost batting like a proper batsman, keeping the scoreboard ticking with the occasional big shot. Bhuvneshwar proved to be the ideal foil for Chahar as he kept one end assured.
The duo took India home in thrilling fashion at the end with 5 balls to spare and proved the incredible batting depth that this new-look Indian team has. This series win gives the visitors an opportunity to experiment in the final ODI.