Shikhar Dhawan Lauds Deepak Chahar, Bhuvneshwar Kumar And Krunal Pandya For Their Match-Winning Knocks In The 2nd ODI

Indian skipper Shikhar Dhawan was full of praise for the duo of Deepak Chahar and Bhuvneshwar Kumar, especially the former, for the manner in which they went about their business in what was a pretty hopeless position for India to seal a memorable three-wicket win.

Deepak Chahar’s whirlwind 82-ball 69* and Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s calm and composed 28-ball 19 has helped India snatch a pretty unlikely win from the jaws of defeat to claim their 10th consecutive ODI win in the island nation.

India looked down and out when Chahar and Bhuvi came together in the middle. They had just lost the wicket of Krunal Pandya and the target was still 83 runs away.

However, Chahar launched a calculative counterattack while Bhuvi accumulated the runs via singles to take India past the finishing line.

Shikhar Dhawan was particularly impressed with the manner in which Chahar and Bhuvneshwar planned the run-chase by choosing which specific bowlers to attack. He also lauded Krunal Pandya for his mature and valuable knock of 35.

”It was tremendous to see Chahar and Bhuvi. I’d like to mention Krunal as well. Everyone showed character. The odds were low but we knew that he’s batting well in the nets. His presence of mind, his calculation – in the last four overs they didn’t take on the legspinner because at the time he was lethal,” said Shikhar Dhawan in the post-match presentation.

Dhawan also lauded the Sri Lankans for their tactic to employ spin early and for putting in a brilliant fielding effort during a majority of the proceedings.

”I felt that the way Sri Lanka planned their innings, batting and bowling – they brought the spinner on early – and the way they fielded was good to watch and learn. They worked very hard but glad that we’re on the winning side. Every game whether we win or lose, it’s learning. We are also going to get better,” said Dhawan.

Indian batters came out to bat in the same attacking manner as they had done in the first ODI. But, this time the ploy backfired as Wanindu Hasaranga sent both their openers packing.

Dhawan said that the experience will be a good learning curve for the young batters and it will help them approach such games in a different manner in the future.

“I felt that today the wicket was much better than the last match and that we restricted them on a good score. It was really good the way bowlers adjusted their lines and lengths. We were confident of chasing it, but we didn’t start well. It was a good lesson for them. These sort of matches we’re gonna learn a lot as a team and they’ll learn how to handle games like these. Unfortunately Manish got out, that was hard luck,” he said.

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