India registered their second win in two games against touring Sri Lanka at the Eden Gardens as the hosts established an unassailable lead in the 3-match ODI series.
Sri Lanka won the toss and opted to bat first as Avishka Fernando and Nuwanidu Fernando walked out to open the first innings.
India had an early breakthrough as Mohammed Siraj scalped Avishka in the sixth over as the batsman departed for 20 off 17 deliveries. However, Nuwanidu and Kushal Mendis put up a 73-run stand for the second wicket before the latter was dismissed for 34 off as many balls.
Axar Patel dismissed Dhananjaya de Silva on the very first delivery he faced and Sri Lanka started to collapse in the middle order. The visitors lost out wickets in quick succession as Indian spinner Kuldeep Yadav came up big with three scalps. The wrist-spinner sent Charith Asalanka and skipper Dasun Shanaka back to the pavilion in addition to foxing Mendis, catching in front of the wickets.
Umran Malik, the pacer from Jammu and Kashmir, picked up a couple of wickets in his spell as he got rid of Wanindu Hasaranga and Chamika Karunaratne for 21 and 17 runs respectively.
Siraj struck again towards the end of the Sri Lankan innings, picking up two more wickets to take his count on the day to three scalps as he sent Dunith Wallalage and Lahiru Kumara to bowl the visitors out for 215 before the end of the 40th over.
Rohit Sharma opened the chase for India alongside Shubman Gill but, the skipper was dismissed for 17 off 21 deliveries by Karunaratne. Gill followed his captain to the dugout shortly after as he was scalped for 21 off 12 balls by Lahiru Kumara.
Sri Lankan pacer Kumara produced an excellent delivery to get rid of the dangerous Virat Kohli who came in to bat with India at 41 for 2 in the sixth over. The 25-year-old’s delivery exploited Kohli’s bat-pad gap and slid onto the stumps sparking Lankan celebrations at the cost of Kohli, who steered India to a domineering win in the previous game with a brilliant ton.
Shreyas Iyer put up 28 runs on the board before falling prey to Kasun Ranjitha but KL Rahul and Hardik Pandya steadied the Indian run chase as they took their time to settle in and stabilised the innings.
Pandya made 36 off 53 deliveries before Karunaratne scalped the all-rounder, but by this point, Pandya had done his task of getting India back on track. Axar Patel scored 21 off as many balls before Kuldeep Yadav and Rahul, unbeaten at 64 off 103 deliveries, finished off the game as they took India past the target to seal the series.
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