Nisshin: Ishan Kishan’s unbeaten 80 off 46 balls and Vaibhav Sooryavanshi’s 21-ball 38 on a turning pitch took India to 169 for seven against Sri Lanka in the second men’s cricket semifinal of the Asian Games here Thursday.
Considering the spin-friendly conditions and the stage, India decided to bring back Sooryavanshi into the playing eleven alongside Abhishek Sharma and Sanju Samson.
They left out left-arm pacer Arshdeep Singh, with Jasprit Bumrah being the only fast bowling resource available to them.
Similar tactic was employed by a second-string Sri Lanka, who tried to spin a web around the Indian batters after opting to bowl first and was largely successful.
If it weren’t for the ‘X’ factor of Sooryavanshi and Kishan, India would have ended up with a much lower total.
For a change, it was a sunny morning here as both teams took the field for the first time in the competition.
With the ball turning a fair bit in the powerplay, it was clear that the game would be dominated by the spinners. Only two overs of pace was used by the Sri Lankans.
Abhishek (7 off 3) perished after smashing a straight six off Sri Lanka captain Sahan Arachchige. The left-hander tried to make room but ended up offering a regulation catch at short third man.
Samson (7 off 9) was bamboozled after he exposed his stumps to a straighter one from ambidextrous spinner Tharindu Ratnayake, who was bowling left-arm spin to the right-hander and off-spin to the left-handers.
Despite the fall of wickets, Sooryavanshi kept the pressure on the opposition with his trademark breathtaking strokeplay.
After three overs of spin, left-arm pacer Binura Fernando was brought in the fourth over, and Sooryavanshi dented his confidence by picking his length ball over mid-off before punishing a low full toss in the cover region for back-to-back fours.
In Tharindu’s third over, Sooryavanshi reverse-swept him before picking him up for a six over long-on. Sooryavanshi’s standout shot of the innings was a pull off Fernando, taking India to 58 for two in the first six overs.
The 15-year-old sensation departed soon after in identical fashion to Abhishek, caught at short third man off Arachchige.
The fall of captain Shreyas Iyer and Axar Patel in the middle overs slowed down the run rate before Kishan unleashed himself on the spinners.
He resorted to hitting the spinners straight rather than going for horizontal shots with four of his sixes coming between long on and long off. He also hit four boundaries.
Orissa POST – Odisha’s No.1 English Daily
