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On Thursday (January 12), India faced Sri Lanka in the second encounter of the three-match ODI series and defeated the Islanders by four wickets. Kuldeep Yadav shined for the Men in Blues in their series-clinching victory as he picked three crucial wickets in his quota of 10 overs.
Batting first, Sri Lanka struggled against Indian bowlers and were bowled out for 215 in 39.4 overs. The only batsman to have scored a fifty for the visitors was opener Nuwanidu Fernando.
Kuldeep played a defining role for the Indian side in restricting Sri Lanka to a below-par total. The 28-year-old dismissed the inform skipper Dasun Shanaka for mere 2 runs with an absolute ripper of a delivery.
In the 23rd over, Kuldeep bowled a straighter delivery towards Shanaka, which he attempted to sweep. The Sri Lankan skipper missed the line of the ball and it went on to hit the leg stump.
Here’s the video:
https://twitter.com/AnilRjd/status/1613581445754408962
Following his exceptional bowling performance, Kuldeep was adjudged ‘Man of the Match’.
Man of the Match: Kuldeep Yadav #INDvSL #2ndODI #CricketTwitter pic.twitter.com/gCb0Q7reRP
— CricketTimes.com (@CricketTimesHQ) January 12, 2023
Notably, Shanaka had scored a century in the first ODI in Guwahati and was also the second-highest run-scorer in the T20I series.
Apart from Kuldeep, pacer Mohammed Siraj also took three wickets, while Umran Malik scalped 2 wickets.
Talking about India’s batting performance, the hosts failed to start the chase well and lost their top 4 batters with just 86 runs on the scoreboard. However, KL Rahul’s 64* (103) and Hardik Pandya’s 36 (53) helped India win the game by four wickets in 43.2 overs.
The third and last ODI in Thiruvananthapuram will be a dead rubber as India have already sealed the series with emphatic wins in the first two games.
