It took MS Dhoni a while to join India in the celebrations of the first wicket BCCI
1000s of 'Virats' descend
He is not playing this series. He is probably on his honeymoon somewhere, taking some time off from cricket ahead of a testing South African tour. But Virat Kohli's absence didn't make a difference to the Vizag faithful. Thousands of fans were seen wearing replicas of India's jersey with 'Virat 18' printed on the back of it. There were a few takers for Rohit Sharma and MS Dhoni as well but Kohli's popularity remained unmatched, as it has been in recent times.
Gunathilaka c Rohit b Bumrah c Dhoni
The first wicket of the Sri Lankan innings came in the fourth over of the game when Gunathilaka mistimed one to Rohit at mid-on, who probably got a touch too excited. After completing a comfortable catch, the skipper threw the ball quite high and quite far in the air in celebration as the ball travelled from mid-on to the area where the wicketkeeper is usually stationed. Dhoni waited for an eternity to grab the ball before joining his teammates. A bizarre sight indeed!
4,4,4,4,4 and a sigh of relief
Upul Tharanga was on fire to begin with. He took a liking to Hardik Pandya's medium pace and and threatened to achieve something unique in the process. In the ninth over of the innings, Tharanga edged one to the boundary and then followed it with a couple of delightful strokes. Three balls, three fours. The fourth one was streaky as it again got a thick outside edge and the ball bounced in front of the keeper to sneak past him for a boundary. The crowd quite excited at this point in time to see if Tharanga was indeed going for it. The left-hander middled another one to make it five in five but in an anti-climax, he opted to defend the final ball of the over. Pandya was extremely relieved to have not been at the receiving end of something unique as he had his hands on the knee looking downwards. He made a good comeback though to finish with an economy of just under five after bowling his quota of ten overs.
No damage done
An incident of players colliding right in the middle of the pitch usually doesn't end well at least for one player, if not for both. Thankfully for Sri Lanka, Asela Gunaratne and Angelo Mathews came out unscathed after bumping into each other. When Mathews took a tumble after the clash, there must have been a few concerns as the last thing the management needs is another injury to their numero uno player. Gunaratne immediately hugged the former skipper as the two had a laugh about it.
The loudest roar followed by a deadly silence
India had made a watchful start to the chase as Suranga Lakmal and Akila Dananjaya found swing and turn respectively with the new ball. Rohit Sharma, who was getting egged on by the crowd with chants of 'Rohit..Rohit' finally decided to break the shackles with a mighty six off Dananjaya. With the ball being sent into the stands after a sedate start, the crowd let out a huge roar. Afterall, Rohit was supposed to be their hero tonight after his heroics in the previous game. Unfortunately, Vizag's speakers were turned off completely just two balls later as Dananjaya sneaked through Rohit's defence.
