Sri Lanka lost to India today in the first ODI of the series between the two teams. India batting first scored a mammoth 373 runs in their 50 overs, thanks to some significant batting contributions from Virat Kohli (113), Rohit Sharma (83), Shubhman Gill (70), and K L Rahul (39). In response, SL scored 306 runs in their 50 overs with the help of Pathum Nissanka (72) and their captain Dasun Shanaka (108*). SL lost to India by 67 runs and now trail the series 1-0.
We tried to analyze the reasons for their failure in today’s match and we came across quite a few. One was poor bowling by the bowlers with zero control and accuracy, the other was poor shot selection by the batters and not having a positive approach while chasing but the most prominent of all the reasons was poor fielding today by the Sri Lankan players.
Sri Lanka gave away too many extra runs in the field today and also dropped a lot of catches. Virat Kohli who scored a century and was the Man of the Match was dropped two times one on 52 by the keeper Kusal Mendis which was a very simple catch and the other time at 81 by the Lankan captain Dasun Shanaka.
There were many instances of poor fielding misses also by the Lankan fielders. Kohli used this to his advantage and converted ones into twos beautifully. Today’s match is a perfect example of how good fielding can help you win the match and catches truly win you matches because if that Kohli catch had been taken, who knows what could have happened.