India v Sri Lanka 5th ODI – Match Abandoned because of Dangerous Pitch

What a shame on Indian cricket Board and DDCA, the final ODI between India and Sri Lanka is called off after 23.3 overs of play. The pitch behaved very differently right from the start. There are only two occasions where Sri Lankan batsmen were hit on their body parts. On a Kotla pitch where the bounce varied from shin to shoulder in as short a spell as three deliveries.

In the 24^th over, suddenly one ball of debutant Sudeep Tyagi took off and almost got passed over M.S.Dhoni head. And at that stage Sri Lankan players decided that enough is enough and they don’t want to take any risk with some important series coming up.

The pitch at Kotla was also criticized in Champions League 2020 where even scoring 120 runs in 20 overs looks impossible on this wicket, however curator has prepared a fresh pitch for the ODI but it behaved more differently than early stripes.

Full of action, the 23.3 overs featured a wicket first ball; a dropped catch first ball of the second over; blows on the elbow, shoulder, fingers; frenzied running; thick edges flying past third man; and wickets for Zaheer Khan, Tyagi and Harbhajan Singh. Dhoni, coming back from a two-match ban, was stupendous behind the stumps, getting his legs together for the shooters and reacting well to the lifters. Not one bye was conceded.

After winning the toss M.S.Dhoni put Sri Lanka into bat, Zaheer Khan give India a perfect start removing last match centurion Upal Tharanga for first ball duck. Then after few overs he removed dangerous Dilshan.

Match was looking well in the bag for the Indians with visitors on 83/5 in the 24^th over but with so much uneven bounce on the wickets, both team captains decided it is dangerous to take any chance on playing the game on such unfit pitch. But despite of such dangerous pitch all the wickets fell during Sri Lankan innings was of a very good ball or with the help of some superb fielding from Suresh Raina.

All the players went off the field around 11:40 AM, but it took 1 hour 10 of debate before they officially abandoned the game.

So a very sad end to such wonderful ODI series between India and Sri Lanka. Let’s hope that BCCI and DDCA will learn from this and will take some hard decision in improving the pitch as well as cricket facility around the India.

Match Summary (Match Abandoned)

Sri Lanka– 83/5 in 23.3 Overs

S.Jayasurya- 31 T.Dilshan– 20

Z.Khan – 8-1-31-2 S.Tyagi- 6.3-1-15-1

India wins the series by 3-1 and now they will travel to Bangladesh for a triangular series between Sri Lanka & Bangladesh. Also they will play two test matches against Bangladesh.