Dhananjaya de Silva is Sri Lankaโs sheet anchor. In the absence of Angelo Mathews, the onus lies with him to bail the islanders out of choppy waters. However, his reckless shots in the ODI series against India have done little to justify that role of a rescuer.
The precociously talented right-hander squandered a promising start in the series opener as he danced down the track to Krunal Pandya only to miscue the inside-out loft to long-off. He could only contribute 14 to Sri Lankaโs paltry total of 262.
A similar script unfolded in the ongoing second ODI today. Having bided his time at the crease to rake up a breezy 32 off 45 balls, de Silva was flummoxed all ends up by Deepak Chaharโs knuckleball and ended up skewing an ugly connection to mid-off.
Every change is working ๐
Deepak Chahar gets in on the act now ๐ช
Tune into #SonyLIV now ๐ https://t.co/1qIy7cs7B6 ๐บ๐ฒ#SLvsINDonSonyLIV #SLvIND #DhananjayadeSilva #Wicket pic.twitter.com/W2YgUilA6z
โ SonyLIV (@SonyLIV) July 20, 2021
Deepak Chahar gets in on the action.
Gets the set Dhananjaya for 3๏ธโฃ2๏ธโฃ. ๐๐ป๐ฑ๐ฐ โ 1๏ธโฃ3๏ธโฃ4๏ธโฃ/4๏ธโฃ (27.2)#SLvIND pic.twitter.com/P0fvWkaECT
โ ๐ฌ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ต๐๐๐๐ฎ๐ณ๐ฏ๐ฑ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ (@AvijitJ90) July 20, 2021
de Silva is not a youngster wet behind the ears but a middle-order rock with a wealth of experience. Sri Lanka would expect their seasoned players to rise to the occasion and engineer noteworthy knocks if they harbour dreams as ambitious as a victory against a clearly superior Indian outfit.
