India beat Sri Lanka to clinch a four-wicket victory in the second ODI at the Eden Gardens to seal the 50-over series on Thursday. India demolished Sri Lanka for 215 inside 40 overs after they opted to bat. The paltry chase on the quick Eden outfield however was not a cakewalk for Indian team, which lost its top-four batters for 86 runs in 14.2 overs. Needing 130 from 214 balls, Rahul was the only designated batter left as he once again proved his utility in the middle overs with an unbeaten 64 off 103 balls that took India home with 40 balls to spare.
Though Rohit hardly but a foot wrong as the captain guiding India to a easy win, there were moments when the skipper lost his cool. One of the incident happened during the Sri Lanka innings. In the 12th over Nuwanidu Fernando played a shot in the off side of the bowling of pacer Umran Malik, as the bowl raced to the cover boundary, Mohammed Shami ran down the boundary line however, the ball crossed the boundary line. And the half-hearted effort by the veteran pacer left the captain unimpressed.
Meanwhile, the win also gave India an unassailable 2-0 series lead going into the Trivandraum ODI on Sunday. "I won't say it was a flat wicket, or it was doing a lot that it was impossible to bat. When Sri Lanka started, I thought it was a 280-300 wicket," KL Rahul said after the match. Having started off with a boundary, Rahul was quick to slow down as he ran hard for his singles en route to a 93-ball fifty. The need of the hour was to play sensibly as Rahul and Hardik Pandya curbed their natural strokeplay in a decisive 75-run partnership that came off 119 balls.
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