{"id":53527,"date":"2017-06-09T17:15:31","date_gmt":"2017-06-09T21:15:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=53527"},"modified":"2017-06-09T23:17:33","modified_gmt":"2017-06-10T03:17:33","slug":"sri-lanka-stages-superb-run-race-to-beat-champions-trophy-holders-india-by-seven-wickets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=53527","title":{"rendered":"Sri Lanka Stages Superb Run Chase To Beat Champions Trophy Holders  India by Seven Wickets"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Sri Lanka staged a superb run chase to stun India and keep alive their Champions Trophy challenge as Kusal Mendis inspired a famous seven-wicket victory over the holders on Thursday.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Needing 322 to avoid a second successive Group B defeat, Sri Lanka powered to a memorable triumph at The Oval thanks to key contributions from Mendis (89), Danushka Gunathilaka (76) and captain Angelo Mathews (52).<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_53572\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-53572\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/SLC1-600x450.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"450\" class=\"size-large wp-image-53572\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-53572\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">@OfficialSLC<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Mathews admitted earlier this week that many experts expected his underdogs to be thrashed by in-form India.<\/p>\n<p>But Sri Lanka defied the odds to win with eight balls to spare and they can qualify for the semi-finals if they beat Pakistan in their final group match in Cardiff on June 12.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>After losing by 99 runs against South Africa in their opener, that would be a remarkable turnaround for a young Sri Lanka team in the midst of a major rebuilding project.<\/p>\n<p>India&#8217;s failure to secure a second consecutive win after thumping arch rivals Pakistan was a major surprise and they must beat South Africa at The Oval on Sunday to avoid a humiliating exit.<\/p>\n<p>Shikhar Dhawan&#8217;s 125 had put India in a strong position as the holders piled up 321 for six. The 31-year-old hit 15 fours and one six in his 128-ball innings, receiving strong support from Rohit Sharma (78) and MS Dhoni (63), but it wasn&#8217;t enough.<\/p>\n<p>India had only themselves to blame after squandering the momentum given to them by Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who dismissed Niroshan Dickwella for seven when the opener&#8217;s edge was caught by Ravindra Jadeja.<\/p>\n<p>Needing what would be a record run chase in ODIs staged at The Oval, Gunathilaka set about giving Sri Lanka hope.<\/p>\n<p>He hit Umesh Yadav for a sky-scraping six and, together with the aggressive Mendis, imposed himself well enough to build a quick-fire 50 partnership.<\/p>\n<p>Hardik Pandya had a chance to remove Mendis with the score on 70-1, but the young all-rounder dropped a chance off his own bowling. <\/p>\n<p><em>Courtesy:Times of India<\/em><\/p>\n<div id=\"tweetbutton53527\" class=\"tw_button\" style=\"float:right;margin-left:10px;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/share?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdbsjeyaraj.com%2Fdbsj%2F%3Fp%3D53527&amp;text=Sri%20Lanka%20Stages%20Superb%20Run%20Chase%20To%20Beat%20Champions%20Trophy%20Holders%20%20India%20by%20Seven%20Wickets&amp;related=&amp;lang=en&amp;count=horizontal\" class=\"twitter-share-button\"  style=\"width:55px;height:22px;background:transparent url('https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/wp-content\/plugins\/wp-tweet-button\/tweetn.png') no-repeat  0 0;text-align:left;text-indent:-9999px;display:block;\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sri Lanka staged a superb run chase to stun India and keep alive their Champions Trophy challenge as Kusal Mendis inspired a famous seven-wicket victory over the holders on Thursday. Needing 322 to avoid a second successive Group B defeat, Sri Lanka powered to a memorable triumph at The Oval thanks to key contributions from &#8230;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=53527\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading &lsquo;Sri Lanka Stages Superb Run Chase To Beat Champions Trophy Holders  India by Seven Wickets&rsquo; &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53527"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=53527"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53527\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53573,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53527\/revisions\/53573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=53527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=53527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=53527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}