Sri Lanka have not beaten India in an ODI bilateral series since 1997 but have a strong chance to break the hoodoo here. One win and that's it. Job done. However, if there's one thing that the world has gotten to know about this Indian team, it's that they come back stronger after a result doesn't go their way – fiercely determined and more ruthless. The tie from two nights ago would be like a bruise for the players, more so Gambhir, who along with Kohli, celebrated a bit prematurely once Shivam Dube hit a boundary to level the scores.
India would be aware that they cannot put up another shoddy batting display in the middle order. The gulf between captain Rohit Sharma and the rest of the batters is so wide that barring the India captain's 58 off 47, the next best score was 33 from Axar Patel. Rohit seems to have continued from where he left off on November 19, and going by the first ODI, the other batters have too. Thanks to India's batting depth, they can recover but the need to do it two matches in a row would be cutting it too thin.
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