IND VS SL - 2nd ODI, Sri Lanka tour of India, 2017

A day of absolute contrasts - an innings coming to life in the final ten overs and another dying, slowly. Never mind, Vizag brings up the perfect decider - a decider to a long, overdrawn Indian winter. You've got your Sunday plans lined up. Something meaningful that is. It's all we have for today. This is Vineet Anantharaman bidding goodbye on behalf of Raju Peethala, Akshay Maanay, Abhishek Chaudhary, Hariprasad Sadanandan and our scorer, Naga. A big shout out to all your comments that kept us going as well. Ta ta!!

In case you haven't figured out as yet from the length of the interview, Rohit Sharma is also the Man of the Match. What were you thinking?

(2/2) (On his wife) I am sure she would have liked this gift from me. I dedicate this knock to her as she is my strength and keeps supporting me; it was the perfect day. This is one good part about having your family around, we already go through a lot of stress in this sport and it makes our lives easier. She has been doing it for the last two years. The more important thing is that we won the game and right from the start we were right on top and gave nothing easy. We know what to do now in Vizag, the conditions will be different but we need to adapt and attack. As a batting unit we were challenged in the first ODI but we came back hard today. (Washington's debut) Not the ideal conditions for him to debut but this is how he will learn. He has the talent and he has shown it in the IPL. As a team management we want to back players like him and do not want to put any undue pressure on him. I am sure he must have learnt a lot playing with the wet ball and I wish him all the luck.

Rohit Sharma: (1/2) It was a great day. Winning the game was important for me and for the team. After the loss at Dharamsala it was necessary to come back, and what a comeback it was. Shikhar gave us a perfect start and Shreyas Iyer, playing his second match, just didn't look like he was playing only his second match. It was great to get the total we got because there was a bit of dew in the end. If I am not wrong, in the first two 200s as well I got the century in the 38-39th over and I kept telling myself to hold my shape and hit through the line while I batted through to the 50th over. I knew that unless I made a mistake I wouldn't get out. I did pretty similar things in the earlier ones too - getting 50 off 70 balls - and here too I was slow to start. This wicket was superb to start off, the longer I stayed the easier it became to bat on. In the end, getting to 390+ was amazing. (Choosing among his double-centuries) I think that 264 is very close to me. People keep asking me to pick one but I really cannot pick one. That one against Australia was the series decider, the one against Sri Lanka earlier was one where I was coming back from a three-month long injury and this one was necessary to keep the series alive after a humiliating loss.

Thisera Perara: Unfortunately our bowling did not click, which was the main reason for our defeat. Rohit specially batted really well and such is the game of cricket which we have to take in our stride. We'll take the positives out of it for the next game. We had a plan A, B and C but none of that clicked for us which was the most important thing. If you want to chase a score as big as this, you need starts and scores in the middle order as well. But none of it clicked. Angelo did really well, but it wasn't enough. We'll come back hard in the decider.

Stay on, the presentations coming your way.

Quite a snoozefest. Makes Rohit's century now seem ages ago. To be fair, even the best of mathematical and historical chances this contest had ended a couple of hours ago. But Sri Lanka's recent avatar of shutting shop and batting through the overs to gain that bit of moral ground took over. Mathews to lead it this time. Has a century to show, and a dogged leg which has sent Russell Arnold into a panic tizzy. But let this not hijack what has been one heck of an exhibition of the cleanest striking you'd ever see. Doesn't turn the clock back, he invents new numbers beyond 12 - in his favourite hobby of eating up 200s for fun.

Shreyas Iyer to Lakmal, no run, gets behind the line. Low again, and proudly showcases another block. He'll keep up with his average. And handshakes. A 141-run win. Only

Shreyas Iyer to Lakmal, no run, on middle. Lakmal gets low, crouching, bat-pad stuck. Ahh, the defence

Shreyas Iyer to Mathews, 1 run, slightly wider, teasing and inviting the drive. Gets it to long-off

Shreyas Iyer to Mathews, no run, a defence that would've made his Test standings proud. And he does it with all the aplomb

Shreyas Iyer to Lakmal, 1 run, walks down in an eased drive. Long-on it is

Shreyas Iyer to Lakmal, no run, almost an appeal off the first ball. The slider this, and Lakmal's attempted cut almost grabs the front pad. Bat first in steering it away

Shreyas Iyer, right-arm leg break, comes into the attack

Okay so after all the confusions with the bowling combinations, it is Iyer who has to bowl the final over.

Bhuvneshwar to Mathews, no run, shapes up to pull. And the lack of bounce, or the lack of pace for the matter means the ball bouncing just over the off-pole

Bhuvneshwar to Mathews, no run, oh dear. A hint of shape coming back in..Mathews comes in behind. And continues India's frustration

Bhuvneshwar to Lakmal, 1 run, tries wielding the long handle. The cross-seamer finds the toe-end of Lakmal's pull. Running right down the pitch

Bhuvneshwar to Lakmal, no run, goes for the yorker. Jammed out

Bhuvneshwar to Mathews, 1 run, 128kph, turned away to mid-wicket