'Kl Rahul the saviour'- Fans ecstatic as India seal ODI series 2-0 after winning Kolkata ODI against SL

India and Sri Lanka crossed swords in the second of the three-match ODI series at the Eden Gardens Stadium in Kolkata on Thursday, the 12^th of January. The visitors’ skipper won the flip of the coin and decided to bat first. Batting first, the Islanders could manage to post a total of 215 runs in 39.4 overs.

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While chasing the target, the men in blue chased down the target in 43.2 overs by scoring 219 runs for the loss of six wickets to win the match by four wickets. With this win, Rohit Sharma’s men have taken an unassailable lead of 2-0 in the three-match series.

The fans appreciated the performance of the Indian team in the penultimate fixture of the three-match ODI series. They took to Twitter to lavish the praises on the men in blue and hailed the performance of the entire team to win the bilateral series against Sri Lanka.

Here’s how fans reacted:

Jeet gye hm ... Kahte hain hamko pyar se India Wale😌💙🙏 #INDvsSL

— 🧢ʀᴀᴊɴᴀɴᴅᴀɴɪ ꜱɪɴɢʜ⁴⁵🇮🇳 ( Rohika) (@Singh_Ro45) January 12, 2023

Well done team india @BCCI @imkuldeep18 @klrahul #INDvsSL #KuldeepYadav

— taha abbas 🦁 (@tahaabb62883980) January 12, 2023

Congratulations #TeamIndia For Great Win👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 Outstanding Innings Played By @klrahul This is the most ideal position for #KLRahul ! Today his strike rate was exactly what it needed to Team.#INDvsSL #SLvIND

— Nikita Dubey 🇮🇳 (@NikitaMalviya04) January 12, 2023

Credit should be given where it is needed. Well played Kl 👏👏👏👏#KLRahul #INDvsSL

— Ruplekha (@surbhihrithikfa) January 12, 2023

IND win. Good contributions by Axar in all 3 aspects of the game with Rahul and Pandya doing much of the batting work the Jammu Express also managed to bag couple of wickets. Onto the next in Thiruvananthapuram 🇮🇳 #INDvsSL

— The 12th Man (@Sham_tk_khlege) January 12, 2023

Ek or bilateral series jeet gye!#INDvsSL

— Cricketbugs (@Cricketbugs0) January 12, 2023

Domination of Team India at home.🇮🇳 @BCCI #INDvsSL #INDvSL #IndianCricketTeam pic.twitter.com/xX8RDB6KL1

— Kakabhukal (@kakabhukal) January 12, 2023

Kl Rahul the saviour❤️❤️‍🔥

— cricket is love 🤩 (@Sarandeep__) January 12, 2023

A wicketkeeper coming at no. 5 at playing a crucial knock 🔥❤

We have seen this before 7⃣#INDvsSL #INDvSL #KLRahul𓃵 pic.twitter.com/gJOUVhz6pX

— Sachin Viratian🇮🇳 (@asmylemalhotra1) January 12, 2023

There are a lot of Blind Slogger but if want stability and Players who can play according to the situations... Then it is rare.



KL is one of those rare talent. India is blessed to have him. #INDvsSL #KLRahul𓃵 pic.twitter.com/I8HeOdWXTV

— Vishwajeet Jaykar (@Vishwajaykar) January 12, 2023

honestly man if any other player had played such a knock they'd be termed 🐐 but since its Rahul, this match will become a dead rubber. #KLRahul𓃵 #INDvsSL pic.twitter.com/gYjuaKRDaK

— z i a a.♡🇵🇰 (@ziiaasays) January 12, 2023

KL rahul better than babar azam... Slow khela par jita ke aya...personal record ke liye nhi khela...#INDvsSL

— SuryaVirat (@Sudhir44612324) January 12, 2023

#INDvsSL



Congratulations TEAM BLUE🙌👏💫

— Deeksha🌍👀 (@Sanguine_she_is) January 12, 2023

Talking about the entire action of the match, the star wrist spinner Kuldeep Yadav managed to scalp three big wickets and broke the middle order of the visitors. The 28-year-old trapped opponent skipper Dasun Shanaka alongside Charith Asalanka, and wicketkeeper-batter Kusal Mendis. Other than Kuldeep, Mohammed Siraj also picked three wickets after conceding 43 runs in 5.4 overs.

Meanwhile, Axar Patel and Umran Malik also claimed 1 and 2 wickets respectively to help the Indian team bundle Dasun Shanaka’s men on an average total of 215 runs in 39.4 overs.

While chasing the target, the Indian team looked in trouble at an instance when they lost their top three early on the score of 62 runs. Last ODI’s centurion Virat Kohli couldn’t live up to the expectations and fell prey to Lahiru Kumara only on the individual score of only 4 runs. Whereas skipper Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill went back to the pavilion only on the individual scores of 17 and 21 runs respectively.

Later on, the pair of Hardik Pandya and KL Rahul stitched a vital partnership of 75 runs for the fifth wickets before the former ended up being caught by Kusal Mendis off Chamika Karunaratne. Although Pandya contributed with a crucial knock of 36 runs including four boundaries. Prior to Hardik, Shreyas Iyer also scored 28 runs with five boundaries.

However, senior batter KL Rahul showed some experience and scored a vital half-century that played a defining role in India’s victory.