SL vs IND: The reason why Rahul Dravid sent a 12th man on the park with a chit during second T20I

The second T20I between India and Sri Lanka, on Wednesday, July 28, turned out to be a low-scoring affair, but a closely fought affair. The match went right down to the wire and the Islanders won the game by four wickets with two balls left. In the meantime, Rahul Dravid, the head coach of the Indian team on the tour, was seen sending out the 12th man on the ground with a chit.

It happened at the end of the 18th over when rain interrupted play for a while with Lanka’s score at 113 for six. The heavens opened up and the umpires took the bails off with the groundsmen rushing in to cover the pitch. However, the rain stopped and play resumed with any reduction in overs.

During the short break, the 12th man, possibly Sandeep Warrier, was seen charging out. The data in the chit must have been related to the Duckworth-Lewis par-score in case the rain plays a spoilsport. After 18 overs, the Lankans were three runs short of the target.

The surface turned and was stopping a bit: Shikhar Dhawan

After Lanka’s win, their skipper Dasun Shanaka lauded Wanindu Hasaranga and Dhananjaya de Silva for not losing their cool in the middle overs. Indian captain Shikhar Dhawan, on the other hand, was a tad dejected after his side fell 10-15 runs short of where they wanted to reach.

“I thought if we can keep them under a low score, we can chase it. The strategy was to go hard in the first six overs. Then I went into the middle but couldn’t do much. But DDS and Hasaranga did well in the middle overs. When it comes to international cricket, different boys are performing. I should thank BCCI and SLC to allow us to showcase our talent during these tough times,” Shanaka said.

“The surface turned and was stopping a bit. We knew we were one batter short. We knew we had to construct our innings smartly. We were 10-15 runs short. That would have made the difference. I am proud of the boys. Never say die attitude is amazing. Hats off to the boys for taking it into the last over,” Dhawan said.