India was touring Sri Lanka without their A team for a white ball series. The team consists of a lot of youngsters who would otherwise not have had a chance to play. Therefore, this tour has been a fantastic platform for the youngsters to display their skills and talent. The side boasts of names like Samson, Kishan, Deepak, and Rahul Chahar, and Devdutt Padikkal.
They comfortably won the first ODI with clinical performances from Dhawan, Shaw, and Kishan. Sri Lanka was restricted for an average score and it was comfortably chased down. However, the second ODI was starkly different. India was on a sticky wicket while batting in the second innings. Sri Lanka put up 275 while batting first. In response, India got off to a terrible start. They lost Shaw, Dhawan, and Kishan early. They were 116-5. With the majority total still daunting, Bhuvaneshwar and Chahar came to India’s rescue.
Chahar and Bhuvneshwar put on an 84 runs stand for the eighth wicket to sail India to an improbable and historic win. With their calm batting, they ensured that India’s run of ten unbeaten ODIs in Sri Lanka against Sri Lanka stays alive. Chahar scored a fantastic 69 not out with steady support from Bhuvi who was not out on 19. Besides a memorable win, Chahar is now at no.1 position for the highest number of runs scored by an Indian batsman in a successful run chase at the position of no. 8 or below.
We look at the other four in the top 5 to achieve this distinguished feat.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar
The second ODI of the 2021 series seems like an encore of the 2nd ODI of the 2017 series when India was tottering at 131 for 7 and had to chase down 236. With nearly 100 runs to get, walked in Bhuvi. He played the primary role in the 2017 game scoring 53 not out and bringing India home.
Harbhajan Singh
In the third ODI of the 2011 series, West Indies had scored a modest total of 225. However, India lost a lot of wickets upfront and Rohit Sharma steadied the ship. He needed an anchor at the other end and found the perfect partner in the form of Singh who walked in at 8 and scored 41.
Suresh Raina
India was playing a 7 match ODI series against Sri Lanka and had won the first three. In the fourth match, Sri Lanka had set a target of 261 and India got off to a great start, thanks to Sehwag’s quick acceleration. However, they kept losing regular wickets until Raina walked in at no. 8 and scored a 39 not out and successfully closing the game.
Zaheer Khan
In the 5th ODI of the 2003 India tour of New Zealand, Zaheer Khan scored a match-winning 34 at no. 8. New Zealand batted first and put up a paltry 168. In response, India got off to a horrendous start and lost the top and middle order cheaply. Yuvi and Zaheer came together to close the game with valiant innings.
