India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni blamed a poor pitch as the reason for India's abysmal performance against Sri Lanka in the second one-day international in Hambantota.
India, who made over 300 runs in the first one-dayer, were bowled out for a paltry 138 in 33.3 overs, with pace bowlers Thisara Perera, Angelo Mathews and Lasith Malinga picking up eight wickets between them.
Lanka hardly broke a sweat, as they chased down the target in under 20 overs, with nine wickets to spare, following half-centuries from Upul Tharanga (59 n.o.) and Tillakaratne Dilshan (50).
Dhoni insisted the pitch played a big part in India's meek surrender. "The pitch was next to the wicket we played on last time but it behaved in a completely different way," Dhoni said.
"Initially the wicket was slightly on the slower side. Once Virat (Kohli) got out, we lost a couple of more wickets very quickly.
"Before the batsmen could assess the wicket, we lost two wickets played on. I thought after that it was too much for batsmen like Irfan (Pathan) and (Ravichandran) Ashwin to come in and take us out of trouble.
Dhoni defended his side's batting performance, saying lady luck had deserted them in the first innings. "I don't think they were shots that were really rash. People were looking for singles. If you see Rohit's ball, the shot was on. But he got an inside edge and it went onto the stumps.
"It could have been his lucky day if it hadn't hit the stumps and he was still there to carry on with his innings.
"It is part and parcel of the game and a big learning curve. Hope the batsmen learn and they assess the wicket very quickly (in the next game).
India now head to Colombo for the third ODI, and Dhoni hoped his young team would learn from the mistakes made in the last match. "The boys adjusted well to the conditions whether it was the bowling or the batting department," the wicketkeeper-batsman said.
"Today the performance wasn't so good but still the kind of wind we faced here was the kind that one usually gets to see in Wellington in New Zealand.
"I think given the amount of time we had, we adjusted pretty well. So I am quite happy. Slowly and gradually you will see all the youngsters learning, especially about the importance of the middle overs, because that is where most of the cricket is played -- right from the 15th-20th over onwards till the 40th over."
Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardene refuted the pitch problems, saying, instead, it was his side's competent bowling that did India in. "The wicket I don't think was that bad," the classy batsman said. "Probably a touch slower, there were quite a few good balls as well.
"We bowled in good areas, created pressure, maybe couple of bad shots as well, but I will take that any day. The important thing with the Indian batting line-up is picking up wickets and that's the only way we can control things and that is what we did today."
