These spinners absolutely dominated against the Men in Blue on particular occasions in the ODI format and most of them single-handedly led their respective teams to victory
1. Muttiah Muralitharan (Sri Lanka) – 7/30
After the Sri Lankan team batted really well and set up a massive target of 295 for India, Muralitharan’s career-best ODI figures carried Sri Lanka to a comfortable 68-run victory in Sharjah. He took the important wickets of Sachin Tendulkar, Robin Singh, Yuvraj Singh and Vinod Kambli to break India’s backbone and help the Lankan Lions in bowling them out for 226 runs.
2. Ajantha Mendis (Sri Lanka) – 6/13
Sanath Jayasuriya’s first inning ton helped Sri Lanka post a great score of 273 runs in the 2008 Asia Cup final. In reply, India’s batting order got dismantled by Mendis as he picked up the big wickets of Virender Sehwag, Suresh Raina, Yuvraj Singh and Rohit Sharma. This amazing spell massively helped Sri Lanka in bowling out India for only 173 runs and win the final by 100 runs.
3. Jeffrey Vandersay (Sri Lanka) – 6/33
The Sri Lankan who was only playing his 16th match after the ODI World Cup 2019, bowled an excellent spell against India where he took all the opening 6 wickets of the Indian innings. Though the Men in Blue only had to chase a 241-run target, they fell 32 runs short of it mainly due to Vandersay’s 6-wicket haul.
4. Akila Dananjaya (Sri Lanka) – 6/54
After Sri Lanka set up an easy target of 237 for India to achieve, Dananjaya came in to tear apart the Indian batting order with his amazng spin bowling. He took the crucial wickets of Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul and Hardik Pandya. It was only thanks to resilient knocks from MS Dhoni and Bhuvneshwar Kumar that India was able to achieve the target.
5. Saeed Ajamal (Pakistan) – 5/24
Ajmal’s incredible 5-wicket haul helped Pakistan in bowling out India for only 167 runs at the Feroz Shah Kotla in Delhi. It looked as if achieving the small target of 168 would be a cakewalk for Pakistan, however brilliant spells from Indian pacers Ishant Sharma and Bhuvneshwar Kumar, the Men in Blue bowled out Pakistan for a total of 157 to win the match by 10 runs.
