(Aug 08), After the first game ended in a tie, Sri Lanka won the three-match series 2-0. This is the Islanders’ first bilateral ODI series victory over India since 1997.
In the third and final One-Day International (ODI) here on Wednesday, Rohit Sharma’s team suffered an embarrassing 110-run loss as masterful Sri Lankan spinners, led by five-wicket man Dunith Wellalage, strangled the remarkably ignorant Indian batting unit.
After the first game ended in a tie, Sri Lanka won the three-match series 2-0. This is the Islanders’ first bilateral ODI series victory over India since 1997.
India was bowled out for a dismal 138 in 26.1 overs while chasing a competitive 249 on a sharp turner at Premadasa. As he takes up his new role as head coach, Gautam Gambhir will have some difficult questions to answer early on.
After opener Avishka Fernando made a well-paced 96 to lead Lanka to 248 for seven, left-arm spinner Wellalage, who has hurt India with the bat up to this point, decided to bruise the visitors by taking five wickets for 27 balls.
Even with Shubman Gill departing early, India had a decent start to their chase thanks to Rohit Sharma’s blistering 35 off 20 balls, which included an 18-run over off Maheesh Theekshana.
In the fourth over of the innings, a series of 6, 4, 4, 4 runs were scored.
However, Rohit’s preferred shot, the sweep, proved to be the undoing of the Indian captain. He tried to play it off Wellalage, but Kusal Mendis got him behind the stumps.
When Rohit turned to walk back, the other Indian batters got caught up in a confusion frenzy.
When there was no turn, Virat Kohli played for it and was declared leg before wicket by Wellalage.
Playing in his first ODI following his recovery from that horrific car crash, Rishabh Pant trotted down the track only to be hit in the air by Theekshana and eventually stumped by Kusal.
After replacing Arshdeep Singh in the ODI team, Riyan Parag was bowled after offering no shot in response to a straight leg-spinner Jeffrey Vandersay.
During this Indian innings, Shreyas Iyer also fell leg before wicket to Wellalage, bringing the total number of clean bowled dismissals and leg before wickets to seven. No other statistic will paint a more accurate picture of the confused minds of Indian cricket fans than that one. “We knew they were accustomed to favorable wickets and compact fields in India. Thus, they would battle on a large Premadasa field. We have good spinners, so we knew we could get an advantage with some turn on the wicket.” Theekshana’s post-match TV remarks, which alluded to songs played during the ODI World Cup, were like adding salt to the wound.
Using opener Avishka Fernando and bowler Kusal, Lanka worked through the Indian bowling before their spinners put Indian hitters in serious trouble.
India persevered through a superb off-spin spell from Parag, but aside from Kuldeep Yadav, he received no meaningful support.
On a pitch where the proportions of turn increased from mid-way through the Sri Lankan innings, Parag engineered a familiar mid-innings collapse after Fernando’s knock handed the home side the upper hand during the most assured batting phase of this series.
However, none of it could diminish the contribution of Fernando, who stitched together two outstanding partnerships, scoring 89 with Pathum Nissanka for the first wicket and 82 with Kusal for the second.
Nissanka was often as aggressive as his partner, as shown by the two slog swept sixes he scored off left-arm spinner Axar Patel.
However, Axar ended the blossoming stand when Nissanka slammed Pant’s hands with a wide delivery.
