On Wednesday’s third and final One-Day International (ODI) in Colombo, Rohit Sharma’s team lost embarrassingly by 110 runs as smart Sri Lanka spinners, including five-wicket man Dunith Wellalage, suffocated the remarkably ignorant Indian batting squad.
After the first game finished in a stalemate, 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 challenging 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 struck a well-paced 96 to lead Lanka to 248 for seven, left-arm spinner Wellalage, who has affected India with the bat up to this point, decided to bruise the visitors by claiming five wickets for 27 balls.
Even with Shubman Gill departing early, India’s chase got off to a decent start because of Rohit Sharma’s blistering 35 from 20 balls, which included an 18-run over against 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 wickets.
When Rohit turned to walk back, the other Indian batters got caught up in a confusing frenzy.
Virat Kohli (20) played when there was no turn, and he was declared leg before wicket.
Playing in his first ODI after recovering from that awful car tragedy, 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 amount of clean bowled dismissals and leg before wickets to seven. No other statistic will paint a more accurate image of the confused minds of Indian cricket fans than that one.
“We knew they were accustomed to favourable wickets and compact fields in India. Thus, they would battle on a large Premadasa field. We have good spinners, so we felt 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.
Lanka could get through the Indian bowling because of openers Avishka Fernando (96, 102 balls, 9×4, 2×6) and Kusal (59, 82b, 4×4) before their spinners put Indian hitters in danger.
While Parag (3/54) had a great spell of off-spin, India had little genuine support for him save from Kuldeep Yadav (1/36) in the fight.
The host team enjoyed their most confident batting phase of the series because of Fernando’s knock of 102 balls (9×4, 2×6), which came off before Parag (3/54 in 9 overs) orchestrated a well-known mid-inning collapse with his combination of off and leg-spin.
But the Lankans also benefited from a pitch that had comparatively less bite than the ones from the earlier games.
However, none of it could diminish the credit for Fernando’s effort, as he stitched together two excellent partnerships: an opening wicket partnership of 89 with Pathum Nissanka (45, 65b, 5×4, 2×6) and a second wicket partnership of 82 with Kusal Mendis (59, 82b, 4×4).
Fernando held varied degrees of dominance in the two partnerships.
Nissanka was often as aggressive as his partner, as shown by the two slog-swept sixes he scored off left-arm spinner Axar Patel.
But Axar’s wide delivery, which struck Rishabh Pant, who was playing his first ODI after his recovery from that awful car incident, in the hands, ended the blossoming stand.
The Fernando-Kusal alliance allowed Sri Lanka to remain ahead of India, but this time, the former acted as the enforcer.
Mohammed Siraj (1/78 in 9 overs), who was abnormally erratic in his length and line, had his figures ruined by Fernando.
The Sri Lanka right-hander relished Siraj’s extra pace, which allowed him to double-up on his bread-and-butter pull shot and force the Indian to miss sixes.
There were also some brilliant moves, such as Siraj’s smooth flick that quickly reached the square leg border.
However, Fernando mishandled a sloppy leg-break from Parag and was caught in front of the wicket just as he reached his fourth ODI century.
When Lanka was on 171 for two in the 36th over, they had a strong foundation to build at least 280.
However, Parag took out captain Charith Asalanka (10), who had been trapped earlier, and Dunith Wellalage (2), preventing Lanka from gaining momentum in the late order.
Wellalage has been a pain for India in this series, but the ball that removed him was a real gem. On the off-stump, Parag delivered an overspun delivery that turned slightly away to beat the left-hander’s descending bat and rattle the stumps.
Washington Sundar dismissed Janith Liyanage and Sadeera Samarawickrama shortly after, as Sri Lanka collapsed to 199 for six after losing five wickets for just 28 runs.
They got close to 250 when Kusal and Kamindu Mendis put up 36 runs for the seventh wicket. India will struggle to reach the target because of the pitch’s notable turn in the second half of Sri Lanka innings.
Also Read : India Experiences Disappointing Loss After Losing ODI Series Against SriLanka for the First Time in 27 Years