On Wednesday, the third and final One-Day International in Colombo ended with a disappointing 110-run loss for Rohit Sharma’s team. SriLanka won the three-match series 2-0.
On Wednesday’s third and final One-Day International (ODI) in Colombo, Rohit Sharma’s team lost embarrassingly by 110 runs as bright SriLanka spinners, including five-wicket man Dunith Wellalage, suffocated the remarkably ignorant Indian batting squad.
After the first game finished in a stalemate, SriLanka 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 SriLanka 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, 6, 4, 4, 4 runs were scored.
However, Rohit’s preferred shot, the sweep, proved to be the Indian captain’s undoing. 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.
Shreyas Iyer fell leg-before-wicket to Wellalage in between, making seven clean bowls and leg-before-wicket dismissals in this Indian innings. That number alone will paint a clearer picture of the Indians’ confused thoughts.
“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 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.
SriLanka 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 grave danger.
While Parag (3/54) had a great spell of off-spin, India had little genuine support for him in the fight, save from Kuldeep Yadav (1/36).
On a field where the proportions of turn rose from mid-way through the Sri Lankan innings, Parag contrived a typical mid-innings collapse after Fernando’s knock handed the host side an easy advantage during this series’s most confident batting period.
However, none of that detracts from Fernando’s effort, as he pieced 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.
Nissanka was often as aggressive as his partner, as shown by the two slog sweep sixes he scored off left-arm spinner Axar Patel.
However, Axar ended the blossoming stand when Nissanka smacked Pant’s hands with a wide delivery.
Fernando and Kusal worked together to keep SriLanka ahead of India, with the former acting as the enforcer.
Mohammed Siraj (1/65 in 8 overs), who was highly erratic in his line and length, had Fernando ruin his figures.
The SriLanka right-hander relished Siraj’s added pace, allowing him to double-up on his bread-and-butter pull shot and force the Indian to miss sixes.
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.
With a score of 171 for two in the 36th over, Lanka had a great starting point to work their way up to a total of at least 280.
However, Parag dismissed both Wellalage (2) and skipper Charith Asalanka (10), who had been trapped leg before, preventing SriLanka from gaining momentum in the late order.
However, Kusal and Kamindu Mendis put on 36 runs for the seventh wicket, which put India well out of the running.
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