The third and final One-Day International in Colombo ended with a disappointing 110-run loss for Rohit Sharma’s team on Wednesday. The three-match series was won 2-0 by Sri Lanka.
In the third and final One-Day International (ODI) in Colombo on Wednesday, Rohit Sharma’s team lost embarrassingly by 110 runs as smart Sri Lankan 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 tough 249 on a sharp turner at Premadasa. Gautam Gambhir, the new head coach, will have a early in his tenure, a few difficult things to consider.
Following opener Avishka Fernando’s blistering 96 to lead Lanka to 248 for seven, left-arm spinner Wellalage, who had so far harmed India with the bat, decided to punish the visitors by claiming five wickets for just 27 balls.
Nevertheless, Rohit Sharma’s blistering 35 from 20 balls, which included an 18-run over off Maheesh Theekshana, gave India a pretty strong start to their chase, even though Shubman Gill left early.
In the fourth over of the innings, the runs tumbled through a sequence of 6, 4, 4, 4.
However, the Indian captain’s demise was brought about by one of Rohit’s preferred strokes, the sweep. Kusal Mendis caught him behind the stumps in his attempt to play it off Wellalage.
When Rohit turned to walk back, the other Indian batters got caught up in a confusing frenzy.
When there was no turn, Virat Kohli (20) played, and he was declared leg before wicket.
Playing in his first ODI following his recovery 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 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.
Lanka was able to get through the Indian bowling because to openers Avishka Fernando (96, 102 balls, 9×4, 2×6) and Kusal (59, 82b, 4×4), before their spinners put Indian hitters in serious 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.
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 the most confident batting period of this series.
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 swept 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.
Lanka maintained its lead over India thanks to the Fernando-Kusal alliance.