In the third and final One-Day International (ODI) in Colombo on Wednesday, Rohit Sharma‘s team lost embarrassingly by 110 runs as crafty Sri Lankan spinners, including five-wicket man Dunith Wellalage, strangled the shockingly clueless Indian batting lineup. Sri Lanka won the three-match series 2-0 after the first game ended in a tie.
Since 1997, this is the Islanders’ first win in a bilateral ODI series against India. A sharp turner at Premadasa saw India chase a tough 249 but were bowled out for a miserable 138 in 26.1 overs. 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 Sri 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 with the sequence of 6, 4, 4, 4.
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. After Rohit’s dismissal, the other Indian batters got caught up in a confusing frenzy. Virat Kohli (20) played for the turn on a delivery by Wellalage but eventually, that ball did not spin and he was declared leg before on the delivery of Wellalage.
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. Riyan Parag, who made his ODI debut in place of Arshdeep Singh, offered no shot on a straight one from leg-spinner Jeffrey Vandersay.
During this, Shreyas Iyer also fell a leg-before wicket to Wellalage, bringing the total number of clean bowled dismissals and leg-before wickets to seven in the Indian innings. No other statistic will paint a more accurate image of the confused minds of Indian batters than this one.
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Sri Lanka was able to get through the Indian bowling because of Avishka Fernando (96, 102 balls, 9×4, 2×6) and Kusal Mendis (59, 82b, 4×4) before their spinners put Indian batters in the test. 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.
Fernando’s effort carried the host side through the most secure batting period of the series before Parag produced a typical mid-inning collapse on a pitch with considerable turn from the middle of Sri Lanka’s innings.
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 Mendis.
Fernando and Kusal worked together to keep Lanka ahead of India, with the former acting as the enforcer. Fernando spoiled Mohammed Siraj’s stats (1/65 in 8 overs), who was exceptionally erratic in his line and length. The right-handed batsman benefited from Siraj’s additional speed, allowing him to unleash his signature pull shot twice in a row to squeeze the Indian for sixes.
However, Fernando mishandled a sloppy leg break from Parag and was caught in front of the wicket just as he was about to reach his fourth ODI century. With the score at 171 for two in the 36th over, Sri Lanka had a great starting point to work their way up to a total of at least 280.
But Parag dismissed both Wellalage (2) and skipper Charith Asalanka (10), who had been trapped leg before, preventing Sri Lanka from gaining momentum in the late order. However, Kusal and Kamindu Mendis put on 36 runs for the seventh wicket, which took the match beyond the reach of India.
