Exposing India’s younger batsmen’s incapacity to deal with spin, Sri Lanka conjured up a seven-wicket victory within the deciding third Twenty20 handy the fancied Asian neighbours a 2-1 sequence defeat, right here on Thursday.
Leg-spinner Wanindu Hasaranga (4/9) made the Indians dance to his tunes on his twenty fourth birthday, enjoying a vital function in proscribing them to a paltry 81 for eight, which is their lowest towards the Lankans.
The match was lowered to a no-contest after India’s disappointing batting show as off-spinner Akila Danajaya too troubled the batsmen although he didn’t take any wicket.
The COVID-19 associated isolation of 9 gamers affected the workforce stability adversely with the rookie Indian batsmen appeared depressing with the ball not approaching to the bat.
The small goal gave the hosts the posh to undertake a cautious strategy. They too struggled towards the Indian spinners earlier than overhauling the goal with 5.3 overs to spare. It’s Sri Lanka’s first ever T20 sequence win over India.
India had received the previous ODI sequence 2-1.
Rahul Chahar dismissed each the openers — Avishka Fernando (12) and Minod Bhanuka (18) — and Sadeera Samarawickrama (6) however such a small whole didn’t give India any probability to script a comeback.
Sri Lanka’s prime batsman Dhananjaya de Silva (23 not out), although, nudged the ball round properly for singles and doubles to take the facet previous the end line.
De Silva confirmed when scoring boundaries just isn’t potential, working the ball round is one of the best ways, one thing the Indian batsmen did not do. After shining with ball in his hand, Hasaranga additionally scored 14 runs.
The footwork of the Indians towards the spinners didn’t encourage any confidence, wanting into future, as they remained uncertain whether or not to play on front-foot or the back-foot.
Maybe, they’re used to enjoying on placid IPL tracks the place the ball comes on to the bat properly.
Hasaranga returned distinctive figures as he took 4 wickets and conceded solely 9 runs in his 4 overs. Dananjaya gave away simply 11 runs in his 4 overs.
Solely three Indian batsmen might handle the double-digit rating with quantity seven Kuldeep Yadav being the very best along with his 23-run unbeaten knock.
Such was the dominance of the house bowlers that India hit solely 4 boundaries in whole 20-over innings.
The Sri Lankans threw themselves on the sphere, plucking some sensational catches and stopping runs as nicely with agile efforts.
The pitch was significantly better than the one used for the second match and it helped the bowlers in addition to in stroke-play, making it a good contest.
There was bounce accessible and pacer Dushmantha Chameera hit the deck onerous to get one to fly, which Shikhar Dhawan (0) couldn’t join correctly, simply managing an edge that was taken in slips.
Devdutt Padikkal, who appeared in elegant contact, and Ruturaj Gaikwad, performed some fluent pictures earlier than the hosts instantly turned the warmth on the Indians.
First Padikkal (9) was run out and after which wrist spinner Hasaranga brought about a flutter by dismissing Sanju Samson (0) and Gaikwad (14) in an area of three balls.
Samson went on again foot to overlook the road when he ought to have been defending on the entrance foot whereas Gaikwad supplied the entrance foot however was hoodwinked by a googly and was adjudged leg-before.
It left India reeling at 25 for 4 contained in the Energy-play.
If that was not sufficient, the house skipper piled on India’s miseries by pulling off a surprising return catch to spell the ouster of Nitish Rana (6). On the half-way stage, India had been reeling at 39 for 5.
From there on, not a lot was left within the match. PTI
