India has been a dominant team in bilateral series against Sri Lanka. For 27 years, Indian team did not lose a bilateral series against Sri Lanka and for the first time they lost ODI series 2-0. Sri Lanka prepared spin friendly pitches and Indian batters failed to score freely against them in two back to back matches.
Earlier, Riyan Parag’s off break spin could trouble Sri Lankan batters and Indian bowlers controlled them to 248/7 score in 50 overs. India lost the toss and SL elected to bat first. Opener Avishka Fernando missed out on a century but helped his team to reach a considerable total on a difficult pitch.
India in the chase, failed to capitalize on the thundering start given by captain Rohit Sharma. In trying to counter spin, Indian batters played shots and lost their wickets in a hurry. Even the natural variation in the pitch, did not let batters to settle down and score freely. Hence, they collapsed to 138 all-out in 26.1 overs.
Rohit Sharma with a 35, Virat Kohli with a 20 and Washington Sundar with a 30 could take India to even that score. Dunith Wellalage troubled every batter and took 5/27 in his 5 overs. Maheesh Theekshana(2/45), Jeffrey Vandersay(2/34) gave away runs but took wickets regularly to give a historic victory to demotivated Sri Lanka.
Even new coach Gautam Gambhir’s over experimentation with the team composition also resulted in this huge loss. Sri Lanka never really could trouble India in bilateral series in past two decades and many fans started calling them “statpad series”. Well, young Sri Lanka changed that with spirited performances.
