Watch cricket video highlights of India tour of Sri Lanka 2024 thirdd one day international between Sri Lanka vs India. Venue of the match will be Colombo.
In the third and last ODI between Sri Lanka and India in Colombo, the latter chose to bat first after winning the toss. With a victory, Sri Lanka will have won their first bilateral ODI series against India since 1997. They now lead the series 1-0. Charith Asalanka was certain of his choice to bat, since it has shown to be a successful tactic thus far in the series. With the addition of Maheesh Theekshana in lieu of Akila Dhananjaya, Sri Lanka made one change.
There were two changes for the visiting team, with Riyan Parag making his ODI debut after causing a lot of difficulty for the Sri Lankan batting throughout the T20Is. He replaces Arshdeep Singh, therefore India strengthened their batting while also adding an additional spinner. Rishabh Pant made his first appearance in an ODI since his vehicle accident in late 2022, which was the other alteration. He donned the gloves and replaced KL Rahul. India therefore entered the game with four spinners and two seam-bowling options.
Meanwhile, Sri Lanka will continue to use just one seamer in addition to seam bowler Janith Liyanage and a minimum of five spinners. Since the pitch was young and dry, spin would become increasingly important as the game progressed. After getting off to slow starts, Asalanka has expressed his anticipation for “someone scoring a hundred on this kind of pitch” despite the struggles of both sets of hitters. Although there is a potential of rain later in the afternoon, the weather for the beginning of the game and the evening appeared to be mostly clear.
With a commanding 110-run victory in the third and final ODI in Colombo, Sri Lanka won their first ODI bilateral series against India in 27 years. Avishka Fernando hit 96, the highest individual score of the series, while Dunith Wellalage claimed a five-for. India lost nine wickets to spinners for the third game in a row, matching their highest total of 27 wickets lost in a three-match series. It was the climax of their struggles against spin during the previous week.
This time around, Wellalage led the destroyers with five for twenty-seven, but throughout the series, it has alternated between Wanindu Hasaranga, Jeffrey Vandersay, and even Charith Asalanka. But India has never looked like they could consistently compete, save perhaps during Rohit Sharma’s now-expected top-order romps. But this time, Wellalage caught Rohit trying to sweep before he could significantly reduce Sri Lanka’s score, thus even Rohit’s contribution was reduced to a short cameo (35 off 20).
Other than him, only three players reached double digits: Washington Sundar (20, 15, 30), Riyan Parag (20, 15), and Virat Kohli (20). Of them, only Washington’s innings attempted to reimpose any kind of pressure on the Lankan bowlers. Avishka’s 96 off 102 earlier in the day had put Sri Lanka up so nicely that not even a collapse that saw them lose 28 runs for five wickets could derail their innings to any meaningful end; yet, India’s difficulties placed an even more emphasis on that performance.
Throughout his innings, he shared in two of Sri Lanka’s most lucrative partnerships—89 and 82 for the first and second wickets, respectively. However, his innings did not demonstrate Sri Lanka’s superior spin game; rather, it demonstrated the team’s ability to take advantage of the seamers’ opportunities. In this instance, Mohammed Siraj was dismissed for his joint-worst ODI stats of 78 for 1 from nine overs, while Shivam Dube managed just nine runs off his four overs.
And 36 of those 78, or a strike rate of 200, were attributable to Avishka. However, Siraj’s mistakes in lines and lengths were more to blame for this than anything Avishka did to turn him down. However, these are the margins that need to be taken advantage of on uneven terrain like those found at Khettarama. Siraj was also guilty of bowling too straight to him; of the 36 runs he gave up to Avishka, 32 were square or behind square on the onside. Anything short was always put away.
However, Parag was making a memorable debut, while Siraj was having a rough time. With a leg break that slipped over his front pad and another that gripped, straightened, and skidded to trap Charith Asalanka on the crease, he took the crucial wicket of Avishka. But the ballplayer who posed the most threat, Wellalage, was struck out by a delivery that dipped and twisted, pitched middle and spun past the outside edge to smash back off stump.
While some late blows affected his economy rate of six an over, the other three spinners, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, and Washington, were as economical as ever, taking one wicket each and none going for more than Axar’s 4.10 per over. Though Sri Lanka put up two solid stands at the top of the order, Parag and his spin allies would have to wait patiently for their rewards. In addition to Avishka, Pathum Nissanka (45) and Kusal Mendis (59) contributed significantly, but Sri Lanka’s middle order collapsed quickly and unexpectedly, much as in the previous two matches.
They stammered from 171 for 1 to 199 for 6. They managed to score just 49 runs in the 36 overs that they lost Avishka in, and from midway through the 48 overs, or 72 deliveries, they managed to score no boundaries at all. Moreover, they were suddenly having difficulty hitting 250 after previously aiming for a score of about 280. Luckily for them, Mendis, one of Sri Lanka’s top spinners, was available at the finish and he could deliver some potent hits to help drive the score closer to 240. Considering the strong start given by Avishka and company, the score appeared competitive but ultimately proved sufficient.
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