India stutter in final ODI as Sri Lanka clinched the bragging rights of the series

Things took an unexpected turn for Team India as they faltered for the second time in a row to lose the three-match ODI series against Sri Lanka. Once again, their batters failed to live up to their lofty standards while chasing a modest total on the board.

With a couple of changes made to the side that saw Riyan Parag making his ODI debut while Rishabh Pant was brought back in to bolster the batting reinforcements, the Men in Blue was asked to field after Charith Asalanka won the toss.

It was the top three for the hosts that fired exceedingly well, propelling Sri Lanka to a solid start. Pathum Nissanka (45), Avishka Fernando (96) and Kusal Mendis (59) helped Sri Lanka on their way to what could have been a monumental number on the board.

However, the Indian bowlers yanked the reins back, albeit late to give themselves a fighting chance initially which soon snowballed into a decent enough platform to try and shoot down. Debutant Riyan Parag rocked the Lankan batting with figures of 3/54 while the others chimed in with their respective cameos as Sri Lanka totted up 248/7.

India rode high on Rohit Sharma’s opening blitz that saw him hammering 35 off just 20 balls while Virat Kohli supported him well enough with an 18-ball-20 despite the early fall of Shubman Gill (6). The fall of Rohit Sharma opened up the floodgates for Sri Lanka to storm through and the hosts wasted no time in obliging.

Despite Washington Sundar’s late resistance that saw him score 35 off 20, rest of the Indian cricket team crumbled like a house of cards with Sri Lanka emerging victorious while clinching the ODI series in the process. Dunith Wellalage was the pick of the lot claiming a fifer while the duo of Maheesh Theekshana and Jeffrey Vandersay claimed four wickets between them.