Sri Lanka win third T20I, register their maiden T20I series win against India

It was not quite a fitting end to a tour that brought to notice the depth of talent on the Indian bench but given how the management from both the teams pulled off the tour, the result was just a minute part of all that the six matches yielded.

India were forced to test the bench of a squad that comprised cricketers not so regular in the side. Sri Lanka too had a few regulars missing but like the Sri Lanka of old, they made the best use of the home conditions to snatch the T20I series after what was a pretty humbling experience in ODIs.

When Shikhar Dhawan opted to bat, the thought on top of his mind would have been safeguarding the inexperienced and thin batting line-up. Maybe he was too consumed by the thought and ended up getting dismissed on the first delivery that he faced.

The downfall of Dhawan led to a domino effect, and there was no experience in the line-up to arrest the slide. When Bhuvneshwar Kumar comes to bat during the powerplay in a T20I for India, you know there is something not right with the world.

Sri Lankan spinners were at it once again. After a long time they looked like the potent force they once were, foxing the foreign teams with their understanding of the conditions and making the best of it.

India never had enough runs on the board. They also had exhausted their quota of miracles by putting up 11 players in the last two games. That they turned up for the last two games, preventing cancellation of the series was nothing sort of a miracle.

The brief summary might tell fans that India lost a series against Sri Lanka after 13 years, but years later when historians flip through the pages, they will realize that India had emerged the true winner against a problem the world was struggling to cope with.