Third and final ODI between Sri Lanka and India today:
Winning toss vital in series decider
Sri Lanka will aim for a historic series victory while India will hope to level the series in the third ODI which will be played today at R. Premadasa International cricket stadium, commencing from 2.30pm.
Sri Lankans are now 1-0 up in the three game series as they bundled out Indians for a score of 208 and successfully defended 240 run total. This loss marked an unwelcome milestone for the Indian team, as it broke a 27-year-long streak of bilateral ODI series victories against Sri Lanka where at least one match was completed. India had consistently triumphed over Sri Lanka in 11 consecutive bilateral series since 1997.
Jeffrey Vandersay the right arm leg spinner who had his career best figures of 6 for 33 while skipper Charith Asalanka played a good supporting role to take three wickets and paved the way for victory. Indians who had a good start with a sparkling knock from Rohit Sharma couldn’t make momentum and Sri Lanka spinners dominated the game to take 1-0 lead.
Sri Lanka team has a good opportunity to win the series and the team has good confidence after their second game victory.
Both captains Asalaka and Sharma wanted to win the toss and elected to bat first to make a challenging total and it is clear 230-240 is a defendable total for any side.
The wicket behaviour of R. Premadasa International stadium obviously favouring spinners while once again toss is going to be the deciding factor for this final game .The opener Pathum Nissanka is the inform batter of Sri Lanka team unfortunately was out for a first ball duck hope to continue his form and the runs from power play (first ten overs ) very vital for both sides. Sri Lanka especially did well in their middle order and later order to reach a decent total. Janith Liyanage, Dunith Wellalage, Kamindu Mendis, Akila Dhanajaya all made valuable contributions. Sadeera Samarawickrama the number 4 batter is the only worry as he couldn’t come back to his potential to build up a good total. In fact Indians also worried about their middle order. Axer Patel, who got promotion at batting order scored fighting innings but he couldn’t finish the game Shivam Dube promoted in second game but did not succeed India started with over 9 runs per over and Sharma and Subman Gill handled the new ball very well but when Sri Lanka introduced the spinners like Vandersay, Akila Dhananjaya and even the part time spinner Charith Asalank had India in trouble. Bowling all rounder Dunith Wellalage was outstanding in both games and was adjudged man of the match in the first game.
Indian captain Rohit Sharma hit brisk innings during the power play but they couldn’t make good momentum with Sri Lankan spinners coming to the fore. Skipper Sharma praised Vandersay’s bowling.The captain was also disappointed with their batting at the last game.
Rohit said disappointing, but these things happen. You have to adapt to what’s in front of you. With left-and right hand combination in batting we felt it’ll be slightly easier to rotate strike, but that didn’t happen. Credit to Jeffrey, bowled really well and picked six wickets. Sri Lanka played really good cricket. Sharma also said about his batting, The reason I got 65 runs is because of the way I batted. When I bat like that there is bound to be risk taking and I’m not afraid to do that. Whenever you get out, whether you score 100, 50 or zero you feel disappointed if you don’t get across the line. We didn’t play good cricket, that’s why we lost the game added Sharma.
We do understand the nature of this surface and the nature of how the game is going to go as well. It gets really, really tough in the middle overs. So you have to try and capitalise in the powerplay and get as many runs as possible. That’s what both openers were trying to do. But we were just not good enough at the second game. We have played really good cricket in the past but I don’t want to look too much into how we played. But certainly there is going to be a talk about how we bat in the middle overs”. Indian team is planning to rectify their mistakes to come back in this game.
Meanwhile Sri Lanka team most probably plan to play with an unchanged side today. Sanath Jayasuriya the interim head coach and his supporting staff was busy with the players during the training session. Both teams had successful training sessions yesterday and they have finalised their final eleven today.