- Friday, April 19, 2024
By: Chandrashekar Bhat
AVISHKA Fernando and Bhanuka Rajapaksa hit half-centuries as Sri Lanka beat India by three wickets for a consolation win in the rain-hit third one-day international on Friday (23).
Chasing 226 for victory in the reduced 47-overs-a-side contest, Sri Lanka depended on a 109-run second-wicket stand between Fernando (76) and Rajapaksa (65) to achieve their target with 48 balls to spare in Colombo.
India won the three-match series 2-1.
Debutant leg-spinner Rahul Chahar returned figures of 3-54, taking key wickets including Fernando to put Sri Lanka in trouble before Ramesh Mendis steered the team home with an unbeaten 15.
Earlier, spinners Akila Dananjaya and Praveen Jayawickrama took three wickets each to help Sri Lanka bowl out India for 225.
Jayawickrama, a left-arm spinner who returned figures of 3-59 on his ODI debut, combined with Dananjaya to trigger a middle-order collapse as India slipped from 179-4 to 195-8.
Jayawickrama got Hardik Pandya out lbw for 19 after Sri Lanka successfully reviewed the on-field umpire’s call of not out.
Sri Lanka soon challenged another decision and Dananjaya, a mystery spinner, sent back Suryakumar Yadav, who hit 53 in India’s previous victory, lbw for 40.
Dananjaya then struck twice in one over to rattle the Indian batters before Rahul Chahar (13) and Navdeep Saini (15) put on 29 runs for the ninth wicket to give their team a more respectable total.
The tourists, who elected to bat first, were 147-3 when rain stopped play after the 23rd over and lost all their 10 wickets in 43.1 overs.
Earlier, skipper Shikhar Dhawan was out early, caught behind off Dushmantha Chameera for 13, but fellow opener Prithvi Shaw and Sanju Samson took the attack to the opposition bowlers.
Shaw, who made a run-a-ball 49, and Samson, who hit 46 off 46 balls, put on 74 runs for the second wicket.
Sri Lankan skipper Dasun Shanaka trapped Shaw lbw and then Jayawickrama sent back Samson, a wicketkeeper-batsman who is one of the five debutants for India.
In the end, India’s total proved to be too small to defend against a resurgent Sri Lankan team.
The two sides will now play three Twenty20 internationals starting on Sunday (25) at the same venue.
