Sri Lanka scripted an emphatic series win over India in the third ODI at the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo by winning the match and the series 2-0.
Sri Lanka skipper Charith Asalanka called it right for the third time this series and chose to bat first. Openers Pathum Nissanka(45 off 65) and Avishka Fernando(96 off 102) gave Sri Lanka a slow but steady start stitching a partnership of 89 in almost 20 overs.
Once Axar Patel(1 for 41) gave India the breakthrough, Kusal Mendis(59 off 82) joined Avishka to stitch the other big stand of the innings, 82 in 15.4 overs. But Avishka's dismissal to debutant Riyan Parag(3 for 54) brought on a collapse that saw Sri Lanka lose 5 wickets for 28 runs in just 8 overs with Washington Sundar(1 for 29) and Kuldeep Yadav(1 for 36) playing their part in it. Kusal Mendis who had been sedated till this point turned a new gear putting up a stand of 36 in the next five overs with Kamindu Mendis(23 off 19) ultimately letting Sri Lanka finish with the highest total of this series with 248.
India's fortunes did not see much change with Rohit Sharma(35 off 20) going about things in his usual way. Shubman Gill fell early in the chase, but Duntih Wellalage(5 for 27) dismissed Rohit Sharma and opened the floodgates for the worst collapse India saw in this series. Maheesh Theekshana(2 for 45) and Jeffrey Vandersay(2 for 34) played their part in a collapse that saw India lose 7 wickets for 48 runs in 10.2 overs. The chase was dead by that time but Sundar(30 off 25) played a semblance of a lone hand that only succeeded in delaying the inevitable.
Here are the top stats from this game:
2 - After the second ODI, Rohit Sharma had finished one six behind Chris Gayle's ODI sixes tally of 331. In the third ODI, he tied this tally and now sits joint second on the chart of most sixes in ODIs headed by Shahid Afridi with 351.
1 - Duntih Wellalage is the first spinner to take multiple fifers against India in ODIs. Among all active players, Mustafizur Rahman has 3 fifers against India, while Mitchell Starc has 2.
1 - 43 wickets in the entire series fell to spin. The most for a three-match bilateral ODI series.
5 - This match was the 5th instance of India losing 9 or more wickets to spin in a single ODI innings. Interestingly, all five have come at the R Premadasa Stadium and three of them have come in this series alone.
3 - This is only Sri Lanka's third bilateral ODI series win over India in their entire history. By contrast, India have prevailed over Sri Lanka in the bilateral ODI series 15 times, while thrice the teams have had to share honours.
9845 - The number of days after which Sri Lanka beat India in a bilateral ODI series.
1997 - 1997 was the last time that Sri Lanka defeated India in a bilateral ODI series before this one.
4 - The three matches from this series were the only ODIs that India had scheduled for them in the year 2024. This means that 2024 is the fourth calendar year overall, and the first since 1979 which India will end without having won a single ODI. In 1974 and 1976, India played 2 ODIs each in the entire year and lost all of those matches. Similarly, India lost all three ODIs they played in 1979, which interestingly, were all at the World Cup that year. India will finish 2024 having tied one and lost two of their three ODIs.
3 - Rohit Sharma follows Mohammad Azharuddin in 1993 and Sachin Tendulkar in 1997 as the third Indian captain to lose a bilateral ODI series against Sri Lanka. Rohit Sharma also has a series loss against Bangladesh on his CV.
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