Sri Lanka clapped India whooping 110 runs in the third one day match played at R Premadasa Stadium Colombo, to record their maiden series win against Indians in 27 years. The win was a manifestation of the home ground advantage that Sri Lanka has over India.
India chasing a target of 249 all out for 138 after only 26.1 overs indicating their third batting collapse in as many tests. This confirmed Sri Lanka’s victory in another game and they are now up 2-0 after the first match ended in a tie.
Talking about this victory, Maheesh Theekshana who is the twirler for Sri Lankan emphasized that this team had an upper hand when it comes to spinning tracks like Premadasa stadium. “In India, they mostly play on good wickets with small boundaries. And we know playing in Premadasa, if there is little bit turn we can take advantage because we have good spinners,” added Theekshana
The strategic differences that led to winning or losing the series were highlighted by Theekshana’s remarks. Indian batsmen found it difficult to deal with turning balls due to being accustomed to playing on flatter pitches and smaller grounds back home while those of sri lanka had no problems doing so as they knew how these kinds of pitches behave from domestic matches.
“Even in domestic, the wickets are like this and our batters know how to play.” also said Theekshana praising their batting performance for similar reasons.
The success in the series was an important morale booster for Sri Lanka especially coming after the loss (3-0) suffered at hands of T20I Series champions before this encounter.
“As a team it’s now giving me confidence actually, I mean from a team perspective or whatever you want to call it but yeah…I mean it’s been tough because…you see these boys really put themselves through a lot and I think they have done it for the right reasons. So, I’m just really happy that we won the last game of that series since 1997… it’s a big win for us and I am proud to be part of XI,” he added.
Sri Lanka bowlers seemed in control from the word go during this third ODI match.
“We scored more than what we got in the previous two matches when we batted first so that means this one is better than those ones. There have been good deliveries in the last couple of matches and since then I had to bowl more good deliveries because Rohit came into bat and attacked me, Asitha got a good start, came back and got Shubman, then Wellalage was outstanding, Vandersay did a great job… Hasaranga in the first game Akila bowled economically in both games; but I wanted to bowl more dot balls. It was a team effort. All players were involved hence we won 2-0” said Theekshana
Throughout this series Sri Lanka’s top order played meaningful innings after their experience on local conditions to put up challenging scores against Indian attack. This historic series win will further strengthen Sri Lanka’s confidence as they prepare for forthcoming international competitions.
