Dominant Sri Lanka Beat India By 7 Wickets, Win Series 2-1
Dasun Shanaka’s Sri Lanka defeats India by 7 wickets, complete a rare 2-1 series win over India. They won the series decider by 7 wickets after restricting India to a below-par total. Wanindu Hasranga was the hero of the match while India’s Rahul Chahar was also impressed with a three-for. He was the only positive for India in the fixture.
Wanindu Hasaranga was the top performer with the ball for Sri Lanka and he was also the Player of the Match and Player of the Series. India was restricted to 81 for 8 after winning the toss and opting to bat as Hasaranga scalped four wickets and gave away just nine runs. However, India was far from their best both on the field as well as in team combination. Several players in the squad were isolated after being deemed close contacts of all-rounder Krunal Pandya, who tested positive for COVID-19 on Tuesday. With this series win, Sri Lanka equaled the honors on this tour after having conceded the ODI series to India earlier.
Shikhar Dhawan’s decision to win the toss and opt to bat in the series decider against Sri Lanka backfired as the visitors could manage a meager 81/8 in the allotted 20 overs. Spinner Wanindu Hasaranga was the wrecker in chief with four wickets haul while Dasun Shanaka took a couple of wickets. Shikhar Dhawan departed for a duck while the likes of IPL stars Ruturaj Gaikwad, Devdutt Padikkal, Sanju Samson, and Nitish Rana were disappointed. Kuldeep Yadav helped India get past their lowest total. India’s lowest total in T20Is is 74 which came against Australia in 2008. In the match, Sandeep Warrier received his maiden T20 cap for India.
Dasun Shanaka | Sri Lankan captain: I should thank BCCI, under these circumstances they agreed to play. Special thanks to Rahul Dravid and Shikhar Dhawan. This is the best performance we have had in the last few years. I had the (bowling) options with me and used them in the middle. (On fielding) Not only myself, but all the boys are also working really hard. In the last three months starting from the Bangladesh series, they were keen to win and they want to be world-class.
Shikhar Dhawan | Indian captain: It was a difficult situation for us. As a team, we decided to stay and play these games. Really proud of the boys as well. They showed great character in the last two games. Their attitude was tremendous. We wanted to win as well, in every game you learn. It was an off-day for our batting unit. We lost too many wickets, SL bowled well.
