Sri Lanka win at last!

Sri Lanka’s Avishka Fernando en route his 76 during the third ODI against India at the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo yesterday. Pic/AFP

Sri Lanka beat India by three wickets in the third and final one-dayer to lose the series 1-2 here on Friday.

Chasing 227 for a win under D/L calculations, Sri Lanka reached the target with 48 balls to spare. They reached 227 for 7 in 39 overs.

Chahar scalps three

Opener Avishka Fernando top-scored with 76 while one-down Bhanuka Rajapaksa contributed a 56-ball 65 to help Sri Lanka script the win. For India, Rahul Chahar was the most successful bowler with three wickets for 54 runs. The match was reduced to a 47-over-a-side affair after rain interruption in the first innings.

Shaw scores 49

Opting to bat, India were all out for 225 in 43.1 overs. Prithvi Shaw (49), Sanju Samson (46) and Suryakumar Yadav (40) were the notable contributors but none could score big.

For Sri Lanka, Akila Dananjaya and Praveen Jayawickrama took three wickets apiece.

India have already clinched the three-match series after winning the first two matches.

Earlier, with the series pocketed, India coach Rahul Dravid rejigged the bowling line-up along with a couple of changes in the batting order, but it was evident that the lack of game awareness became their undoing on the day.

The rain-break at the end of the 23rd over, which reduced the game to 47-overs per side, helped the home team.

The pitch suddenly had a bit of freshness and the ball would both grip and skid, making life easier for the spinners, who rocked the middle-order.

The latest trend of young batters not being able to cope up with slow bowlers was on show as the middle-order looked clueless against left-arm spinner Jayawickrama (3-59 in 10 overs) and off-spinner a Dananjaya (3-44 in 10 overs), who, in his second spell, blew away the lower middle order with turn and bounce.

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Brief scores

India 225 in 43.1 overs

(P Shaw 49, S Samson 46, S Yadav 40; A Dananjaya 3-44, P Jayawickrama 3-59, D Chameera 2-55) lost to
Sri Lanka 227-7 in 39 overs (A Fernando 76, B Rajapaksa 65; R Chahar 3-54, C Sakariya 2-34) by 3 wickets (D/L method)

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