Naive Sri Lanka blown away by Ashwin & Co

Inexperience and poor shot selection combined with excellent spin bowling brought the downfall for Sri Lanka as India won the third and final T20I by 9 wickets to claim the series, 2-1 at Vishakapathnam on Valentine’s Day.

Off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin’s career-best bowling spell of 4 wickets for 8 runs in 4 overs completely dismantled Sri Lanka on a spin-friendly surface as India reclaimed the number one spot in ICC World T20 rankings.

MS Dhoni won the toss and elected to field with the hope of extracting the best out of his bowlers before the dew plays a part later in the night. Sri Lanka’s third opening combination for the series, Dilshan and Dickwella faltered against the guile and variations of Ashwin in the very first over. Dickwella misread the line and length to come down the track and got himself stumped with ease while Dilshan played down the wrong line and was given LBW.

Skipper Chandimal played an expansive and horrendous heave against the spin of Ashwin and gave a simple catch to the mid-off fielder. The debutant, Asela Gunarathne was very unfortunate to be given caught down the leg-side as the replays clearly showed that it only deviated off the thigh pads.

Milinda Siriwardana played a poor cross bat shot against Ashish Nehra which crashed onto the stumps. Seekkuge Prasanna ran off a mis-field and got himself run-out thanks to a nice back flick by Ravindra Jadeja.

After losing half of their side inside the first six overs, Sri Lanka never recovered as young Dasun Shanaka hammered two big sixes off Yuvraj Singh to be the top run-scorer with 19 runs but chopped onto the stumps against Ravindra Jadeja as the visitors fell into more misery.

Sachithra Senanayake was unjustifiably given caught behind off Suresh Raina as another umpire error slumped Sri Lanka further down the barrel. Thisara Perera once again showed his incapability against spin as he too perished going for a big shot. Jasprith Bumrah bowled a perfect yorker to castle Dilhara Fernando as the Islanders were bowled out for 82, their lowest T20I score.

Chasing a moderate target of 83, Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan put on 29 runs in 5.2 overs before Dushmantha Chameera trapped Sharma leg before wicket to give something to cheer for the Lankans.

Dhawan and Ajinkya Rahane milked the lackluster Sri Lankan bowling to all parts of the field to comfortably guide their team to victory in the 14th over. Dhawan remained unbeaten on 46 while Rahane made 22.