2024-07-31 17:09:38
In this way, the match is lost! In this way?
Commentator Russell Arnold was commenting his team’s game like this!
Sri Lanka lost the series earlier losing the first two matches of the series to world champions India. Yesterday was their match to avoid a whitewash. The Lankans were responding well to India as the wall came back. They also had a match in hand. But the real hosts gave the match to India by surrendering helplessly in a sudden disaster.
Sri Lanka restricted India to 137 runs by sending India into bat first at Pallekelle. In reply, Sri Lanka were on their way to victory with 58 in the opening pair and 110 for the second wicket. They needed 30 runs from the last 30 balls with 9 wickets in hand. They could not match such a simple equation. Anointed Chamindu Oikramasinghe tied the match with 2 runs when 3 runs were needed in the last ball.
The match is made in super over. There is more disaster in Sri Lanka. Kushal Perera and Pathum Nisanka were out in the third and fourth balls of spinner Washington Sundar’s over respectively. But the scoreboard run only 2! Chasing this easy target, Indian captain Suryakumar hit the first ball for a boundary. World champion India whitewashed Sri Lanka by winning the super over.
India did not start well after losing the toss and batting. 5 of their batsmen are dressed before reaching fifty on the scoreboard. Yasvi Jaiswal (10), Sanju Samsyan (0), Rinku Singh (1), Suryakumar Yadav (8) and Shivam Dubey (13) were out quickly. Shubman Gill was fighting at one end. But could not meet the needs of the team.
Ryan Parag accompanied him for the sixth wicket. The two resisted with a partnership of 54 runs. India stumbled again when the run was 102 in the sixteenth over. Two established batsmen were dismissed in the same over. Gill was first stumped for 39 runs by the leg-spinner Hasaranga. Parag scored the second highest 26 off 18 balls and was caught by Mendis. In the end, India’s score reached 137 runs thanks to Sundar’s 25 runs from 18 balls.
The bowlers kept the target within reach with controlled bowling. Mahesh Thiksana was the best bowler for Swagkids with 3 wickets for 28 runs. Hasaranga took 2 wickets. Anointed Chamindu Oikramasinghe did not do badly. He got 1 wicket for 17 runs. Ashitha Fernando and Rames Mendis also got 1 wicket each.
Nisanka and Mendis added 58 runs to the opening pair in reply. Leg spinner Bismanoy broke the pair to send Nisanka back for 26 runs. From there, Mendis and Perera led the team to victory. Both of them reached room 40.
In the last 5 overs, disaster struck the Lankans’ innings. At this time they lost 9 wickets to make 27 runs. That made the match into super over. Sri Lanka needed 6 runs from 6 balls to win in the last over. Suryakumar took the ball there. Everything was against them. Only four fielders were out of the circle due to penalties.
Suryakumar dot the first ball. He took 2 wickets in the next 2 balls. 3 runs off the fourth and fifth balls brought the equation down to 3 runs off the last ball. Chamindu Oikramasinghe could not take that run. Take the match to super over with 2 runs. There the hosts simply surrendered.
Sundar was selected man of the match by taking 2 wickets each in the main match and super over. Suryakumar became the best of the series.
The two teams will face each other in the ODI after the T20 series. First ODI in Colombo on August 2.