'Sri Lanka lost to Virat Kohli by 93 runs' - Aakash Chopra analyses Sri Lanka's outing in third ODI

Cricketer turned commentator Aakash Chopra has shared his analysis on the one sided game between India and Sri Lanka which took place at the Greenfield International stadium in Thiruvananthapuram on Sunday, January 15.

It was a dead rubber as far as the match was concerned as India had already sealed the series by winning the first two games. Team India won the toss and chose to bat first on a tricky wicket where the ball was keeping low. India found their stars in Virat Kohli and Shubman Gill as both of them scored centuries to take India to a total of 390/5 after 50 overs.

Indian pacers wreaked havoc on the Sri Lankan batters and didn’t give them even a remote chance of settling into the game. Siraj bowled his full quota of ten overs and took four crucial wickets and also effected a sharp run-out. Mohammed Shami and Kuldeep Yadav gave the pacer full support, scalping two wickets each, as Sri Lanka fell within 22 overs itself. India didn’t even require the services of Axar Patel and Washington Sundar. 

As per Aakash, the Lankan Lions lost the game to an individual in the form of Virat Kohli and couldn't show character at all as a unit.

"Does someone call this a match? Teams don't make as many runs as what Sri Lanka lost by, what are you doing? Virat Kohli scored 166 and the opposition team scored 73, you lost to just one guy. A 317-run win, teams don't score 317 runs these days. You lost the series 3-0."

While reviewing the match on his YouTube channel, Aakash Chopra mentioned about how dominant India were and how challenging the wicket was to bat on.

 “I read on a Pakistani handle that Babar Azam would score at least 25 centuries on these pitches. It was not an easy pitch to bat on at all, and these talks are rubbish. If the pitch was flat, even Sri Lanka would have given a fight or come close to scoring 300 runs minimum instead of folding for less than 75.”

Aakash Chopra also raised the concern as to why there was very less crowd for an ODI in a city like Thiruvananthapuram. According to Aakash, the less crowd in the stadiums might have been because of the absence of hometown favourite Sanju Samson from the ODI squad. 

"ODI cricket, personally, is not exciting to watch for me and how will it work if it is like this? Very few people came to the Thiruvanthapuram ground also. Was it a protest for Samson's absence or was it because it was a dead rubber but we expected more people to come, it was a Sunday," he further added.

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