Sri Lanka v India 3rd ODI 2017: Who Said What

The new Sri Lankan skipper Chamara Kapugedera won the toss and decided to bat first yet again. While the Indians would’ve liked to bat first and post a total, Sri Lanka fancied they could have Team India under pressure again given how the previous match panned out. They made a couple of changes as regular skipper Upul Tharanga was suspended while Danushka Gunatilaka was unavailable due to an injury. Lahiru Thirimanne and Danish Chandimal walked into the game making a comeback in ODI cricket.

Team India went unchanged in the consequential game of the series. Sri Lanka weren’t off to a good start as Jasprit Bumrah had the ball do the talking. Assistance from the Pallakele wicket made the Lankan cause tougher. The Indian pacer didn’t let them off the hook and even when the spinners got in the runs weren’t coming. While Bumrah picked a five-wicket haul, his first in ODI cricket. Axar Patel, Hardik Pandya and Kedar Jadhav picked one each.

For Sri Lanka Thirimanne deserves a lot of credit for his knock of 80 while Chandimal looked solid during his knock of 36.

India in their reply lost Shikhar Dhawan early and it was a second consecutive failure for Virat Kohli while KL Rahul had a start and gave Akila Dananjaya his wicket and so did Jadhav who bagged a duck. It was time again for MS Dhoni to rescue the team, this time though he had Rohit Sharma who was batting beautifully for company.

The duo played comfortably and gave Sri Lankan bowlers no chance. Rohit was the aggressor marching to the hundred, his 12th in ODI cricket. Dhoni who missed out on a fifty last time got it this time while also surpassing Mohammad Azharuddin as the 4th highest run-scorer for India in ODIs. Team India won the game with 6 wickets and almost 5 overs in hand and also bagged the series 3-0.

Bumrah was awarded the Man of the Match for his splendid bowling effort as he returned with figures of 5/27.

Jasprit Bumrah said:

It’s always good when you get a break so you can work on your strengths and be refreshed when you come back. This was a different wicket. In the last match, it was slow, but in this match, there was seam movement with the new ball. Didn’t know that (only Indian seamer to take five-for in last three years) but it’s a good feeling. When you contribute to the team’s success, it’s always a good feeling.

Chamara Kapugedera said:

I thought it was a good wicket, so we wanted to put on a score which we could defend. Things didn’t go to our plans. We discussed about not playing dot balls in the middle. 260-275 would have been a challenging score. I enjoyed it (captaincy). There was pressure, but I enjoyed it. Hopefully, we can get a win next time.

Virat Kohli said:

Small targets are always tricky. If it happens to you two or three times, I don’t think it’s an issue. People like to make issues out of it. We have chased small targets convincingly before. Here the wicket was a bit more challenging. The last game we had a collapse. Today wasn’t a collapse. The other batsmen really applied themselves. Rohit was outstanding, MS was great as well.

We have to be a bit patient with the younger players. Have to understand how to take our games forward. He’s (Bumrah) got 11 wickets in three games, he’s bowled really well. Last game he missed out on a five-for, but he got it this time. He’s among our top short-format bowlers. He’s doing a great job for us, and I wish him all the best. We have a squad of 15, we’ll look to give some of the other guys a go. Having won the series already, we can afford to give those guys a go.