Twitter Reacts to yet another sorry performance from Sri Lanka against India

With the series done and dusted, Sri Lanka had a lot to play for in the 5th ODI of the Micromax Cup against India at R. Premadasa Stadium in Colombo. The Lions had to win the final match in order to avoid a whitewash and salvaging some pride out of the tour. The side would have been demoralised with the heavy loss in the 4th ODI. With the match, their chances for automatic qualification also went spiralling down.

Virat Kohli’s men were made to bowl first for the fourth time in the series after Upul Tharanga won the toss and elected to bat first. After losing Dickwella and Munaweera early, Tharanga looked in ominous touch as he counter-attacked the Indians with his quickfire innings of 48 off just 34 balls, smashing the bowlers at a strike rate of 141. He hit 9 splendid boundaries in the inning.

However, a beauty from Bumrah curtailed his knock as Thirimanne and Matthews attempted to consolidate the innings. Sri Lankans were off to a flier but lost three wickets within the first 10 overs. The two experienced Lankans stitched together a slow partnership of 122 runs, eating up almost 30 overs in the process.

Thirimanne added 67 at a strike rate of 65 while Matthews scored 55 at a strike rate of 56. Sri Lanka was devoid of their services when the time came for the final assault. In the end, they were bundled out for 238 within the 50 overs, from being at 185-3 at one point of time.

For the Indian bowlers, it was Bhuvneshwar Kumar who opened his account in the series after remaining wicketless in the first three games. In fact, he claimed his maiden five wicket haul in ODIs to reserve his place in the Australian series. Jasprit Bumrah continued his rich form as he picked up a couple of wickets to end up with 15 wickets in the series. MS Dhoni brought up his 100th Stumping in ODIs, surpassing Sangakkara in the tally of the highest dismissal by a wicket keeper via Stumping.

Let us look at how Twitterati reacted