Sri Lanka suffer 3-0 T20I series whitewash in Super Over

Sa’adi Thawfeeq reporting from Pallekele

Sri Lanka let slip a golden opportunity of beating India and avoiding a 3-0 whitewash when they lost the third and final T20 International in the Super Over at the Pallekele International Cricket Stadium yesterday.

The match was Sri Lanka’s for the taking after they had restricted India to a moderate total of 137-9, and batted themselves into a position of strength reaching 110-1 in the 16th over. But the all too familiar middle order batting collapse that has been the bane of Sri Lanka’s batting in the series once again let them down as they ended up on 137-8, losing seven wickets for 27 providing a bizarre twist to the match.

India had run out of spin options by the 17th over, and Sri Lanka at that point required 20 off the last three overs with six wickets in hand. 12 runs came off the 18th over bowled by seamer Khaleel Ahmed drawing Sri Lanka closer to the victory target at 129-6. With nine required off the last two overs Indian captain Suryakumar Yadav turned to part time spinner Rinkhu Singh for the 19th over and brought himself on for the final over. Neither of them had bowled in a T20I. Singh obliged his captain with two wickets conceding three runs. The final over, Yadav came onto bowl with Sri Lanka requiring 6 to win and picked up two further wickets conceding five runs as the scores ended in a tie. The hosts had flunked it.

In the Super Over worse was to follow as Sri Lanka scored just two runs and lost two wickets facing only four balls. India got the winning runs off the first ball to complete a clean sweep of the series. Sri Lanka once again began well with an opening stand of 58 between Pathum Nissanka (26) and Kusal Mendis 43 off 41 balls, 3 fours) and a further stand of 52 off 39 balls between Mendis and Kusal Perera (46 off 34 balls 5 fours) before the wheels fell off. 

At the start Sri Lanka bowlers also performed well to keep India down to 137-9 after having them at one stage on 48-5. Shubman Gill (39) and Riyan Parag (26) stitched a 54 runs partnership off 40 balls and Washington Sundar’s little cameo towards the end (25 off 18) took India close to 140. Debutant Chamindu Wickramasinghe made a memorable start to his international career taking 1/17 off his 4 overs bowled on the trot. Sri Lanka lost Matheesha Pathirana who was forced to leave the field after falling heavily on his right bowling shoulder and Sri Lanka employed 14 overs of spin on a track that gave some assistance to the spinners and did a swell job to keep under a score which they were capable of chasing down. However, it was not to be as they continued with their middle order batting debacles.

Washington Sundar was named Player of the Match and Suryakumar Yadav Player of the Series. The series win was a good start for Yadav as T20I captain and new coach Gautam Gambhir.