The Indian cricket team played the deciding match of the series against Sri Lanka in Colombo on Wednesday. Rohit Sharma and his team lost the match by a whopping 110 runs after a brilliant bowling performance by the Sri Lankan spinners. The Lankan Lions won the ODI series 2-0, with two wins in the last two matches and a draw in the first.
The Indians’ batting performance was disappointing throughout the series, with only captain Rohit, Axar Patel and Washington Sundar performing slightly better.
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The Men in Blue were chasing in all three matches and failed spectacularly in the last two. Jeffrey Vandersay took six wickets in the last game, while Dunit Wellalage made the difference with a five-for on Wednesday.
Rohit was understandably frustrated and disappointed with his team’s performance on the Sri Lanka tour, but he acknowledged the efforts of the opposition and felt that their batters were better sweepers than the Indians throughout the series.
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What did Rohit Sharma say about Sri Lanka’s purge?
According to the Indian captain, the Sri Lankan batters understood the situation much better and focused on scoring points with sweep shots and paddle sweeps rather than using their feet. On the other hand, the Indian batters focused more on using their feet, which ultimately proved to be the difference between the two sides.
They played sweeps consistently and took their chances. There weren’t many runs scored on the ground. They didn’t use their feet as much as we expected. It was about using sweeps and breaking the deep square leg and midwicket field. That’s something we didn’t do as a batting unit. We didn’t play enough sweeps, reverse sweeps or paddle sweeps and used our feet too much. That was the difference.
Rohti was India’s highest scorer in the third ODI with 35 runs in 20 deliveries. Apart from him, Washington had a cameo appearance with 30 runs while the entire batting line-up failed as India collapsed with just 138 runs on the board while chasing a target of 249 runs.
Sri Lanka’s 2-0 series win was also their first bilateral series win against the Men in Blue in 27 years. Caretaker coach Sanath Jayasuriya made up for the T20I series defeat by winning the ODI series. On the other hand, this is Gautam Gambhir’s first series defeat as India’s head coach.
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