The result looked a foregone conclusion the moment Sri Lanka were bowled out for 135 in their first innings of the third and final cricket Test against India at the Pallekele International Stadium although at the time no one wanted to admit it.
Sri Lanka resuming at 19-1 on the third day resisted till tea before they were dismissed a second time for 181 to hand out to India victory by an innings and 171 runs. It was the second back to back innings win for India in the series having won the second Test by an innings and 53 runs at the SSC. In any cricket contest the first innings of a team is the most important and in this context Sri Lanka failed miserably in the series to put up decent totals being dismissed for 291, 183 and 135. The other factor that weighed heavily against Sri Lanka was the toss which they lost on all three occasions and never had a chance to bat first and put pressure on India.
 India’s winning captain Virat Kohli with the series trophy after his team had defeated Sri Lanka 3-0. |
The moment India batted first using the pitch when it was at its best and rattled up a big score the pressure was on the Lankan batsmen. They never had the freedom to express themselves the way they wanted to.
Having barely won a close contest with Zimbabwe in the one-off Test Sri Lanka had no chance whatever against the number one ranked team India and the series proved it.
Following their first innings collapse for 135 there was no way out of jail for Sri Lanka after being asked to follow-on 352 runs in arrears. It was a game of survival from there onwards and once Umesh Yadav had achieved the initial breakthrough by having Upul Tharanga playing-on for seven, it was a question of how long Sri Lanka could keep the Indian bowlers at bay.
The fall of three quick wickets in the first hour of play yesterday didn’t help their cause.
Mohammad Shami quickly put the issue beyond doubt when he sent back nightwatchman Malinda Pushpakumara and Kusal Mendis off successive overs after Ravichandran Ashwin had achieved the breakthrough for the day by having Dimuth Karunaratne gloving a ball to slip in the third over.
The only sign of resistance came from captain Dinesh Chandimal (36), former skipper Angelo Mathews (35) and Niroshan Dickwella (41) otherwise the rest of the batting was simply not good enough to face the brunt of the Indian bowling which was relentless. With so much of runs to play around with Virat Kohli was able to set attacking fields and concede a few boundaries to buy his wickets. Needless to say Sri Lanka had been outplayed in all three departments by an Indian side that hardly revealed any flaws in their game.
Hartik Pandiya was named Man of the Match for his extraordinary innings of 108 and Shikhar Dhawan was named Man of the Series. The two teams will next meet in a five-match One-Day International series commencing at Dambulla on August 20.
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