Pallekele: The hosts have already been bruised and battered in the ongoing ODI series by India, who have taken a 2-0 lead. Hence, the third match scheduled to be held in Pallekele on Sunday would provide a golden opportunity for the visitors to clinch the series with two games remaining and record their second successive series victory over Sri Lanka after the 3-0 drubbing they handed them in the Test series a few weeks ago.
The Indians were on the verge of losing on the second ODI courtesy a brilliant six-wicket haul by Akila Dananjaya but they snatched victory from the jaws of defeat as Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Bhuvneshwar Kumar pulled off a record partnership for the eighth wicket to register a famous win for the visitors.
The batting order for the Indians saw a bit of change in the last match with skipper Virat Kohli coming in to bat at number five and promoting the likes of Kedar Jadhav and KL Rahul up the order to experiment with the squad. Although the plan failed miserably as seven of them were back inside the hut with still 100 runs required to win, Kohli defended his decision of experimenting with the batting order saying that he had, ‘no regrets’ with the same.
Nonetheless, a huge boost for the hosts would be the match turning spell by Dananjaya. His six-fer nearly won Sri Lanka the match and the team would want him to put on a similar performance in the third ODI on Sunday scheduled to be held at the Pallekele International Stadium in Kandy.
Sri Lanka would however be without their limited overs’ skipper Upul Tharanga after the left-hander was handed a two-match suspension by the ICC match referee to maintaining a slow over rate in Pallekele. Furthermore, their woes were worsened after stand-in skipper Chamara Kapugedara was injured during a warm-up session and had to be taken to the hospital for a check-up.
However, their squad would be bolstered by the return of Lahiru Thirimanne and Test skipper Dinesh Chandimal. Thirimanne, once an integral part of their batting line-up fell terribly out of form before he was ousted from the squad. Chandimal had a wonderful 2016 in ODI’s but couldn’t replicate that form this year.
Hence he would be keen to make a mark in the must-win match for Sri Lanka, whereas India would want to seal the series victory. An interesting contest awaits us on Sunday.