5 things that went wrong for Sri Lanka in the third ODI
There is no stopping for the Indian cricket team who are on a winning rampage in Sri Lanka. After winning the Test series 3-0, they have now clinched the five-match ODI series 3-0 by winning the third ODI at Pallekele. This was the seventh successive bilateral series victory against Sri Lanka for the visitors. The last time they lost an ODI series to the Islanders was in 1997. Opener Rohit Sharma scored his maiden ODI century in Sri Lanka.
As for the hosts, nothing seems to be going right for them since the Champions Trophy group stage exit, after which they lost consecutive series to Zimbabwe and India, even after changing their captain thrice in that period.
Here are five things that went wrong for Sri Lanka in the 3rd ODI
No support from the openers
Sri Lanka’s openers have been disappointing throughout the series thus far. Niroshan Dickwella showed some discipline in his batting with scores of 61 and 34 in the first and second ODIs respectively.
But apart from those two innings, the top order has performed very poorly. Danushka Gunathilaka got starts but failed to convert them into a long innings, and in his absence in the third ODI, Dinesh Chandimal could manage only 36 runs. Kusal Mendis, on the other hand, continued with his poor run.
He has scores of 36, 19 and 1 in the three ODIs respectively. Not just in the ODIs, the top order was disappointing in the Test series too which Sri Lanka lost 0-3.