Sri Lanka win 2-1 T20 series

 Lankan Spinners floor India 

So ultimately Lankan Spinners were too hot to handle for inexperienced young Indian batsmen. Brought up on mostly spin friendly Indian pitches , India still found wanting. Quite clueless especially against Hasaranga who was so accurate on this slow and low Sri Lankan Tracks. Forget about quick scoring , these boys even failed to survive against him. It is altogether different thing to hit through the line ,score freely on mostly placid tracks during IPL ,where bounce is good enabling free stroke play. It was missed opportunity to showcase their skills and talent especially for upcoming batsmen Ruturaj Gaikawad, Devdatta Padikkal, Sanju Samson and Nitish Rana. It's going to be very challenging for them in near future to break into Indian squad again.

Shikhar  Dhawan opted to bat first probably to avoid any pressure while chasing the target. Indian inning started on a disastrous note when Dhawan edged 4th ball of the inning - his very 1st - into slip. Padikkal failed while sweeping again. During 5th over Hasaranga presently ranked 2nd T20 bowler, struck two blows trapping Sanju Samson and Ruturaj Gaikawad. In no time India 25/4.By 9th over all five batsmen were back into the dugout, with Nitish Rana failing to Shanaka.36/5.The decider almost over there only for young Team India. With Bhuvneshwar`s 16 and Kuldeep Yadav's 23 not out  India anyhow made 81.

Sri Lanka started with very cautious approach facing some tight bowling at start by Bhuvneshwar Kumar ,Varun Chakravarthy. Rahul Chahar was at his best struck thrice to make Sri Lanka bit anxious in the chase , which got prolonged to 14.3 overs. Kuldeep Yadav wasn't that penetrative as the other night. Rahul Chahar has certainly made his case for upcoming T20 World Cup selection.

Wanindu Hasaranga celebrated his birthday with 4 wickets for just 9 runs and bagged Man of the match and Series as well.

Barring a small banter here and there Series was played in a nice sporting spirit. 

It was such a pleasure to see Shikhar Dhawan sharing his experience with the young Sri Lanka team post presentation. No wonder cricket is still known as gentleman's game with such a sporting spirit rather - spirit of cricket -  on display.

- Vivek Ketkar