IND vs SL: The third T20 is being held at Pallekele, and Sri Lanka’s new skipper, Charith Asalanka, won the toss and elected to bowl as he put Surya led India to bat first. The Indians have batted well in the previous two matches.
However, this time India likely made several changes to their squad. Rishabh Pant, Hardik Pandya, and Arshdeep Singh have been rested for the game as Shivam Dube, Shubman Gill, and Khaleel Ahmed came into their starting XI.
Gill failed to perform well as he batted too many balls for his highest score of 39. The dynamic opener Jaiswal and also skipper Suryakumar Yadav failed to perform this time. India collapsed with Parag bringing in a counterattack and also Washington handing in some crucial runs as he was brought in for Axar Patel.
India again did not start very well with the ball, as the Lankans went 90 with the loss of just one wicket; however, Indian spinners now pulled off a stunner, as Bishnoi and Sundar struck thrice to resist Sri Lanka to 118/4. After the main spinners ended their quota of overs, then came Gambhir’s antics as he instructed the skipper to call in Rinku Singh for bowling the 19th over of the game.
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With just 9 runs left, Rinku came to bowl, seeing the spin-favoring track. Rinku amazed all as he picked 2 wickets in the over and gave just 3 runs away, as Surya the skipper himself came to defend 6 runs in the last over and gave away only 2 runs in four balls and picked 2 wickets as well.
The Lankan batters took the score to a tie, and the game went into the super over. This once again reflected Gambhir’s unconventional techniques that were intended to give only promising results.
Washington Sundar was given the ball in the super over as India came in to bowl. Kusal Perera took a single off the first ball followed by an extra run; however, Sundar got rid of the two other batters, Perera and Nissanka, resisting Sri Lanka to a score of 2. The skipper hit a four of the first ball to take India home with a clean sweep over the hosts in the T20 series with a 3-0 victory.
Question remains who will be given the POTM, Washington Sundar, SKY, Rinku Singh or the tactical genius Gautam Gambhir?