Wanindu Hasaranga four-for leads Sri Lanka claim 2-1 series win

Sri Lanka 82 for 3 (de Silva 23*, Chahar 3-15) beat India 81 for 8 (Kuldeep 23*, Hasaranga 4-9, Shanaka 2-20) by 7 wickets

Colombo: Sri Lanka spinners led by leg-spinner Wanindu Hasaranga rattled a depleted Indian batting to engineer a 2-1 series victory with a seven-wicket win in the third T20 International at R.Premadasa Stadiumon Thursday.

Batting first, India playing with at least two batsmen short were restricted to their third lowest total of 81 for 8 with Hasaranga getting 4 for 9 in 4 overs.

In reply, Sri Lanka reached the target in 14.3 overs with Dhananjaya De Silva (23*) scoring bulk of the runs. Rahul CHahar finished with 3/15 in 4 overs.

With this, they have won the 3-match T20 series by 2-1. This is Sri Lankan team's first bilateral T20I series win over India.

Earlier out of 7 series, India had won 6 series. The series held in 2009/10 was a 1–1 draw.

Batting first after winning the toss, India scored 81 for 8 in 20 overs.

Today is the birthday of Sri Lankan spinner Wanindu Hasaranga. During this, he took 4 wickets for just 9 runs. In reply, Sri Lanka won the match by scoring 82 for 3 in 14.3 overs. Dhananjay de Silva remained not out on 23 runs and Hasaranga 14 runs.

It is also Sri Lanka's first win over India in 21 bilateral series since August 2008. With this victory, Sri Lanka also broke the losing streak of the last five series. Sri Lanka had last defeated Pakistan 3-0 in T20 in 2019.

This is Team India's first defeat in the last 9 bilateral T20 series. Earlier out of 8 series, India had won 7 series and 1 series was drawn.

81 runs in T20 was the lowest score of Team India while batting first against Sri Lanka. Earlier in 2016 in Pune, Team India was all out after scoring 101 runs in 18.5 overs. Sri Lanka won this match by 5 wickets.

The special thing is that Shanaka, who took 2 wickets in this match, also took 3 wickets in that match. Team India's lowest score in overall T20 is 74 runs. This he made in 2008 against Australia in Melbourne.

Dhawan and Sanju Samson were dismissed for 0. Team India's 7 batsmen could not even touch the double figure.

Kuldeep Yadav remained unbeaten with 23 runs. Apart from Hasaranga, Sri Lankan captain Dasun Shanaka took 2 and Dushmantha Chamira-Ramesh Mendis took 1-1 wickets.

Wanindu Hasaranga is the Player of the Match as well as the Player of the Series.