Sri Lanka were given a wake-up call ahead of their World T20 title defence as they were ripped out for 82 and crashed to a nine-wicket defeat in the series-deciding Twenty20 international against India at Visakhapatnam.
The tourists meekly surrendered any hope of winning the three-game series, or grabbing the chance to replace India at the top of the Twenty20 rankings that a win would have supplied, once they lost two wickets in the very first over from Ravichandran Ashwin.
A brittle batting order were completely befuddled by Ashwin, who returned four for eight from four overs, while his spin colleagues Ravindra Jadeja and Suresh Raina were similarly effective as they combined for three for 17 from six overs.
Sri Lanka’s total would have been even worse had Yuvraj Singh’s only over not cost 15 – a blip in an otherwise dominant bowling display – as only Dasun Shanaka, in his fourth international, and Thisara Perera reached double figures.
India’s chase was therefore a matter of when, not if, they would knock off the target and they managed it in 13.5 untroubled overs.
Shikhar Dhawan hit an unbeaten 46 while Ajinkya Rahane added 22. Rohit Sharma was the only batsman to fall when lbw to Dushmantha Chameera.
Sri Lanka have a month to pick themselves up before the World T20, when they are in Pool A with England, while India are due to kick-off the main group stage of the tournament against New Zealand in Nagpur on March 15.
Source: ECB