Jasprit Bumrah's maiden five-wicket haul and the other talking points from India's win over Sri Lanka

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  • Maiden five-wicket haul for India's Jasprit Bumrah

    After finally showing some fighting spirit in the previous match at Pallekele, Sri Lanka displayed some again on Sunday in the third ODI of the five-match series at Kandy.

    Once again, it wasn’t enough to make a significant dent on the in-form men of Virat Kohli as the visitors romped home to a six-wicket win to take an unassailable 3-0 lead after being set a modest target of 218 by the islanders.

    Chamara Kapugedera had become the latest Sri Lankan ODI captain after regular skipper Upul Tharanga was given a two-match ban for his side’s slow over rate in Dambulla.

    The stand-in skipper had the rub of the luck in the toss and chose to bat first on a Kandy pitch which offered some assistance to seamers and spinners alike.

    While the crowd trouble towards the end was not a pretty sight, we take a look at the three key talking points on another frustrating day for the hosts.

    Jasprit Bumrah captures his maiden five-for

    Bumrah had been outstanding in Pallekele where he garnered four wickets in an impressive display of subtle variations in pace. He continued in the same vein on Sunday as he wrecked havoc in his first spell, accounting for both Sri Lankan openers.

    He first had Niroshan Dickwella with a searing yorker on leg-stump which wrapped the batsman on the pads. The Indian pacer’s vociferous appeal was denied by the umpire but a confident Bumrah had no hesitation in asking Kohli to opt for the review.

    His instincts turned out to be right and off went Dickwella. The 23-year-old seamer then had Kusal Mendis edging to a beautiful out-swinger as Rohit Sharma at second-slip pulled off an outstanding diving catch.

    Siriwardana's stumps are shattered by Bumrah.

    Siriwardana’s stumps are shattered by Bumrah.

    The death-overs specialist returned in the fag-end to remove the dangerous looking Lahiru Thirimanne with a clever slower-delivery after the batsman had made a valuable 80.

    The youngster then sent the stumps of Akila Dananjaya and Milinda Siriwardana flying with his deadly accuracy to claim his first ever five-wicket haul in ODI’s and becoming only the first Indian to do so in the last three years as he finished with brilliant figures of 5-27.

    Akila Dananjaya bamboozles the Indians again

    After the young Sri Lankan spinner’s destruction of the Indian batting-order in Pallekele, Kohli had remarked that they were a bit surprised by the variations in Danajaya’s kitty, especially the googly.

    The Indian skipper had added that they would study the unknown youngster more in detail and be much better prepared for Sunday’s clash.

    It turns out that the Indians still have a lot to study about the 23-year-old spinner. After losing opener Shikhar Dhawan and skipper Kohli cheaply, KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma had slowly started to re-take the initiative with a solid-looking partnership.

    However, Dananjaya put the brakes on the Indians as Rahul could only swat a long-hop from the spinner straight into the hands of Thirimanne at deep midwicket. While Rahul had gifted his wicket to a poor delivery, there was no doubt about the quality of Dananjaya’s dismissal of Kedar Jadhav in his very next over.

    Dananjaya had Jadhav dismissed twice in as many matches.

    Dananjaya had Jadhav dismissed twice in as many matches.

    Jhadav was trapped on the pads trying to sweep a leg-break from the Sri Lankan to be dismissed by the same bowler twice in succession. From 2-61, all of a sudden India were reduced to 4-61, handing the initiative to the islanders.

    Frustrated crowd turns ugly in farcical end

    With India just eight runs away from victory, some of the Sri Lankan supporters had had enough of the team’s woeful performance in recent times and let emotions get the better of them.

    Plastic bottles were thrown in abundance into the field from a couple of stands. When the situation did not resolve, the umpires stopped play and took both sets of players off the field.

    It was a scene reminiscent of India’s loss to the islanders in the 1996 World Cup though it was the hosts’ turn this time to face the wrath of the angry crowd.

    In the end, play was interrupted by over half an hour before the umpires bought both set of players back to the field. After the protests in front of the Sri Lankan team bus in Dambulla, the crowd disruption on Sunday will not be a happy sight for a Sri Lanka struggling with transitional issues.

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