Picture Credit: BCCI
India won the ODI series by a margin of 2-1 against Sri Lanka and in the process, they continued their streak of winning bilateral ODI series against Lankans since 2007. Initially, India won first two games of the series and then, gave chances to other youngsters by making six changes in their side for 3rd ODI, but finally Sri Lanka were able to defeat India after a span of 9 years on the Lankan soil.
Let us have a look at what separated these two teams in the ODI series, pitch analysis in detail and the performances of Indian players in this series.
1. Conservative approach of Sri Lanka costed this ODI series for them
In the first two ODIs, if we observe the pattern of scoring rate of Sri Lanka and India, India scored at a healthy strike-rate throughout the innings while chasing. Meanwhile, Sri Lankans slowed their scoring rate very much in middle overs. The aggressive approach and positive intent from Indian youngsters ensured that they stood ahead of Sri Lanka in this ODI series. This factor ended up being a major difference between both sides in the first two ODIs.
Even in 2nd ODI, when India was losing wickets constantly in the chase still their run-rate was much ahead of required run-rate in the chase, which helped the pair of Deepak Chahar and Bhuvneshwar Kumar to stay calm and chase down the total by taking down the game till last over.
Graphical way of describing Ind and SL phase wise run-rate in the 1st ODI
As the graph shows above, the scoring rate of India has been high throughout the innings while Sri Lanka's scoring rate has been poor. Also, it should be noted that Sri Lanka lost 5 wickets in the phase of 11-40 overs, which put them under a lot of pressure and reduced their scoring rate significantly.
Scoring rate of the two teams in numbers for the 1st ODI:
Overs | SL run-rate | SL wickets | Ind run-rate | Ind wickets |
1-10 | 5.50 | 1 | 9.10 | 1 |
11-20 | 4.10 | 2 | 6.20 | 1 |
21-30 | 3.60 | 1 | 5.70 | 0 |
31-40 | 5.40 | 2 | 7.95 | 1 |
41-50 | 7.60 | 3 |
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Similarly the scoring rate in 2nd ODI graphically
Overs | SL run-rate | SL wickets | Ind run-rate | Ind wickets |
1-10 | 5.90 | 0 | 6 | 2 |
11-20 | 3.90 | 2 | 6.60 | 3 |
21-30 | 4.60 | 2 | 4.90 | 1 |
31-40 | 5.10 | 2 | 3.40 | 1 |
41-50 | 8.00 | 3 | 7.41 | 0 |
From the above table, it can be seen that Sri Lanka between overs 11-30, scored just 85 runs at a loss 4 wickets in a span of 20 overs which came at a run-rate of just 4.25. This costed them the game as it disabled them to put a big total. SL, despite smashing 80 runs in the last 10 overs(41-50) ended up posting a total of just 275 runs, which is 5.50 runs an over.
India, despite losing 5 wickets in the first 20 overs had scored at an aggressive rate. Ind were 126/5 after 20 overs (at 6.30 rpo) and that helped them be ahead of required run-rate(5.52) in the situation early on itself. As a result, India slowing down in the over 31-40 due to fall of wickets didn't allow the required run-rate to go high.
In the last 10 overs, when India needed 67 runs to win, Deepak Chahar went bang-on against the Lankan bowlers by smashing 47 off 40 balls himself.
2. Pitch favouring spin bowlers
In the ODI series most of the time the pitch looked batting friendly. However, most of the times when the breakthroughs came, it was through spin bowling only and most of the wickets were scalped by spinners only.
Spin bowlers - 24 wickets from 147.4 overs at a S.R of 36.91. (Bowl avg : 32.625)
Pace bowlers - 17 wickets from 120.2 overs at a S.R of 42.47. (Bowl avg : 42.17)
From the above numbers, it's clear that spinners had an edge over the fast bowlers in this 3 match ODI series.
It should also be noted that 5 out of the 17 wickets picked by pacers have been of tailenders (batting at no.8-11) position while only 2 out of 24 wickets picked by spinners have been the wicket of tailenders.
Again it shows top-order batsman have struggled against spin bowlers in this ODI series.
Wickets / Type of batsman | Top order batsman (No.1-7) | Tail enders (No.8-11) |
Spin bowler | 22 | 2 |
Pace bowler | 12 | 5 |
But in this series, a number 8 batsman like Chamika Karunaratne and Deepak Chahar played a valuable role for their team in death overs and both players remained unbeaten (not-out till the end of innings) in the first two ODIs.
Average 1st innings total in this ODI series: (262+275+(225/47)x50))/3 = 258.78.
If we take first two ODIs, despite the slow batting from SL with scores of 262 & 275, an average of 268.5 has been a decent total considering the limitations SL had in their team.
3. Players who performed well for India in this series :
(i.) Prithvi Shaw
The 21 year-old Mumbai opener smashed 105 runs in this series at an impressive S.R off 125.00.
Prithvi Shaw batting S.R in this series: 125
Other Indian batsman S.R in this series: 88.42
Prithivi Shaw runs per innings in this series: 35.00
Other Indian batsman runs per innings in this series: 27.31
From this graph, it can be seen clearly that Prithvi Shaw's aggressive intent (strike rate of 125) helped India stay ahead of the required run-rate early on and made it easier for upcoming batsman to chase down the total.
Prithvi Shaw also won MoM award for his important 43(24) in the 1st ODI and he was the 3rd highest run-scorer for India in this series after Dhawan and Suryakumar Yadav. He is also in the list of top-5 run-scorers for the SL vs Ind ODI series.
(ii.) Suryakumar Yadav
Suryakumar Yadav has been very impressive in his debut ODI series, smashing 124 runs from 3 innings at a healthy strike-rate of 122.77.
Suryakumar Yadav played a major role in winning the 2nd ODI game for India before Deepak Chahar's heroics. When all others were struggling in that game with the bat, only Suryakumar Yadav looked fluent with the bat and scored 53(44).
Also in the 3rd ODI, after a good start from Samson & Shaw, Indian middle order totally collapsed and only Suryakumar Yadav managed to smash 40 runs in that game. During the 1st ODI also, he was looking very fluent with bat during his short period of stay scoring 31*(20) while finishing the chase with skipper Dhawan.
Suryakumar Yadav was the only player who looked comfortable against spin when every other Indian batsman was struggling against Spin. Rightly so, he won the MoS award for his impressive showing in the series.
Suryakumar Yadav vs Spin in this ODI series - 73 runs from 54 balls at S.R off 135.2
(iii.) Yuzvendra Chahal
Yuzvendra Chahal scalped 5 wickets in first 2 ODIs and was the leading wicket-taker in this series. All those wickets came at a time when Sri Lanka were looking solid without losing a wicket at start of the play.
Yuzvendra Chahal in this ODI series : 2/52 (10) & 3/50 (10).
1st ODI: Chahal picked wicket on his very first ball. He dismissed dangerous-looking Avishka Fernando, who was going very well against the Indian attack in the first 10 overs.
2nd ODI: When the Lankan opening pair was going very strong, Chahal picked back-to-back two wickets in two balls and put SL on back-foot. Thereon, their run-rate reduced from 6 runs per to over to 5 runs an over.
Number of wickets picked by Ind bowlers in first two ODIs :
Yuzvendra Chahal: 5 wickets from 20 overs at a S.R of 24 (Bowl avg :- 20.4)
All other 5 bowlers: 11 wickets from 80 overs at a S.R of 43.63 (Bowl avg :- 38.81)
4. Indian Players who disappointed in this series
(i.) Manish Pandey
Manish Pandey smashed just 74 runs at a S.R of 82.22 with an average of 24.66. Though Manish Pandey was performing well in the 2nd ODI until that unfortunate run-out dismissal, he failed to create an impact in the 1st and 3rd ODI.
Manish Pandey's scores in this ODI series:
26(40) in 1st ODI
37(31) in 2nd ODI
11(19) in 3rd ODI
In all 3 ODIs, he was given a consistent run at the number 4 position ahead of Suryakumar Yadav but he couldn't capitalize on the opportunities and had a poor run.
Notably, in the 1st ODI, when the platform was set by other batsman for an easy win, Pandey struggled with the bat and wasn't fluent with his capabilities. This could end up being the last opportunity for Manish Pandey given his poor run throughout the series.
(ii.) Hardik Pandya
Hardik Pandya failed to hog the limelight in this 3 match ODI series. With the bat, he scored just 19 runs from 2 innings at a S.R of 95.
In the 3 match ODI series his bowling figures were 1/34(5), 0/20(4) & 1/43(5). He picked just 2 wickets at a bowling average of 48.50 at an economy of 6.92. Off those two wickets, one of the wicket was the wicket of tailender Isuru Udana in the 1st ODI.