Colombo: The shockingly clueless Indian batting unit was strangled by crafty Sri Lankan spinners, led by five-wicket man Dunith Wellalage, as Rohit Sharma's men crashed to an embarrassing 110-run defeat in the third and final ODI in Colombo on Wednesday.
Sri Lanka won the three-match series 2-0 after the first match ended in a tie, and this is the Islanders' first bilateral ODI series victory over India since 1997.
Chasing a competitive 249 on a sharp turner at Premadasa, India were bowled out for a woeful 138 in 26.1 overs, and the new head coach Gautam Gambhir will have a few hard points to ponder early into his stint.
The left-arm spinner Wellalage, who hurt India with the bat till now, chose to bruise the visitors by ball taking five for 27 after opener Avishka Fernando made a well-paced 96 to carry Lanka to 248 for seven.
However, India had a rather good beginning, despite the early departure of Shubman Gill, to their chase, courtesy Rohit Sharma's breakneck 35 off 20 balls that included an 18-run over off Maheesh Theekshana.
Once Rohit walked back, the rest of the Indian batters submerged into a whirlpool of confusion.
Virat Kohli (20) played for turn when there was none and was adjudged leg before to Wellalage.
Rishabh Pant, who was playing his first ODI after his comeback from that horrific car crash, trotted down the track and was beaten in the air by Theekshana to eventually get stumped by Kusal.
Riyan Parag, who made his ODI debut while coming in place of Arshdeep Singh, offered no shot to a straight one from leg-spinner Jeffrey Vandersay to get bowled for 15.
In between, Shreyas Iyer also fell leg before to Wellalage, taking the total number of lbw and clean bowled dismissals in this Indian innings to seven, and no other crumb of statistics will offer a clearer picture of the muddled Indian minds than that.
Before their spinners pushed Indian batters deep into trouble, Lanka managed to work through the Indian bowling through opener Avishka Fernando (96, 102 balls, 9x4, 2x6) and Kusal (59, 82b, 4x4).
India fought through an excellent spell of off-spin by Parag (3/54) but apart from Kuldeep Yadav (1/36) there was no real assistance for him.
Brief scores: Sri Lanka 248/7 in 50 overs (Avishka Fernando 96, Kusal Mendis 59; Riyan Parag 3-54, Washington Sundar 1-29) beat India 138 all out in 26.1 overs (Rohit Sharma 35, Washington Sundar 30; Dunith Wellalage 5-27, Jeffrey Vandersay 2-34) by 110 runs. Agencies
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