Team India had only five batters to play with and all five of them were back in the hut by the ninth over as the visitors could score only 81 runs for the loss of eight wickets in their 20 overs against Sri Lanka in the third T20I in Colombo.
Apart from skipper Shikhar Dhawan, who fell in the first over to pacer Dushmantha Chameera, the rest of the top-order fell to the spinners. Off-spinner Ramesh Mendis trapped Devdutt Padikkal in front of the wickets, the birthday boy Wanindu Hasaranga sprung into the action dismissing Ruturaj Gaikwad and Sanju Samson in space of three balls.
After which, it was a struggle all the way to play the complete 20 overs as a 20-run stand between Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Kuldeep Yadav ensured that the team will breach their lowest score in the T20Is.
Sri Lanka led by Dasun Shanaka, fielded exceptionally as he himself grabbed a couple of one-handed stunners and the whole team was charged up diving her, stopping runs there.
Kuldeep was the highest scorer for the team playing an unbeaten knock of 23 runs but he could only do so much as India ended up on 81/8, which was their third-lowest score in the T20Is after 74 against Australia in Melbourne in 2008 and 79 against New Zealand in the 2016 T20 World Cup.
Users on Twitter came up with hilarious reactions to the collapse. Here are some of them:
Victory to team india : pic.twitter.com/WXa63MYwoS
— Swara(@SwaraMsdian) July 29, 2021
Cricket Fans after seen today's match #INDvSL #SLvIND #INDvsSL2021 pic.twitter.com/36PxSQkOfN
— Ashutosh Srivastava (@kingashu_786) July 29, 2021
Sri Lankans to Indian debutants: "Sabko Batting Milegi" #SLvIND
— Sparsh (@MudgalSparsh) July 29, 2021
Mood right now #SLvIND pic.twitter.com/95nA9Ypp3h
— Wasim Jaffer (@WasimJaffer14) July 29, 2021
Rahul Dravid Right now#SLvIND pic.twitter.com/e7uWytTarb
— Swara(@SwaraMsdian) July 29, 2021
One Covid case changed everything.
— Karthik Kashyap (@karthik__kr) July 29, 2021
#SLvIND pic.twitter.com/zKRCTiQJVl
— Nitish Chauhan (@NitsRajput7) July 29, 2021
If someone had told me Bhuvneshwar Kumar would bat inside the Powerplay in an international match *without being promoted* I would never have taken them seriously.
— Abhishek Mukherjee (@SachinAzharCT) (@ovshake42) July 29, 2021
Batting in PP Bowling in PP
Bhuvneshwar Kumar
— Sritama Panda (@cricketpun_duh) July 29, 2021