IMAGES from the 3rd ODI played between Sri Lanka and India, in Colombo, on Wednesday.
Debutant Riyan Parag's excellent spell of off-breaks helped India offset a well-paced 96 by Avishka Fernando and a stubborn fifty by Kusal Mendis to keep Sri Lanka to a par but manageable 248 for seven in the third and final ODI in Colombo on Wednesday.
Sri Lanka lead the series 1-0 following their win in the second ODI and the first match ended in a tie.
Fernando's knock that came off 102 balls (9x4, 2x6) guided the home side during the most assured batting phase yet in this series, before Parag (3/54 in 9 overs) engineered a familiar mid-innings collapse with his mix of off and leg-spin.
However, the Lankans also had the aid of a pitch that had relatively less bite on it than the ones in the previous games.
But none of it could take away the credit from the effort of Fernando, who stitched two fine partnerships – an 89 for the opening wicket with Pathum Nissanka (45, 65b, 5x4, 2x6) and 82 with Kusal Mendis (59, 82b, 4x4) for the second wicket.
In both those alliances, Fernando was the dominant partner at varying degrees.
Nissanka often matched his associate in aggression, evidenced by the two slog swept sixes off left-arm spinner Axar Patel.
But the blooming stand was cut short by Axar, whose wide delivery was smashed into the hands of Rishabh Pant, who was playing his first ODI since his comeback from that horrific car crash, by Nissanka.
Sri Lanka stayed ahead of India through the Fernando-Kusal partnership, but this time the former was the enforcer.
Fernando spoiled the figures of Mohammed Siraj (1/78 in 9 overs), who was unusually wayward in his line and length.
In fact, the Lankan right-hander enjoyed the extra speed of Siraj that enabled him to unfurl his bread and butter pull shot twice in a row to muscle the Indian for sixes.
There were deft touches too like a silken flick off Siraj that sped to the square leg boundary.
However, just when he was within touching distance of his fourth ODI hundred, Fernando missed a skiddy leg-break from Parag to get caught in front of the wicket.
At 171 for two in the 36th over, Lanka had a very good platform to push towards a total in the vicinity of 280 or a bit more.
But Parag removed skipper Charith Asalanka (10), who was trapped leg before, and Dunith Wellalage (2) that denied Lanka the late-order momentum.
The ball that got rid of Wellalage, who has been a thorn for India in this series, was a gem. Parag pitched an overspun delivery on the off-stump and it turned away marginally to beat the down-coming bat of the left-hander to rattle the stumps.
Soon Siraj saw the back of Sadeera Samarawickrama and Washington Sundar castled Janith Liyanage as SL slipped to 199 for six, losing five wickets for 28 runs.
Kusal and Kamindu Mendis added 36 runs for the seventh wicket to push them close to 250. With pitch offering significant turn towards the latter half of the Sri Lankan innings, India will find it difficult to chase down the target.