India usually play on good wickets and small boundaries: Theekshana

Sri Lanka made full use of the spin-friendly conditions in Colombo and defeated India 2-0 in the One-Day International series, which concluded on August 7. Sri Lankan spinner Maheesh Theekshana said Indian batters are used to playing on “good wickets and small boundaries” at home and that worked against them.

The first game ended in a tie but Sri Lanka won the second encounter by 32 runs to take a 1-0 lead in the series. In the third ODI, the hosts posted a total of 248/7 and then bundled India out for just 138 in 26.1 overs. India lost 27 wickets to spin - the most for them in an ODI series.

"They (India) usually play on good wickets and small boundaries in India. We knew playing in Premadasa, if there's a little bit of turn, we can take advantage because we have good spinners. Even in domestic, the wickets are like this and our batters know how to play," said Theekshana.

The last time Sri Lanka defeated India in an ODI series was in 1997. On top of that, Sri Lanka were coming into this ODI series after being whitewashed in the three-match T20I series. “For me, it's a confidence booster as a team. 

“We lost the T20 series 3-0. The whole team was disappointed and we took it as motivation. Very happy to play the last game and win the series after 1997. It's a huge victory for us and I am really proud to be part of the XI.”

Talking about the bowling unit, Theekshana said: “When we were batting first, we thought the wicket would be much better than the first two matches. We had to bowl more good deliveries than the last couple of matches. 

“Rohit came into bat and attacked me, Asitha got a good start, came back and got Shubman, and then Wellalage was brilliant, Vandersay did a great job... Hasaranga in the first game, Akila bowled economically in both games. I wanted to bowl more dot balls. It was a team effort. All the players contributed, that's why we ended up winning 2-0.”

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