India today broke a 22-year-old jinx on Sri Lankan soil with an emphatic 117-run win over the hosts in the third and final cricket Test, recording their first ever overseas series triumph from a 0-1 deficit.
After setting a daunting victory target of 386, India managed to dismiss Sri Lankan for 268 despite captain Angelo Mathews valiant century to wrap up the series 2-1, their first overseas series victory since June, 2011 against the West Indies. This also marks the first win under Virat Kohli's captaincy.
Ravichandran Ashwin took four wickets Tuesday to propel India to its first test series win in Sri Lanka in 22 years. With 21 wickets, R. Ashwin was also named the Man of the Series. India hadn’t won a test series in Sri Lanka since 1993 under captain Mohammad Azharuddin.
Angelo Mathews scored a fighting 110 and shared 135 runs for the sixth wicket with Kusal Perera (70), giving Sri Lanka a chance to save the test. But Perera’s dismissal shortly before tea exposed the tail and the hosts lost their remaining wickets in five overs after the break.
Fast bowler Ishant Sharma took three important wickets, of which Angelo Mathews turned out to be doubly special as it marked a 200th Test wicket milestone for Sharma.
Sri Lanka won the first test in Galle by 63 runs and India won the second match by 278 runs.
Sri Lanka started the day at 67/3. Kaushal Silva was the first to be dismissed, caught by Cheteshwar Pujara off seamer Umesh Yadav for 27, ending a 53-run stand for the fourth wicket with Mathews.
Lahiru Thirmanne (12) was caught by Lokesh Rahul off spinner Ravichandran Ashwin, reducing Sri Lanka to 107-5.
Thirimanne’s dismissal brought Mathews and Perera together and the pair brought up their partnership off 233 balls.
Perera made half centuries in each innings of his maiden test with 55 in the first innings. He lost concentration shortly before the tea break and was caught trying to reverse-sweep Ashwin.
India took the second new ball in the first over after tea and Sharma immediately dismissed Mathews after a 328—minute vigil, facing 240 deliveries and hitting 13 boundaries.
Meanwhile, the International Cricket Council charged India bowler Sharma and Sri Lanka’s Dhammika Prasad, Dinesh Chandimal and Thirimanne with breaching the code of conduct for their angry confrontations on Monday.
The players were involved in a series of arguments during India’s second innings after Prasad directed several bouncers at tail-end batsman Sharma.
The details of the charges are expected to be announced later Tuesday.
