SL VS IND - 3rd T20I, India tour of Sri Lanka, 2021

The winning captain - Shanaka receives the trophy and gives it to DDS who lifts it high up into the sky once and brings it down. That's a happy Sri Lankan unit and they will hopefully gain a lot from this win. The series is done as well with this game. Dhawan and Co. will head back to have a rest before the next assignment - unless anyone gets called up to England, don't rule that out. We end our coverage as well. The big 5-Test series between England and India starts on the 4th of August at Trent Bridge. That should be fun. Do join us for that and do catch up on all the other action on these pages. Till next time, this is Abhinand signing off on behalf of Akshay and Siva. Remember to stay safe and take care. Bye

Dasun Shanaka | Sri Lankan captain: I should thank BCCI, under these circumstances they agreed to play. Special thanks to Rahul Dravid and Shikhar Dhawan. This is the best performance we have had in the last few years. I had the (bowling) options with me and used them in the middle. (On fielding) Not only myself, all the boys are working really hard. In the last three months starting from the Bangladesh series, they were keen to win and they want to be world-class. The way Chameera started, the way Wanindu performed throughout, how Akila performed, how calm DDS was, and I should mention Karunaratne .. he is a gem to Sri Lankan cricket. All the boys did the right job. They handled the situation well and used their brains very well. I am lucky to lead this team. When a low score is set, it's good if you get a more positive start. But they are young and learning, they'll be better in the future.

Shikhar Dhawan | Indian captain: It was a difficult situation for us. As a team we decided to stay and play these games. Really proud of the boys as well. They showed great character in the last two games. Their attitude was tremendous. We wanted to win as well, in every game you learn. It was an off-day for our batting unit. We lost too many wickets, SL bowled well. When you lose early wickets, you get a lot of pressure, glad that we got to the 80s, that's all we managed today. Both teams played in great spirit. It's beautiful that we were competitive in the field and respect was there. The Sri Lankan boys wanted to know what's my process, I was just sharing my experience. I hope they enjoyed listening to it. And, congratulations to the Sri Lankan team.

Wanindu Hasaranga | Player of the Match and Player of the Series: Wicket was slow, our spinners bowled really well. When I bowl, I always try to bowl dot balls, that's why I pick wickets. Dasun was brilliant in the field. I am really happy because our boys did very well throughout the series.

Couple of stats from Deepu Narayanan
- First bilateral series win in 21 attempts for Sri Lanka against India across formats since Aug 2008.
- Also for the first time Sri Lanka have beaten India in eight bilateral T20I series.

This series in years to come will mostly be remembered for all those debuts from both sides and more importantly for the ones who weren't playing. And then COVID came into the scene just to say hello and throw up more unexpected debutants. Live pictures show around 10 Sri Lankan cricketers - including Dasun Shanaka - listening intently to Shikhar Dhawan who is giving his tips. That's so nice to see. Also shows the character of Dhawan who is well-liked by everyone around the cricketing world. Meanwhile the two coaches - Arthur and Dravid have a chat as well.

23:03 Local Time, 17:33 GMT, 23:03 IST: Respite for a young, struggling Sri Lankan side. This series win may have come probably against a second or even third-string Indian side, but they will happily take it. The bowlers did the job in particular the birthday boy Wanindu Hasaranga with a four-fer and from then on, it was just a matter of batting out the overs. India didn't have enough runs on the board, nor did they have the firepower with the ball to do a miracle. Maybe batting first in hindsight was the killer blow. Still better batting would've seen a competitive target posted. Big smiles from the usually-grumpy Mickey Arthur and good to see Shikhar Dhawan have a chat with Hasaranga at the end of the game. The series has been mostly played in good spirit. Do stay tuned for all the post-match stuff...

Chakravarthy to de Silva, wide, a bit of drama to end the game. Typical Dharmasena-style. Remember the 2019 World Cup final folks. Not quite that level though. Anyway Sri Lanka break their five-series (T20I) losing streak with this win. This is how they finished it off: Was a harmless ball down leg, made exciting by Chakravarthy and Samson's appealing for a caught behind. Dharmasena nods and belatedly raises the finger much to the amusement of DDS who reviews. Replays show it missed everything. Again Dharmasena takes his time and then stretches his arms to signal a wide. Then fist-bumps the bowler to end proceedings. Big smiles from everyone. They see the funny side of things

Given out caught behind by Dharmasena and DDS immediately reviews. Drama late-on. Nothing on UltraEdge. DDS will survive but what is Dharmasena's call now? Should be a wide and there he goes. Wide called.

Chakravarthy to de Silva, leg byes, 2 runs, too high to be given out. Chakravarthy appeals and does not get anything. The googly and de Silva played down the wrong line. Off the thigh and over the stumps. They sneak a couple

Chakravarthy to Hasaranga, 1 run, Hasaranga wants to finish it in one blow. Sees the toss-up and aims the mow over mid-wicket. Only off the thick inside half wide of the fielder

Chakravarthy to de Silva, 1 run, width as it's a length ball outside off, dabbed late to short third

Varun Chakravarthy [3.0-0-12-0] is back into the attack

Warrier to Hasaranga, no run, beautiful delivery to end. Slips in the fullish slower delivery and does Hasaranga in. Hasaranga tries to drive and is beaten

Warrier to Hasaranga, no run, good short ball. Warrier is trying and that's commendable. Bends his back and gets this to lift off from the pitch, takes Hasaranga by surprise, who is on the hop to try and defend. Off the glove and well in front of the wide slip

Mycroft: "@Sherlock , Before writing off Sanju Samson, please consider number of chances Pant got. And yes amount of cricket India is playing, we will always need additional wicket keepers. I think Sanju is still in the race with Ishan Kishan."

Warrier to de Silva, 1 run, de Silva dabs that length ball down to third man

Warrier to Hasaranga, 5 runs, horrible. Just plain mediocre from Nitish Rana at backward point. There's a straightish mid-on of sorts who is the only man inside the ring on the on-side, and he throws at the stumps after de Silva was well in. Large acres of space near the mid-wicket area and it slowly rolls away to beat the chasing Bhuvi. 4 runs just gifted away

Wide slip and it is Dhawan

Warrier to de Silva, 1 run, more oomph on this short ball, around shoulder-height, de Silva pulls to fine leg

Warrier to de Silva, FOUR, now DDS into the act. Was helped by a rib-high short ball, de Silva swivels and rolls his wrists on the pull, wide of mid-wicket and deep square just jogged across to retrieve the ball. No chance for him anyway