Watch: India snatch breathtaking win with three wickets in final over vs SL-A
India-A, under the leadership of Tilak Varma, snatched a breathtaking victory by just eight runs against Sri Lanka A as they picked three wickets in four balls of the final over.
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The opening game of the Tri-Nation A series in Sri Lanka 2026, which included India and Afghanistan at the Rangiri Dambulla International Stadium in Dambulla, focused on the batting of Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, but the blue brigade pulled off a nervy victory by eight runs in their 277-run defense.
At the toss, the India A captain, Tilak Varma, hoped to get a score of 275 runs on a surface that was expected to get slow in the second innings. There was a long period when Sri Lanka were ahead in the run chase before the visitors made a strong comeback towards the death overs.
Three wickets in four balls — How Arshad Khan and Kamboj broke Sri Lanka A's chase
With two overs to go, the home side needed 10 runs and had three wickets in hand, including Wanuja Sahan, who was unbeaten on 22 runs off 15 balls. Arshad Khan, the left-arm pacer, was given the role to bowl the penultimate over.
Watch India-A's thrilling victory here-
On the very first ball of the over, Arshad trapped V Viyaskanth leg before the stumps with a good length delivery as the batter tried to whip away but got beaten by the pace and was rapped on the pads. The umpire raised his finger to give the final verdict.
On the very next delivery, Wanuja was run out as India smelled the victory. Mohamed Shiraz chipped the ball back to the bowler, where Ruturaj Gaikwad moved across from mid-wicket, collected the ball, and took off the bails with the batter way down the wicket.
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On the fifth delivery of the over, Arshad sent back Shiraz for a three-ball duck to script their eight-run victory from a position where they hardly had a chance to clinch the win.
Ruturaj Gaikwad's 101 and Tilak Varma's 60 — How India built the platform at Dambulla
India’s openers, Sooryavanshi and Prabhsimran Singh, returned with a low score respectively before Gaikwad and Tilak bailed them out of trouble with a fine 150-run stand for the fourth wicket. The right-handed batter smashed a fine 101-run knock with the help of six boundaries and three sixes.
Tilak clubbed 60 runs while Suyansh Shedge contributed an aggressive knock of unbeaten 26 runs off 14 balls at a strike rate of 185.71, thanks to one four and two sixes to shoulder India A to 277/6 in their allotted 50 overs.
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Sri Lanka made a good start with the bat in the chase with an opening partnership of 93 runs. But most of their batters failed to convert their starts into big scores while their captain, Sahan Arachchige, got 74 runs off 72 balls. The hosts lost their last five wickets for just 32 runs and fell short of the target by eight runs.
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The fans enjoyed the thriller and reacted variously on social media as India bagged a fine win by just eight runs in Dambulla-
Follow live scorecard of first unofficial ODI in IND-A vs SL-A
IND-A- 277/6 (Ruturaj Gaikwad 101, Tilak Varma 60, Mohamed Shiraz 2/67) vs SL-A- 269 (Sahan Arachchige 74, Arshad Khan 2/24, Ayush Badoni 2/46) by 8-runs.
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