Cricket Dugout News: Sri Lanka wins the first home ODI series against Australia since 1992

Australian batters limped and fought valiantly to take the match to the final over but were overshadowed by Sri Lanka's platoons of spinners, especially Dhananjaya de Silva, who contributed both with bat and ball. All this began with Charith Asalanka's maiden ODI century and Dhananjaya de Silva's 60 off 61 as they lifted Lankans, who were sinking at 34/3. 

IPL biggies continued to add flavor to the series

The series gave a chance to a few players to continue their ever-impressing form from IPL to carry forward in this series. Throughout the series, we saw a heavy dominance for RCB stars, all the way from Glenn Maxwell's fiery show to Wanindu Hasaranga's googlies and Josh Hazelwood's wicket-taking spells. Apart from these, the Australian captain Aaron Finch who didn't have a great IPL, showed why he is always ready for international games along with his opening partner David Warner. The new Sri Lanka talent like Maheesh Theekshana also used his experience to adjust to the situation against the World Class batters. He impressed everyone with his economical and wicket-taking spells.

Colombo pitch: ruled by Sri Lankan spinners

From successfully posting a decent target to spinners weaving webs of wickets for their stumbling batting order left, David Warner 99 in vain. Yes! For the first time in ODI history of ODI cricket, the opening batters of a team got dismissed for a dreadful score combo of 0 (Aaron Finch) and 99 (David Warner). Australians found it very challenging to handle the spin department of hosts. The ball on the pitch stayed low and turned a mile, making it incredibly difficult to bat on. 

To much interest, this was the tenth time that the spinners bowled 250-plus balls in Men's ODI innings. Out of these ten times, eight came from Sri Lanka, five being at RPS Colombo. In the third match, Sri Lankan spinners were at 36-0-177-5 in contrast to Australia's 25-0-163-1. Continuing to the third match, Sri Lanka took to the field with spin-centricity, in contrast to the visitors, who had very few spin options in the playing XI. The figures for Sri Lankan spinners went to 43-1-207-7 in the fourth game.

Series win - a parallel universe of happier times for Sri Lanka citizens

Suffering the times of the worst economic crisis since their Independence, winning this series after a wait of 30-long years provided fans with something to cheer about in these times of hardships. Every Sri Lankan's memory will be etched with a sense of achievement for a long time.

The moment left the fellow citizens so emotional that fans and cricketers couldn't stop pouring positive and congratulatory messages amid the gloomy yet memorable time. 

Former Sri Lankan cricketer Sanath Jayasuriya tweeted, "Congratulations to the victorious Sri Lankan team for a fantastic series victory against the Aussies at home after 30 years! A true team effort. Well done boys! Feeling so emotional."

Journalist Arfa Feroz Zake wrote, "Sri Lanka is facing an economic crisis where the country is in a state of unreal shock and instability but in the meanwhile, SL cricket team made sure to bring back smiles on the faces of their people. Such is an impact of sports on any nation. So happy for Sri Lanka! #SLvAUS".

"Congratulations @OfficialSLC for a series win! 12 years since last won a bilateral series against the mighty Aussies done in style. Massive win for everyone in & around the cricketing circle! Well done to all involved. Huge shoutout to the fans who turned up in numbers #SLvAUS," tweets Farveez Maharoof.