India vs Sri Lanka tie marred by crowd trouble; Virat Kohli’s side clinch series
The India vs Sri Lanka ODI in Pallekele was marred by crowd trouble as the local fans threw water bottles on to the pitch but it could not stop India from sealing a six-wicket win and the series.
The third One-day International between India and Sri Lanka was marred by crowd trouble on Sunday with the visitors on the verge of clinching victory to seal the five-match series with two games to spare.
Sri Lankan fans, who had turned out in large numbers and were on the grass banks, began throwing water bottles with India needing just eight runs to seal victory, after Rohit Sharma struck his 12th ODI century.
With the spectators continuing to hurl bottles, play was stopped and the players huddled at the centre of the pitch. Mahendra Singh Dhoni even lay on the pitch for a while.
The ground staff rushed to clear the bottles from the field but the crowd continued to boo the Sri Lankan team that has struggled all through this home series against India after losing an ODI series against Zimbabwe.
After waiting for almost half an hour, the umpires asked the players to head to the dressing room while policemen spread out to the trouble spots. Even a group of riot police arrived to guide the spectators out of the ground. The bottle throwing stopped as more force arrived in this town, about 30-minutes drive from Kandy.
Sri Lankan team has faced the ire of the fans for the poor performances. At Dambulla, after India clinched the game by nine wickets, a group of Sri Lankan spectators blocked the Sri Lankan team bus before police cleared the path.
Play resumed after almost 30 minutes and the game ended with MS Dhoni flicking a full toss from Vishwa Fernando to deep mid wicket to clinch the match and the series.
