"I played in that 1997 series.." Sanath Jayasuriya speaks after Sri Lanka's historic ODI series win against India

Sanath Jayasuriya showered praise on the Sri Lankan team for bouncing back after losing the T20I series.

Sri Lanka ended their 27-year wait of registering an ODI series victory over India when on Wednesday, at the R. Premadasa Stadium in Colombo, they thrashed Rohit Sharma’s team by 110 runs in the third ODI of the series.

The first ODI ended in a tie and the hosts won the second ODI by 32 runs. A victory in the third game sealed a historic series win for Charith Asalanka’s team.

Sri Lanka’s interim head coach Sanath Jayasuriya basked in the glory of this team and reflected on their performances.

Jayasuriya was part of the Sri Lankan side that defeated India in an ODI series in 1997, the last time until this series when Sri Lanka won an ODI series over the Men In Blue. The left-hander had smashed three half-centuries in four innings in that series.

Jayasuriya said, “It was a very long wait because that series I played in 1997 and got a lot of runs in that series. That was the last series we won against India. After 27 years, I am part of the team and I am very happy to be part of these boys. They are a very nice bunch of players and are talented and the whole country would have seen what we can do.“

The boys went through a very, very hard time: Sanath Jayasuriya

The Sri Lankan team were criticised heavily after being whitewashed in the T20I series, particularly for how they lost the third T20I, failing to chase 30 runs in the last five overs.

Sanath Jayasuriya was proud of the way his team bounced back from the T20I series loss to win the ODI series.

“The boys went through a very, very hard time. Even during the T20 series we played well but the result was not what was expected. The players realised what went wrong when we came back to Colombo and they started to play well,” he added.

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