India registers comfortable victory over Sri Lanka in third T20; completes series with 3-0 clean sweep

Mumbai, December 25: Indian cricket team on Sunday registered a comfortable victory over Sri Lanka by five wickets in the third Twenty20 international to complete a 3-0 whitewash in Mumbai. Notably, after crushing Sri Lanka in the first two games, Indian players again displayed matured game and won the exciting match and hosts thus completed a 3-0 clean sweep of the series to wind up the year on a high before they embark on the South African safari a few days later.

 

Chasing a mere total of 136 runs for victory, the hosts overhaul the target in the last over with 4 balls to spare. Dinesh Karthik and MS Dhoni’s steady innings of 18 not out and 16 not out respectively led the host to win the match easily.

However, India lost early wickets as in-form openers captain Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul after scoring only 27 and 14 runs respectively. This affected India’s run rate as Shreyas Iyer and Manish Pandey found the going tough against a Sri Lankan bowling attack. Iyer was looking in a good touch last long and was caught behind off Shanka, whom Pandey had smashed for two consecutive fours in the same over.

Lankan Pacer Dushmanta Chameera cleaned up Pandey who scored 32 runs off 29 balls with a faster but straight delivery, bringing Dhoni at the crease with India requiring 28 from 23 balls. Boundaries were still hard to come but Dinesh Karthik 18 not out tilted the match in India's favour by hitting a massive six off Nuwan Pradeep's full toss in the last ball of the 19th over.

Earlier, after being inserted into bat, the Sri Lankan batsmen struggled to stitch partnerships as they lost wickets at regular intervals. By the end of the fourth over itself, the visitors had lost three wickets for 18 runs. Asela Gunaratne (36) tried to prop up the innings but couldn't receive much support from others. Shanaka (29*) and Dananjaya (11*) down the order added useful runs. The duo collected 18 runs off the final over bowled by Mohammed Siraj to lift Sri Lanka to a total of some respectability.

Jaydev Unadkat was the best bowler on show for the home side, finishing with figures of 2 for 15 off four overs. He used slower ones to good effect to pick up the scalps of Upul Tharanga and Niroshan Dickwella. Hardik Pandya also bagged a couple of scalps, with Washington Sundar, the debutant, Siraj and Kuldeep Yadav taking one wicket each. Indian pacer Jaydev Unadkat clinched Man of the Match and Man of the Series Trophy.

Brief scores: Sri Lanka 135/7 in 20 overs (Asela Gunaratne 36; Jaydev Unadkat 2-15, Hardik Pandya 2-25) lost to India 139/5 in 19.2 overs (Manish Pandey 32, Shreyas 30; Dushmantha Chameera 2-22) by 5 wickets.