Shikhar Dhawan’s brilliant, unbeaten 100 helped India to its eighth consecutive bilateral series win at home since June 2016. The Rohit Sharma-led team scored an emphatic, eight-wicket win over Sri Lanka in the third and final one-dayer to clinch the three-match series 2-1 at the Dr. Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy Stadium here on Sunday.
The hosts brilliant all-round performance ensured that Sri Lanka’s dismal record of never winning a ODI series in India remains intact!
Chasing a modest target of 216, India got off to a bad start with Rohit Sharma clean bowled by offie Akila Dananjaya. The opener completely missed the line of the ball as he offered a lose defensive shot in the fourth over of the innings.
But for that early big blow, the Lankan bowlers never really posed any serious threat to the Indian batsmen.
Dhawan, who scored his 12th ODI century and also crossed the 4000 mark in the process, and the exciting Shreyas Iyer put on 135 runs which dented any hopes the Lankans may have had of coming back into the game. It was also a partnership in which the more experienced Dhawan let the young Shreyas dominate.
To his credit, Shreyas played some brilliant strokes either side of the wicket; the flowing cover drive off Angelo Mathews and the huge six off left-arm spinner Sachith Pathirana over mid-wicket standing out.
However, like in Mohali, the well-set Shreyas failed to convert a solid start into a three-figure mark. He mistimed an audacious pull off Thisara Perera to be caught at mid-on.
At the other end, the 32-year-old Dhawan was more composed. He came up with his trademark strokes to ensure that India reached the target comfortably in the company of Dinesh Karthik.
Earlier, the Sri Lankan innings withered away despite a second-wicket stand of 121 between opener Upul Tharanga and Sadeera Samarawickrama. This was due to M.S. Dhoni’s amazing ability to pull things back under pressure even as Tharanga was going great guns; the Lankan had lost Samarawickrama, who holed out to the deep cover off leggie Yuzvendra Chahal, by then.
First, Dhoni effected a brilliant stumping when Tharanga was marginally caught off balance by chinaman bowler Kuldeep Yadav. Then in the same over he walked down to have a word with Kuldeep after he was late cut for two fours by Niroshan Dickwella. The bowler then spun one away a little bit wider from Dickwella and forced the batsman to play straight into Shreyas’s hands at slip.
This double-blow by Kuldeep in the 28th over saw Lanka slip from 160 for two to 168 for four and brought India back into the game just when Tharanga was threatening with his elegance and raw power.
It was a classy knock by Tharanga during which he treated pacer Hardik Pandya with disdain hitting five fours in his second over. The way he hit Chahal for three sixes spoke of his technical competence in handling both pace and spin. The Tharanga-Samarawickrama stand also saw the Indian pacers struggle, with the exception of Jasprit Bumrah.
Later, Chahal provided a big breakthrough cleaning up the in-form Angelo Mathews, who missed a leg-break completely when offering a defensive shot in the 34th over. Chahal in his next over removed the Sri Lankan captain Thisara Perera, who shuffled across to cut a leg-break only to miss the line and be trapped lbw. The Lankans were well and truly struggling at 197 for six in 35.4 overs.
After this, the innings lost direction and momentum to be eventually bowled out for a disappointing score.
