India vs SL T20I series: Men in Blue blank Sri Lanka
Beat visitors by five wickets to pocket Twenty20 series 3-0.
Mumbai: India inflicted 3-0 whitewash on spineless Sri Lanka after cruising to five-wicket win in the concluding T20I match at Wankhede stadium here on Sunday. Defending 136, Sri Lankan pacers got some movement and bounce from the wicket to trouble Indian batsmen but had less runs on the board to earn a favourable result. They removed Indian openers early as KL Rahul was trapped in front by Dushmantha Chameera and Rohit (27) top edged a pull of Dasun Shanaka to Kusal Perera at deep square leg. Shreyas Iyer and Manish Pandey survived some hostile bowling to put India on course.
Iyer (30) was unfortunately run-out at non strikers end but his crucial 42-run stand with Pandey calmed nerves. Promoted up the order Hardik Pandya was done in by extra bounce and Pandey (32) was cleaned up by impressive Chameera. After few jitters, Dinesh Karthik and MS Dhoni took Rohit Sharma led side home. Sri Lankan skipper Thisara Perera rotated his bowlers smartly but it wasn’t enough as visitors who snapped 12-match ODI losing streak earlier on the tour suffered their second successive 3-0 whitewash in T20 Internationals.
Earlier put into bat, Sri Lankan batsmen came up with yet another dismal show with the bat to put up 135/7 runs on the board. The visitors were pegged back by Jaydev Unadkat’s (2/15) two wicket burst in his first spell. They could never recover from early jolts of losing in-form Upul Tharanga and Kusal Perera and were reduced to 18/3 in 3.3 overs.
Asela Gunaratne was the top scorer with 36 while Shanaka (29 not out) and Akila Dhananjaya took 18 runs of last over bowled by Mohammed Siraj to give them some lift. Hardik Pandya also picked couple of wickets. Washington Sundar and Siraj were given their second international games. Sundar who made ODI debut earlier in the series was given T20I cap by selection committee member Sarandeep Singh.
Scorecard
Sri Lanka: N. Dickwella c Mohammed Siraj b Unadkat 1, W. Tharanga c Pandya b Unadkat 11, M. Perera c & b Washington Sundar 4, S. Samarawickrama c Karthik b Pandya 21, D. Gunaratne c Kuldeep Yadav b Pandya 36, M.D. Gunathilaka c Pandya b Kuldeep Yadav 3, N. Perera c Sharma b Mohammed Siraj 11, M. Shanaka (not out) 29, A Dananjaya (not out). Extras (lb 2, w 6) 8. Total (in 20 overs for 7 wickets) 135.
FoW: 1-8, 2-14, 3-18, 4-56, 5-72, 6-85, 7-111.
Bowling: Sundar 4-0-22-1, Unadkat 4-0-15-2, Siraj 4-0-45-1, Pandya 4-0-25-2, Kuldeep 4-0-26-1.
India: R. Sharma (c) c K. Perera b Shanaka 27, K. L. Rahul lbw b Chameera 4, S. Iyer run out (Dananjaya) 30, M. Pandey b Chameera 32, H. Pandya c Dickwella b Shanaka 4, D. Karthik not out 18, M.S. Dhoni not out 16.
Extras: 8 (lb-5, w-3). Total: (In 19.2 overs for 5 wickets) 139/5.
FoW: 1-17, 2-39, 3-81, 4-99, 5-108.
Bowling: A. Dananjaya 4-0-27-0, D. Chameera 4-0-22-2, T. Perera 3.2-0-22-0, N.P. Fernando 4-0-36-0, M.D. Shanaka 4-0-27-2