In the Sri Lanka tour of India, the hosts won the third and final T20I of the bilateral series by six wickets. Instrumental performances from Shreyas Iyer (73*) and Avesh Khan helped India to whitewash the Lankans 3-0 in the shortest format.
After losing the toss, India had to field first. India was on top of Sri Lanka’s batting since the very first over. The hosts didn’t allow the visitors to score freely and also pocketed three wickets within the powerplay. India’s bowling unit dismissed the top four Lankan batsmen for a single-digit score. The home team couldn’t sustain the flow of runs at the back end of the innings as they witnessed Dasun Shanaka‘s (74*) wrath with the bat, which set up a respectable total of 146.
India saw its first casualty in the form of Rohit Sharma in the second over of the run chase. Sanju Samson (18), who opened the innings in the absence of Ishan Kishan stitched a 45-run partnership with the in-form Shreyas Iyer. The partnership was broken by Chamika Karunaratne in the seventh over when Samson was caught by Chandimal. Iyer was joined by Deepak Hooda (21) at the crease and the two batsmen gathered 38 runs for the third wicket before the all-rounder was dismissed. The number five batsman, Venkatesh Iyer was dismissed cheaply by Lahiru Kumara in the 13th over. India’s newly designated finisher, Ravindra Jadeja (22*) came out to bat at number 6. Iyer and Jadeja had a steady partnership of 45 runs that made sure they don’t lose any more wickets and cruise over the finishing line easily.
The Sri Lankan skipper was the pick among the batsmen as his counter-attacking knock at the back end of the innings gave them a fighting chance.
Khan pocketed two wickets for India while Mohammed Siraj, Harshal Patel and Ravi Bishnoi gathered one wicket each. On the other end, Lahiru Kumara had two scalps to his name while Chameera and Karunaratne had one wicket each.
Shreyas was adjudged Man of the Match for his 73 off 45 with nine fours and one maximum. The newly appointed Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) captain was also named the Man of the Series for scoring 204 runs in three matches.
Scorecard:
Sri Lanka: 146/5, Overs 20, Dasun Shanaka (74*), Dinesh Chandimal (22), Avesh Khan (2/23)
India: 148/4, Overs 16.5, Shreyas Iyer (73*), Ravindra Jadeja (22*), Lahiru Kumara (2/39)