MUMBAI: India beat Sri Lanka by 5 wickets in the 3rd and final T20 to sweep the series 3-0. Indian bowlers did brilliantly to restrict Sri Lanka to 135/7 in 20 overs at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.
After India won the toss and opted to field, Jaydev Unadkat and debutant Washington Sundar bowled beautifully to put the visitors on the backfoot.
Senior batsmen MS Dhoni (16 not out) and Dinesh Karthik (18 not out) took India home with four balls to spare in the end. The duo added a match-winning unbeaten 31 runs for the sixth wicket.
Kuldeep Yadav and Hardik Pandya also stemmed the run flow and picked up wickets. In reply, the hosts required 19.2 overs to win the match with Manish Pandey and Shreyas Iyer being the top-scorers.India struggled early in the chase as they lost opener KL Rahul in the fourth over and reduced to 17/1 in 3.2 overs.
We always knew that whatever target is set up, we back our batsmen to get it. Happy with the composition we had throughout the series said Rohit Sharma.
Losing captain Thisara Perera is still proud of his boys. “As a captain I’m really proud of the bowling unit for defending 130 like this.
India (squad): Rohit Sharma (captain), Lokesh Rahul, MS Dhoni (wicket keeper), Hardik Pandya, Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Dinesh Karthik, Kuldeep Yadav, Jaydev Unadkat, Jasprit Bumrah, Yuzvendra Chahal, Mohammed Siraj, Deepak Hooda, Washington Sundar and Basil Thampi.
Sri Lanka (squad): Niroshan Dickwella (wicket keeper), Upul Tharanga, Kusal Perera, Thisara Perera (captain), Danushka Gunathilaka, Asela Gunaratne, Sadeera Samarawickrama, Chaturanga de Silva, Akila Dananjaya, Dushmantha Chameera, Nuwan Pradeep, Dasun Shanaka, Vishwa Fernando and Sachith Pathirana.
