Dasun Shanaka’s fighting 50 went in vain as Shreyas Iyer smashed his third consecutive half century (73 not out off 45) and helped India thrash Sri Lanka by six wickets in the third and final T20I to complete the 3-0 clean sweep, at Dharamsala on Sunday.
It was India’s 12th successive T20I win, the joint longest winning streak for a full member and their seventh series win on the trot at home in this format. With this win, they also completed their third successive 3-0 sweep of a series in the shortest format of the game. Under Rohit Sharma captaincy, India registered a 3-0 win over New Zealand at home last year and they thrashed West Indies 3-0 earlier this month to go to the top spot of ICC T20I Rankings.
And with the sweep of Sri Lanka, India are set to retain the numero uno position. After winning the toss and opting to bat first, a courageous 50 from skipper Dasun Shanaka helped Sri Lanka post 146/5 in 20 overs. The likes of Avesh Khan (2/23), Mohammed Siraj (1/22), Harshal Patel (1/29), Ravi Bishnoi (1/32) picked wickets at regular intervals to keep Sri Lanka on the backfoot before Shanaka played a solid knock to help his team post a fighting total.
Chasing a challenging total, India were off to a poor start as Dushmantha Chameera dismissed Rohit Sharma (5) in the second over of the innings. Sheyas Iyer then joined make-shift opener Sanju Samson at the crease and kept the scoreboard moving at a brisk pace from the word go.
Brief scores: Sri Lanka 146/5 in 20 overs (Shanaka 74 not out, Chandimal 25; Avesh Khan 2/23) lost to India (Shreyas Iyer 73 not out off 45, Ravindra Jadeja 22 not out; Kumara 2/28) by 6 wickets.
