FEBRUARY 27, 2022
Brief Scorecard: India 148 for 4 (Shreyas 73*, Kumara 2-39) beat Sri Lanka 146 for 5 (Shanaka 74*, Avesh 2-23) by six wickets
Avesh Khan and Mohammed Siraj blew away Sri Lanka’s top order, and the visitors couldn’t recover despite Dasun Shanaka’s 74
Dharamsala: India registered a 6-wicket win over Sri Lanka in the third and final T20I of the series. This was India’s third successive whitewash under captain Rohit Sharma. Dharamsala T20I was also India’s 12th consecutive victory in T20-international. India also went past New Zealand to script a massive home record with the win with 40th victory at home, the highest by a country in the shortest format. India went past New Zealand (39 wins) to top the list of best international T20I sides as hosts.
For hosts, Shreyas Iyer starred with an unbeaten 73* as the Men in Blue chased the target of 146 within 16.5 overs.
Earlier, Indian bowlers restricted Sri Lanka to the score of 146/5 in the 20 overs. For Sri Lanka, Dasun Shanaka again played a captain inning of 74* and took visitors to a respectable total while Dinesh Chandimal scored 25. Avesh Khan scalped two wickets, while Mohammed Siraj, Harshal Patel, and Ravi Bishnoi grabbed one apiece.
India never found themselves in trouble while chasing the underwhelming target of 146. Shreyas trumped the chase with 73* off 45 balls – his third successive half-century. Hosts dominated from the word go and chased down the target with six wickets and 19 balls to spare.
Opting to bat first, visitors had the worst possible start as they lost both their openers inside the first two overs of the innings. Siraj sent Danushka Gunathilaka back to the pavilion in the final ball of the first over while Avesh in the very next over dismissed Pathum Nissanka.
In the fourth over, Avesh struck again as Sanju Samson caught Charith Asalanka with a half-dive. After the powerplay, the visitors score read 18/3.
With SL in trouble, hosts dictated the pace of the innings. In the 9th over, Bishnoi bowled Janith Liyanage to create more trouble for Lankans. In the 13th over Patel dismissed dangerously looking Dinesh Chandimal on the score of 25 to pile more misery on visitors.
After that setback, captain Dasun Shanaka took matters into his own hand and with Chamika Karunaratne he assured that Lankans don’t lose any more wickets and took the team’s score to 146/5.
Courtesy/Source: Jagran English
