Chahal, yadav help india clinch series
Spinners share six wickets before Shikhar’s unbeaten ton; hosts win 8th successive series
VISAKHAPATNAM: Shikhar Dhawan’s brilliant 12th century, combined with splendid bowling from Kuldeep Yadav (3/42) and Yuzvendra Chahal (3/46), helped India crush Sri Lanka by eight wickets in the deciding match of the three-odi series at the ACAVDCA stadium on Sunday. With this win, India clinched their eighth consecutive bilateral ODI series victory.
It was a clinical performance by Rohit Sharma’s side, which ensured that India not only won their ninth consecutive bilateral series against Sri Lanka, but also ended 2017 without a single series loss in bilateral contests. Chasing 216, India were jolted early when Akila Dananjaya bowled Rohit Sharma for seven with a googly.
Having lost the early wicket, Dhawan and Iyer played calmly. The left-hander broke the shackles by hammering Suranga Lakmal for two boundaries in the ninth over and this boosted Iyer’s confidence, who smashed Angelo Mathews for two boundaries in the 10th over.
Iyer notched up his second consecutive fifty off
44 balls by lofting Sachith Pathirana over long on for a six.
Dhawan slog-swept Dananjaya over deep mid wicket to bring up his fifty off 46 balls. The 135-run stand ended when Iyer (65) miscued a pull shot off Thisara Perera to be caught at mid on. Dhawan held firm and brought up his 12th ton off 84 balls by sweeping Asela Gunaratne to deep square leg to guide India to a comprehensive victory. However, the win for India was set-up earlier by the dynamic legspin duo of Kuldeep Yadav (left-arm Chinaman) and Yuzvendra Chahal, who dented Sri Lanka after they started aggressively.
Put into bat, Sri Lanka came out all guns blazing. Upul Tharanga, in particular, batted superbly by hitting two consecutive boundaries off Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jasprit Bumrah. On 80, Tharanga lofted Chahal over long on to become the third player after Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli to go past 1000 runs in ODIS in 2017. At 160/2 in the 28th over, Sri Lanka were poised to reach a score in excess of 300. But Kuldeep changed the course of the match in the 28th over.
Dhoni’s brilliant stumping caught Tharanga short for 95 and the chinaman struck again in the same over by removing Niroshan Dickwella for 8. Sri Lanka sunk even further when Chahal got the massive wicket of Angelo Mathews for 17 by bowling him with a ripping legbreak.
Kuldeep and Chahal proceeded to slice through the middle and lower order as Sri Lanka lost eight wickets for 55 runs to be bowled out for 215.
The contributions from bowlers and batsmen at crucial times has been the key reason for India’s dominant run.