Jasprit Bumrah’s five-wicket haul, Rohit Sharma’s 12th ODI hundred and MS Dhoni’s calmness guided India to yet another victory over Srilanka in the third game of the 5 match series. With the win, India take an unassailable 3-0 lead in the 5 match series.
Earlier, pacer Jasprit Bumrah took his maiden five-wicket haul, enabling India restrict a struggling Sri Lanka to 217 for nine after India lost the toss. Bumrah was brilliant both upfront and in the death overs to end with figures of five for 27, surpassing his previous best of four for 22. Lahiru Thirimanne’s 72-run stand for the third wicket alongside Dinesh Chandimal (36) was the lone bright spot in the innings after stand-in-captain Chamara Kapugedera opted to bat.
India in reply were once struggling at 4-61 with Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul and Kedar Jadav back to the pavilion. Rohit Sharma and MS Dhoni then put on unbeaten 150+ run partnership to take India to victory. Rohit Sharma completed his 12th ODI ton while MS Dhoni completed his 65th ODI half century.
Meanwhile,Dhoni became the fourth highest run-getter for India in ODI during the course of this innings. Only Sachin Tendulkar (18,426), Sourav Ganguly (11,221) and Rahul Dravid (10,768) are now ahead of him in this elite list.
Srilankan fans began throwing water bottles with India needing just eight runs to seal victory.With the spectators continuing to hurl bottles, play was stopped and the players huddled at the centre of the pitch.Play resumed after almost 30 minutes and the game ended with MS Dhoni flicking a full toss from Vishwa Fernando to deep mid wicket to clinch the match and the series.
It was India’s seventh successive bilateral series victory against Sri Lanka. India last lost a ODI series to island nation in 1997.
Match Summary:
India 218 for 4 (Rohit 124*, Dhoni 67*, Dananjaya 2-38)
beat
Sri Lanka 217 for 9 (Thirimanne 80, Bumrah 5-27)
by 6 wickets