India vs Sri Lanka, 3rd T20: Who said what as India clinch series 3-0
India were pushed for the first time in the T20 series, but the pedigree was too much for the visitors and despite their best performance of the series, India walked away victorious by five wickets.
With this win, India managed to complete a clean sweep in the series which is also their 16th series win in a bilateral series.
The Indian bowlers set the tone perfectly as Jaydev Unadkat and Washington Sundar were frugal and very penetrative and Sri Lanka could never recover from the initial jolts and could only manage 135 in the 20 overs.
Indians too were pushed to the brink, but then Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Dinesh Karthik, and MS Dhoni saw the team home by five wickets.
This is how the cricketing fraternity reacted:
Jaydev Unadkat, the man of the match and man of the series: Things went really well for me. I had some plans for myself. Had done my preparations before the series. To achieve results like this is outstanding. Been a fruitful career. Been through the domestic circuit, played a lot of games there. Helped me mature as a player. I was always eager to make this comeback. Made a comeback in 2013, wasn't that great. It was important for me in this series to get the confidence. The most important phase of any player's career is domestic circuit. To come out well gives you the confidence. Just wanted to give my best whenever I got the chance. IPL cricket has really helped to get the confidence when you come to the international arena.
Thisara Perera, Sri Lankan captain: As a captain, proud of my bowling unit. We have a good fielding coach who's doing a good job. Have improved in fielding. We learnt a lot because we all know India is a big team at the moment. Learnt lots of things from these T20Is. As bowlers, we did pretty well today also. Have to click with our batting.
Dinesh Karthik: Under pressure a little bit, I think it was important with Dhoni around to take the game deep. I thought 12 off the last over was gettable, but I got one in the slot in the end, I backed myself and connected well. It would've been a great Day 1 pitch in Test cricket; there was bounce and movement. It's great to play games in these kind of wickets. There's a bit of cat and mouse game. You got to decide when you have to go against the bowlers. I enjoy these kind of wickets. We dominated it (the series), to be fair. Except the first game in Dharamsala, we were on point. We were caught off guard there and after that I don't think we looked back. Double hundred by Rohit was fantastic, he is batting as well as he can. Shikhar and KL batted well and the two wrist spinners have been top notch. It's been a great tournament for India and good standards set by team India.
Manish Pandey: It was nice to see MS and Dinesh Karthik finishing it off in style. It (new ball) was moving around initially in the second innings .We batted fairly alright; it should have gotten over a bit earlier, but they bowled really well. I like to play my shots. Wickets with bounce and pace gives me the chance to hit the ball well.
Ravi Shastri, India coach: That's the hallmark of a good team where we respect oppositions, and when you respect oppositions you stay grounded. Very good variations (talking about Unadkat). He's been around for 5-6 years now but he's evolved beautifully. He understands his bowling which is so important. There's so much of cricket being played. T20 cricket for us, we don't care. You win or lose, it doesn't matter, but give youngsters the opportunity so you come to know who is in the fray for 2019. Big headache for us. Rahul is a class player. He's got time. He plays all the shots. For me, he's the most improved player in world cricket in the last 18-20 months. That's the challenge (the South Africa tour). In your playing career, if you're not up for challenges, then it's no fun. Should be a good series. This is a side which can compete anywhere in the world.
Rohit Sharma, India captain: 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. Guys who got opportunities made it count throughout. Thoroughly a team effort. Each and every guy has put in a lot of effort. Lot of the guys you see were playing their first game, second game, but it never seemed that way. They were confident and it was our job as management to back them. They came and did what they were expected to do. Looking very much forward to South Africa. Would like to reiterate the home season we've had. Never easy, no matter what conditions you play in. There were few hiccups in the middle. Games like Dharamsala which taught us a lot.
Other reactions from the cricketing world: